5 comments about Whisker of Evil.

1. I really, really enjoyed this particular Mrs. Murphy mystery. As a horse person, I didn't find the detail about breeding and bloodlines to be tiresome. And the mystery itself was wonderfully wrought and believable. The relationships between the primary characters are developing nicely, too. Looking forward to continuing with the series.



2. I have been reading the Mrs. Murphy series and really enjoying it. The best part about these books is the characters and by now I feel that I know everyone. Ms. Brown knows how to characterize. In this book Harry is facing life-changing decisions, but while she's going through her own personal epiphany, there are murders occurring again in Crozet. This particualar murderer appears to be particularly evil, and Harry and her friends have trouble trying to find a motive. There's also an old crime that appears to be connected to the new ones, and the murderer doesn't appear to be able to stop killing so they are really in a rush to find himr or her. The book moves along quickly, and I also found out some good information on horse breeding and on the transference and symptoms of rabies infection at the same time. Great fun!



3. This is one of two books Ive read in her series. I didnt know it was a series till recently. The other one I also saw as a movie and this one I heard on C.D. with my daughter. ( as well as reading them. )
   I think Mrs. Brown and partner are fantastic when it comes to intruge. My daughter screams at me everytime we get into the car and I dont have the book playing. 9 disks go a long way and I think its great learning for a baby under one to be read to as much as possible.
   There are so many factions to this book and so many things come "to light" as a tie in to the other book that Ive read so I didnt have a problem keeping up with it all even though the two books are so spaced apart ( 3 years by the book standards) and about 4 or 5 since I read the last one.
   I plan to get them all now that I know Mrs. Murphy has her own series of books. My daughter and I will become greater fans together when we read/hear her books at bed time!



4. such as painting a room, or cleaning the kitchen, these books are entertaining as audio books. At the risk of sounding "snobbish" (which I am not) they are a cross between "Murder She Wrote" and Mr. Ed.



5. For fans of Rita Mae Brown this is a great book. It continues the adventures of Mrs. Murphy and her many animal friends. I think this book even adds some animals we haven't heard from before. There are changes in Harry's personal and professional life of great interest to Harry's fans. There is the usual mystery. I wouldn't start the series with this book; however. Readers will want a little more background and should start with a book that was published earlier.

5 comments about Cat Cora's Kitchen: Favorite Meals for Family and Friends.

1. Cat Cora and her very southern American accent always presented something of an anomaly when she appeared on the Food Network with Rocco DiSpirito doing the Greek half of the Mediterranean food segments paired with Rocco's Italian dishes. This book fills out the explanation given on TV that Cat (Catherine) was born and raised in Jackson, Alabama to Greek parents embedded in a strongly Greek neighborhood with all that entails, as seen in detail in the movie `My Big Fat Greek Wedding'.
   
   Cat has been working several different Food Network shows as well as several of her own California culinary shows and appearances on network talk shows for the last few years, establishing herself as a culinary celebrity staple equal to Tyler Florence and Sara Moulton, and just a notch below fast cooking diva Rachael Ray and super food nerd Alton Brown. This is her first book of recipes / memoirs and she has matched the quality of her equals, Tyler and Sara, and has made a very worthy contribution to the literature on Greek cooking.
   
   This is not a reference book on Greek food like Diane Kochilas' `The Glorious Foods of Greece' nor is it a popular survey of Greek cooking such as the recent `The Olive and the Caper' by Susanna Hoffman. It is a personal history of Cat's food experiences in her childhood Jackson home, in the ancestral home of her family on the Aegean island of Skopelos, Greece, in her California restaurant kitchens in northern California, and in her modern home kitchen. This orientation with the liberal notes on the niceties of Greek ingredients, her experiences with famous influences such as Julia Child, Jacques Pepin, Thomas Keller, and Alice Waters, and stories of her US and Greek family members make this a more than usually entertaining personal cookbook.
   
   Although the recipes are divided between four different venues, there is not a lot of differences between, for example, the dishes prepared in Jackson and the dishes prepared on Skopelos. They are all Greek recipes, methods, and ingredients. The Jackson recipes are the least Greek, as there is some Johnny Reb influence in some barbecue recipes, but every single recipe has both an English main name and an Greek name. Extra points to Cat for consistency in uniformly providing both names. Makes things much easier when comparing her recipes to standard works such as Kochilas' book.
   
