We finally have our Bookshop store up! It’s a work in progress, and I’m constantly adding new books I find or remember, but it’s finally up and running. If you like print books, please consider buying through our page there. All proceeds go back to the organization since we are a nonprofit. For readers who prefer audiobooks and ebooks, we will be setting up our partnerships with audiobook and ebook companies soon as well.
Also, since we are now a nonprofit, this website will soon be shifting over to MyCatJeoffryBooks.org. This site will soon re-direct there.
We are hoping to open in brick and mortar form in Spring 2021. We will definitely keep you posted!
I recently listened to the audio book version of this novel, after it won the 2018 National Book Award for fiction. It was billed as a book about a woman mourning the loss of her friend to suicide by caring for his Great Dane, whom she inherits. I often read big book award winners, as I am curious, but this book held more appeal than usual to me because of the dog connection, of course.
But I didn’t find it to be much about the dog at all, or the woman’s relationship with the dog. That’s fine, of course – not every book has to be about a dog – but this was the way it was marketed. Hence, the cover. Instead the book seemed mainly to be a meditation on MFA programs and the kinds of people they employ and produce; at least of a certain generation. The woman is an instructor in one such program in New York, the man who committed suicide, her former professor, whom she remained friends with. The man was a celebrated writer and a huge womanizer who played women against each other and who seemed to believe himself superior to others, especially his female students. I had a hard – actually impossible- time relating to this woman and her love for this immensely unlikable man. I couldn’t bring myself to care about him as a character, and, hence, for her, for even liking him. She never made me understand why I should be sorry that this man had killed himself.
Hard as I tried, I just couldn’t relate to the main character at all. Maybe it was the tone of the audio book’s narrator (Hillary Huber), but the character, and, hence, the author, just came across as so superior, so condescending to her readers, and so judgmental of her characters. And just out of touch with the world, and lacking in reason. At one point, she is in a cafe and she sees a young woman with a therapy dog and she ridicules the woman for having a dog with only three legs. She never explains why a tripod can’t be a therapy dog; she just assumes everyone’s as devoid of sense as she.
I found her behavior throughout inexplicable. For example, she goes to great lengths to keep the dog in her apartment, which has a strict no pet policy. She thus risks losing a rent-stabilized apartment, which as anyone who’s ever lived in New York City well knows, is often the only way anyone with less than a seven-figure salary can live there. I never really understood why she did this because she didn’t seem to much like the dog. I guess she just couldn’t bear the thought of disobeying the wishes of the condescending womanizer.
To me, the best parts of the book were discussions of other writings on grief. I took note of many of the works she talks about and I may even consult a print copy of the book for those alone. For me, this book did not add anything to that literature.
Last weekend I went to the Tucson Festival of Books and Nunez was supposed to be on a couple of the panels, which I planned to attend. I often get more out of a work when I hear a writer speak about it. Unfortunately, her flight was grounded due to NY weather. But I am always willing to listen to different viewpoints, so if anyone really liked this book, please do tell!
A couple more beautiful picture books I picked up at the recent Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Arizona. LOST IN THE LIBRARY tells the sweet story of the lions who sit guard in front of the main library in New York. In real life, of course, they are statues, but here they are given names – Patience and Fortitude – and they come to life, particularly at night. One morning Fortitude wakes up to see Patience is not there. He must explore the vast library searching for his friend so that they are both in place by the time guests begin arriving. Sweet story by Josh Funk and beautifully illustrated by Stevie Lewis. This is one of my favorite places in the world and made me miss New York badly!
LADYBUG GIRL AND THE RESCUE DOGS is a wonderful addition to the popular LADYBUG GIRL series by David Soman and Jacky Davis. This one focuses on rescue animals. Ladybug girl and her friends are in the park one day for a farmers market when she sees some tents off to the side bearing “adoption” signs and lots of fun-looking dogs. She wanders over to meet the dogs and rescue workers and wonders why no one else is coming over. Ladybug girl is clever and devises a way to get more people to see the animals, and even gets a few of them adopted! She and her friends, Bumblebee Boy and Grasshopper Girl determine to come back to the park every week to help with more adoptions. Love!
