Nemia
I do not have the book, but by reading the thread, if I may add a couple of points.
1. All good RWS and Thoth clone books need a good amount of material discussing about the Golden Dawn and Qabala, as these decks are based on / created by GD system and their ex members. I would have thought with 800 pages tome, good amount of discussion on these area would have been welcome, whether it resonated or not with you, because after all, books get written for public readers who are interested in the subject, not for the authors.
I disagree. I think that tarot is a huge field of interconnected topics, and like in every discipline, a writer has to decide where his focus, his interest and expertise are. It's better to add a good bibliography and write about the things you feel competent than to copy somebody else's insights about a topic you didn't study yourself.
What's wrong with leaving topics like alchemy, Golden Dawn history and kabbalah to other writers? She didn't promise an encyclopedia - which by the way are always written by more than one author.
IMO good books get written because authors feel an inner drive to write them, not because they feel that the market is calling for X or Y. If we're lucky, our wish to know meets with the author's wish to tell.
But I think it's unreasonable to define expectations for Bell's book. Before you buy a book, have a good look at its table of contents, maybe download (for free) a reading sample (Kindle reading app is free, too) or take a good look at it in a shop.
I have read too many rehashed tarot history articles to need one more. If this is not her field of interest, why should she write about it? It's much more professional to leave that field to those who have original and well researched things to say.
And how can you criticize a book you didn't even read?