   The first overall impression is the omnipresence of lemon as an ingredient. It is so pervasive that I wonder why Nancy Harmon Jenkins did not feature lemons in a chapter of her excellent `The Essential Mediterranean'. Another oddity is that the recipes from the island of Skopelos contain no fish. While Cat makes no note of this fact, it confirms an observation I saw in a book on Greek island cuisine that all the good Aegean fish is carted off to Athens to be sold. Little of it is eaten at home.
   
   Menus of dishes that typically go together organize all the recipes in the four sections. This enhances the use to which books of this type are most commonly put, as sources for themed entertaining. If you want to do a Greek dinner, this book is an excellent resource.
   
   Cat has the usual litany of praise for fresh ingredients and the usual tips for finding them. She has some special comments on important Greek ingredients such as feta. Apparently, most non-Greek Feta is bland when compared to the real thing, and, Dutch feta seems to be especially off the mark, but Cat does not elaborate. She is also especially fussy about getting red pearl onions instead of white for several dishes.
   
   I have made several dishes from this book and these I have found uniformly tasty and relatively easy to make. As all recipes are organized by dinner menu, there are a roughly equal number of appetizer, main dish, salad, and dessert recipes. The star of many of the dessert recipes, of course, is phyllo dough. I wish she had not mentioned that our freezer staple phyllo dough is a pale, fragile product compared to fresh phyllo, but I'll live, and may even seek out a local source for fresh phyllo.
   
   Like the Italian cuisine, there are lots of recipes for wild and bitter greens, beans, artichokes, tomatoes, bread, shellfish, and sardines. There are also plenty of recipes for chicken and lamb, some recipes for pork and rabbit, and not many for beef, although veal stock does play an important role as a pantry item. There is a really super lamb and cheese sandwich recipe and a fair number of grilled food recipes.
   
   This is very much the kind of cookbook you want to get if you just happen to be in an adventurous culinary mood, but don't want to spend a lot of loot. The book has just the right mix of easy recipes, showoff recipes, and unusual tastes.
   
   Highly recommended for a good read and a very good culinary change of pace.



2. I am a long time fan of Postino which Cat worked for a number of years. It is inspiring to see her style beyond the Micheal Chiarello's (of Tra Vigne fame / Napa Style) which she took on at Postino. She has created an inspiring cookbook with very good recipes.



3. This is an engaging book, with some interesting variations on a number of basic dishes. It is limited in its ambition, a niche book. I have enjoyed using it as inspiration for a number of meals. However, one recipe that was appealing was a total failure. Her Olive Oil Cake turned out to be a soggy mess, dumped in its entirety. I suspect the amount of flour called for, 1/2 cup, was wrong. If I were a better baker, I might have caught that, but then I believe in giving a recipe by a distinguished chef a fair try before changing it. This one will be changed. Nevertheless, I really enjoy this book.



4. I like the style of the book with clear information and tips. I also appreciated the great
   photos and personal tid bits Cat adds.



5. I have made a couple of recipes from this book, including the Koto Kapama, which was very good. But I just made the olive oil cake (p. 22) and the recipe is completely WRONG. It calls for 1/2 cup of flour, which results in something that doesn't qualify even remotely as cake, and does qualify as completely inedible and disgusting (sad to say, as I just wasted about $15 worth of ingredients and my even more precious time on this mess). The same recipe on the Food Network site, which also features Cora, calls for 2 cups of flour--a bit different! I just wish I could find a way to stop others from making the same mistake; in any case, it certainly saps my desire to cook ever again from this book, which also has a rather confusing layout and organizational style. Too bad--I wanted to support a fellow Greek.

5 comments about 365 Cats Page-A-Day Desk Calendar 2008.

1. I have been buying the 365 Cats Page a Day Desk Calendar for a lot of years. This year (2008) they changed their format. It is a honey! The pics are HUGE and adorable as ever. I am SO HAPPY! I purchased a different type of cat calendar (which shall remain nameless) and was so disappointed, I threw it in the garbage and ordered this online since I was too late to find it in a store. If you love cats, this is a MUST HAVE!



2. super quality, nice pictures..i look forward to coming to work to turn the pages every day.. yes my life is that mundane.



3. This is the second year that I've purchased this calendar, and it again proved to be a great buy. The pictures are large, bright, and very high quality. The cats in them are diverse and usually don't look like they have been posed. The cats are shown outdoors, lounging, playing, sleeping, or a variety of other natural activities. A great desk calendar to brighten up your every day!