We absolutely loved this book, and were so happy to be able to meet W. Bruce Cameron at the Best Friends National Conference over the summer, which is where we got a copy of A Dog’s Way Home. Above, our very dog-like cat, Rhea, who is always at my feet 🙂
This is a wonderful, very well-told story. And, even though a dog – Bella – is the protagonist, there are lots of cats! Lots of cats. Bella is separated from her mother early on and is taken in by a group of feral community cats who live in a building that is on the verge of being demolished. A cat who’s just had kittens takes Bella in as one of her own. Bella always thinks of her as Mother Cat, and the kittens as her siblings. A young med school student who cares for the community cats, Lucas, finds Bella and takes her in. Lucas lives with his mother, an Army veteran recovering from PTSD.
Unfortunately, Lucas lives in Denver and Denver has a pit bull ban. One of the things this book does so well is show the odious and irrational nature of such a law, especially given that there is no official recognition of pit bull as a breed. That gives power-hungry animal control officers the ability to declare any dog they don’t like a pit bull.
Which is exactly what happens here. Lucas has had run-ins with one such local animal control officer over his insistence on getting the community cats out of the condemned building before it is bulldozed. He works hard with a local animal rescue to do that, but it takes time and the landowner is eager to demolish the building regardless of whether cats are inside. The landowner threatens Lucas with taking Bella away if Lucas doesn’t leave him to his destruction.
As you can see, the dog on the cover of the book looks nothing like a pit bull – and many of the animal control officers in the book question whether Bella is a pit bull. But the landowner is friends with one animal control officer, and that’s all it takes – an officer deeming a dog a pit bull. Bella is banished from town, with Lucas promising he will find a home outside of Denver and will come get her from the foster as soon as possible.
But Bella doesn’t understand since she is a dog. She only knows that she has been separated from her human. So once she sees a means of escape from her new foster, she traces Lucas’s scent back home. The story is her journey, which is quite treacherous given that she is several hundred miles away and there are mountains and wild animals and horrid weather now separating him from home.
Along the way, Bella meets many colorful characters – most of them good, but a few rotten apples. My favorite of the characters is Big Kitten – another cat! Big Kitten is a mountain lion cub who is orphaned by trophy hunters who illegally shoot her mother. Bella mothers Big Kitten the way Mommy Cat mothered her and for a time they pal around together, hunting and sharing food. You know Bella will eventually make her way back to Lucas and his mother but you just don’t know how. There are so many twists and turns you remain on the edge of your seat until the last page!
There’s so much I left out. There are so many memorable characters and scenes. Every animal lover has to read this book. It’s just packed with gems! The movie comes out early next year and will star Ashley Judd and Edward James Olmos. I really can’t wait!
Another pic of me meeting Cameron at that wonderful conference 😀
Normally, I focus on books about or starring animals as main characters, but this middle-grade novel was too brilliant to pass up! And, it has a couple of fantastical animals – a sweet little dragon named Fyrion, and an equally endearing huge swamp creature named Glerk. Both characters stole my heart, along with the humans, which are also a bit fantastical, since many possess some degree of magic.
The Girl Who Drank the Moon, by Kelly Barnhill, very deservedly won the 2017 Newbery Medal for children’s writing. At the beginning the book reminded me of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.” The townspeople – living in a place called The Protectorate – blindly believe that a witch demands they leave the first-born baby of the season for her consumption. Of course, whichever unlucky family must deliver their baby to her, by leaving it out in the forest, suffers unbelievable sorrow, some mothers never fully recovering. This is what happens to a woman who must leave her baby girl, later named Luna, the protagonist.
But who originated this story of the witch? Is she real? And what really happens to the babies left out in the forest? And what if someone begins to question conventional wisdom?
