Review of The Art of Entertaining

[Hannah Hurst]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Art of Entertaining" by Maggie Fleming.]

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2 out of 5 stars

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The Art of Entertaining is a short booklet written by Maggie Fleming. The author seeks to educate the reader how to be a great host and a respectful guest. From tailgate party tips to wedding planning ideas, there is a chapter for each different type of party. Each chapter is divided into bite-sized sections, including tips for including (or kindly excluding dogs), sending out invitations, and party food suggestions.

I was looking forward to reading this book since I enjoy hosting and am always on the lookout for new tips and tricks. But, I must say, I was quite disappointed by this book. While there may be some helpful nuggets here for hosts with no experience, there was not much here that someone who has planned one small party/event does not already know. All information contained is very basic. I was hoping for colorful pictures of decorations, creative food suggestions, and stories of real parties with real people. It reads as though the author is defining the events described rather than informing the audience how to actually plan these events. The writing style seems overly simplistic as if being written for a young audience. While I appreciated some of the colorful photographs, there are a few unprofessional photos of food that detract from the appeal of the book.

I appreciated the idea of this book. It is a topic that would catch the interest of a broad audience. I also found no objective errors while reading this book, which is highly commendable! While I appreciated the effort behind this book, I felt there was very little passion behind the author’s words. For the reasons given above, I feel I must rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

While I did not find much helpful information on these pages, I think inexperienced hosts could find some useful tidbits to smooth the party-planning process.

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The Art of Entertaining
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