4. This calendar, I highly recommend for cat lovers. The photos are absolutely beautiful. I enjoy looking at it everyday. It makes me smile.
   It is very well done.



5. Do you know someone that can't live without cats? This is the perfect gift for them. The pictures are adoreable.

5 comments about Playing: A Novel.

1. This book is a fascinating look into the dark, sensual, brutal world of S & M. It truly is a physiological exploration of what drives a person to desire to be beaten. I found it touching, interesting, and very well written. I couldn't put the book down. Melanie Abrams is sure to make a splash and I highly recommend the book.



2. "Playing" lives up to it's seductive cover, but it's more than just an erotically charged story. It's not like anything I've read, and it's full of surprises and startling, sometimes uncomfortable moments. The book isn't about sadomasochism because it's a sexy subject (though the book has plenty of sexy scenes) but because it illuminates the characters' inner lives. The author delves into the complex desires and needs of its characters, never settling for simple answers.



3. A friend of mine saw this book and was intrigued by the cover and description, so I thought I'd pick up a copy too. The main character Josie is well-drawn: like many of us she is seeking to reconcile the demons of her past. The plot unfolds organically, and the prose is nimble and light on its feet. I plowed through this book in a day because I really wanted to know how things turned out for Josie. The story made me question the capacity for violence inside myself, inside of all of us. A good read. I look forward to the next book from this author.



4. Josie works happily as a nanny--not because she needs the money, but because her employer, who reminds her of her mother, has adopted her as part of the family--until she meets a seductive, dominant man named Devesh. Josie has always had fantasies about submission, and is swiftly pulled away from her adopted family and into a BDSM relationship with Devesh. But Josie's desire for punishment runs deep, and she begins to suspect that it may be unhealthy--and may stem from events in her past. Abrams attempts to write a novel about the psychology behind one woman's would-be-exaggerated masochist tendencies--but Josie's desires are not particularly extreme, and the psychological aspects are underdeveloped and brought to an unnaturally abrupt end. The book has a beautiful cover--and more importantly a promising concept that gives rise to some to a handful of interesting and erotic scenes. But on the whole, Playing is a failed attempt which lacks true conflict or psychological analysis. Not recommended.
   
   Playing is intended to be a novel in the line of the Marquise de Sade or The Story of O: a novel of sex and psychology which exaggerates the sexual desires of submission and dominances, sadism and masochism, in order to explore what they reveal about human psychology. As such, Abrams begins with a protagonist who has, for as long as she can remember, desired to be punished, bound, and abused, fantasizing about it during "normal" sex acts but also on her own, both aroused and comforted by the thought. When she begins a relationship with Devesh, an eager dominant, Josie is for the first time able to put her fantasies into practice--which raises questions of why she has such desires and how far they extend. Josie believes that her desires are abnormal, and in some ways they are a literal fetish: she must evoke her violent fantasies in order to achieve orgasm. Josie then traces this apparently innate, extreme desire back to childhood trauma.
   
   Some of these concerns--such as the root of submissive or masochistic desires--are quite normal, but reading about them sounds a bit routine, as if Josie's arguments with Devesh are a set of pros and cons picked up off the internet. The rest of Josie's concerns--that her desires are abnormally extreme or unhealthy, that they result from past trauma--amount to very little, despite Abram's attempts to make them major conflicts. The violence which Josie submits to is more than a spanking, but well within the realm of a real-world BDSM relationship. Her fantasies are somewhat more extreme, but hardly unreasonable. All of this could still be a valid problem if her desires had an unhealthy origin, and the book slowly builds up to a repressed and certain traumatic childhood memory. However, immediately after Josie confronts this memory, she comes to terms with her it and all of her problems, with herself and with her sexual desires, disappear. The ending is so short and so simple that Josie's problems, the central conflict of the book, seem like absolutely nothing. If they were as big as Josie believed and they appear to the reader, they could never be dismissed so easily. Abrams's fails in her attempt to analyze psychology within sexuality because she does not explore the long-lasting impact caused by real psychological fetishes.
   