This book is amazing in the breadth of its themes: the power of myth, the ownership of a story, belief that is allowed to go unchallenged, truth, falseness, lies. Then, as the story goes on, the themes turn to love, forgiveness, and hope triumphing over despair. It’s a story for our times and it’s a beautiful one people’d by deeply endearing, enchanting characters and a twisting, turning plot that keeps you on the edge of your seat – whether you’re a kid or an adult!
Just got back from the Best Friends National Conference and I am so invigorated and inspired and amazed at all the good work being done out there on behalf of animals! It was my first time at this convention and I met the most wonderful people.
Photo above: I got to meet author / screenwriter W. Bruce Cameron at the members only opening night party. Do become a BF member, by the way: it’s one of the best ways you can spend $25. And I was so excited to meet Cameron. He is one of my favorite “dog authors.” I can’t wait to read his latest – A Dog’s Way Home, and see the movie, which comes out in January!
I also got to meet the adorable and very cuddly internet sensation, Sunglass Cat! What a sweetie. She was born without eyelids so her mom has to give her frequent eye drops and she wears little sunglasses for protection. She really loved being held, and passed around from person to person 🙂
The excellent Jackson Galaxy was there, giving a very informative and entertaining lecture on his Cat Pawsitive program. His discussion of the awesomeness of cat cafes and how they are helping to get people to adoptable cats in new ways really inspired me to get my own bookstore / cat lounge open.
As did a little bookshop the conference had set up. So many books, and the store area was ALWAYS packed. Animals and books just go together! Above are all the ones I bought. Funny, but I listen to the Our Hen House podcast (excellent podcast about animals, with an emphasis on veganism, by the way!) and the second book from the left in the top row – The Animal Lover’s Guide to Changing the World by Stephanie Feldstein – was the subject of their latest podcast, which I listened to after the conference. Now I’m all the more excited to read that one!
After the conference, we took a little tour of the Best Friends’ NKLA adoption center in West LA. What a beautiful place filled with wonderful adoptable cats and dogs.
Our tour guide mentioned that they have a “read to cats” program at their Mission Hills location up in the Valley, whereby parents can bring their kids just learning to read to read to the cats. It helps both kids with their reading skills and the cats, many of whom love to be cuddled and read to! I signed up to receive information about their program since I definitely want to do that here as well.
I’m a bit overwhelmed with all the information I received – grant writing, fundraising, marketing adoptable animals, building an organization, networking with other nonprofits, promotion, etc. etc. etc. – combined with all the info I’m receiving from the American Booksellers Association on opening a bookstore. But I really want to do this, and the conference made me all the more excited about it!
So no time for lazing around, as this little cutie was in the NKLA kitten room 🙂
This is a time when I wish I had a good book club for animal lovers because I’d so love to discuss this one with others! GOOD DOG is a middle-grade novel by well-regarded author Dan Gemeinhart. The book begins with Brodie having died and gone to a place between earth and heaven. He senses that the boy he has just left down on earth, Aiden, is in trouble and he wants to go back down and help him before going off to the Forever. But in doing so, he risks losing his soul and living in darkness forever. It’s a risk he has to take to save his boy.
Along the way he meets Tuck, a lovable pit bull, and Patsy, a tough-talking but deep down goodhearted tabby, who are both in the same situation but decide to help Brodie instead of focusing on their own humans. To find Aiden, they have to battle the hellhounds, dark dogs who’ve lost their souls and now need to feed on the light of others. I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through their search for Aiden.
The stories of how each animal died are all so sad and overall this was a real tearjerker. But the expressions of love between each animal and their human and especially between Brodie and Aiden are so beautiful, so moving. I think this is a book kids – and adults who love a good story! – will cherish.
Neither of our silly cats was in the mood to do book poses tonight, so it was sister Sofia to the rescue, even though this book features a cat character 🙂
We got this book as an Advance Reader’s Copy at the RT Booklovers Convention in Reno, which we just returned from and which was, as always, wonderful! The book will publish on August 1, 2018.
We packed this one in our carry-on and are so glad we did; we couldn’t put it down. It’s the story of a woman named Jane who has recently lost someone very dear to her. She knows who is responsible and is hell-bent on getting revenge, however she can.
Jane keeps calling herself a sociopath, and we have to say, she is the most relatable sociopath we’ve ever encountered! As the book goes on, we found ourselves so engrossed in her story, and really rooting for her. At the same time she is plotting revenge, she meets a guy, and adopts a cat, which, of course, we loved 🙂 And they kind of pull her back into life and help her overcome her pain.
JANE DOE is a really suspenseful page-turner with an engaging main character and strong secondary characters. We give it five bonito flakes!
This kitty seems to be reading a lot of dog books lately!
We found this book on Audible – it was an Audible book of the day – and we couldn’t remove the ear buds for practically the length of the book. It’s about a young woman, Cara, who was orphaned at a young age and was raised by several foster families with her sister Hana. At the start of the book Cara’s running from something – we find out what much later. Her car has broken down and she’s walking along the highway, when she finds a stray dog, who basically adopts her. She decides to go to Key West, as she’s a literary gal and has always loved Hemingway, and wants to see his house. (We could so relate – that house is one of our favorite places!) So, Cara names the dog Hemmy and off they go.
They meet many strangers along their journey – most of them good people who help her out, some of them horrible. Just like in life. The book is about finding home, and eventually, she and Hemmy do just that. A home that is perfect for both of them. And the kicker – and the part we so love – is that it is Hemmy who leads her there.
Kay Bratt is a new author to us, but she reminds us of Catherine Ryan Hyde, one of our very favorite authors. We will definitely read Bratt’s other books. WISH ME HOME deserves five bonito flakes!
With so many dog lovers and so many readers of crime novels, we find it strange that there aren’t more K-9 mysteries out there. Why?
Well, we were thrilled to find this one – SUSPECT by Robert Crais, which we originally found as an Audible daily deal, then loved it so much we bought the hardcover. It’s the story of Scott, a detective, and his K-9 partner, Maggie, a German shepherd who served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and who has now retired from Marine service. Both Scott and Maggie lost their former partners – Scott’s Stephanie was killed in a shoot-out, in which he nearly died as well – and Maggie’s Pete was shot by an IED sniper. The book begins with that attack, in Afghanistan. It’s an excruciating scene and I felt so much compassion for Maggie as she stood over Pete barking and whelping, doing everything she could to protect him, not to let him be taken away by medical helicopter, even though it was clear he was gone. The snipers start shooting at her as well, so she must be flown away to safety too.
At the beginning of their partnership, both Scott and Maggie are, understandably, suffering from PTSD. These are my favorite novels, where animal and human heal each other. It helps that there’s a great, page-turning suspense at the same time! Which is why we want more K-9 mysteries… Anyway, when Scott returns to his job and begins K-9 training, he spots Maggie from afar. He is supposed to be assigned a Belgian Malinois, but there is something about this German Shepherd that he connects to, he senses they share something, and he begs his Lieutenant, the wonderful, hard-exteriored but softy-at-heart Leland, to give him a chance with Maggie. Leland explains that Maggie is too afraid of loud noises to be a sufficient member of the force, and she is about to be returned; Scott is her last chance. So, Scott has his challenges cut out for him.
And of course he succeeds. What I loved was watching him train her, get her to overcome her fears. And she helps him in return. I also loved that Crais delves so deeply into his characters’ psyches, including Maggie’s. He details her progress from knowing Scott first as a guy who’s nice to her, then a real companion, and finally to her pack leader, just as Pete once was. The shoot-out that got Stephanie killed is the subject of their investigation, as the crime still hasn’t been solved. This is both a page-turning suspense and a detailed character study, and we can’t wait for more. There’s one more book involving Scott and Maggie – The Promise – though it appears to feature mainly Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, the stars of Crais’ two main mystery series. I will definitely read it. But more Scott and Maggie, please, Mr. Crais!
And, if anyone finds any other good K-9 mysteries, please let us know!
With so many dog lovers and so many readers of crime novels, we find it strange that there aren’t more K-9 mysteries out there. Why?