   The rest of the book's strengths and weaknesses are secondary in the face of this fatal flaw. Abram's writing is a bit strange, but still readable--she prefers unusual metaphors (guilt settling like the weight of a cat on her chest, and similar) and dream sequences, and when Josie finally recalls her suppressed memory the narration switches from past to present tense. The oddities quickly go from unique to simply strange, but the text remains readable with a soft, almost lyrical narrative voice. Characterization is simplistic, but the cast of characters fulfill their roles in the plot--Devesh brings Josie's issues of sex and submission to the forefront, and her employer and charges mirror Josie's estranged mother and her (childhood) self. The erotic elements benefit from Abrams's lyrical, almost distracted writing style--they are idealized and yet given an abrupt, harsh edge which makes them both arousing and appropriately violent. The plot has a pensive, slow build towards Josie's revelation, but the end is almost comically brief. In sum, the book is defined by the fact that the conflict falters and dies: the problems are not as severe as they need to be and their resolution is far too swift, and so Josie's concerns appear foolish and small. Abrams tries to write about psychology and sex, about what drives one woman to punish herself, what makes her find such punishment both comforting and arousing. The text, however, is a mere shadow of its intentions: a minor psychological issue, an easily forgotten childhood trauma, a simple and swift resolution all of which make the book disappointing and forgettable. Interested readers would be better to borrow than buy this book, since it holds little reread potential. Personally, I do not recommend it. In its place, I do recommend The Story of O--another book about the psychology of submission that is in much the same vein but manages to be both intensely erotic and intelligently psychological--and similar texts.



5. I'll admit, it was the cover that drew me in first. So of course I had to take a closer look!
   
   The story is about a grad student, Josie, who gets involved with an older man, Devesh, who introduces her to BDSM. Josie gets thoroughly into it, but at the same time, finds that it brings some old issues from her childhood to the surface.
   
   Josie is also working as a nanny, and her relationships with the child and his mother are filled with tension, and that, too, ties into her childhood baggage.
   
   See, Josie has a trauma in her past, one that she's made herself not think about for years but that starts to rise to the surface when she has a child to care for, and when she begins to play with "punishment." I won't spoil what the trauma is, but I will say that it's haunting and that it's not what you might expect.
   
   Josie is a complicated character and I didn't always like her, but I always did want to see what would come next. Devesh is wicked hot, and I love the fact that the author has two different perspectives on kink represented in the book--Josie is using it to work through some emotional issues, and Devesh just loves it because it's fun. After reading the book, I saw an interview with the author where she mentions that she wrote Devesh that way on purpose. I think it's realistic to have both, because I know people who work through emotional issues with their play and others who play for fun's sake alone, and some people who do both depending on their mood at the time.
   
   The "play" scenes in the book are well-written and hot, if you like that sort of thing, but there's a whole lot of other stuff going on too. It's nice to see a story where people have naughty sex lives but also all sorts of real-world problems and full lives. I recommend it, with the caveat that it goes into some pretty upsetting emotional territory, especially where issues of childhood and violence are concerned.

5 comments about The Coffin Dancer (A Lincoln Rhyme Novel).

1. Alexander Adams did a marvelous job of reading this book on tape. It was a really great mystery novel with Lincoln and Sachs doing their best to catch the culprit(s). If you watched the movie, the BONE COLLECTOR with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, you know the characters and these Lincoln Rhyme novels are excellent. I picked up another book on tape by Deaver, PRAYING FOR SLEEP, read by Connor O'Brien and the reader is really not high quality. If you've listened to books on tape and heard readings by the likes of Frank Muller or George Guidall or the reader of the Stuart Woods novels, then you know what great readers are like. When you get a dud reader, it destroys the books. Although I've become a fan of Deaver's with this book and the Bone Collector movie, I'm afraid I'll have to bypass any "listening" of these books read by O'Brien.
   
   Having said that, this is a great story of a very perverse and brilliant villain and a woman who loses nearly everything dear in her life because she's on the assassin's list. You'll love it, Deaver's done a great job with this one!



2. I have read a number of Deavers books and he always keeps me in suspense until the end of the book. I would definitely recommend this book and put it up there with Michael Connely, James Patterson and other such authors. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.



3. 
   No spoilers
   
   The Coffin Dancer is a pretty good follow up to Bone Collector, but it's definitely not as good. Actually the path of the books is very different. In Bone Collector, it's all about the antagonist leaving all sorts of crazy evidence just waiting to see if the law can put it all together and get on his trail. However, in Coffin Dancer there is almost no evidence whatsoever and Rhyme is having a tought time catching a break on getting a lead on the antagonist.
   
   As I was reading, I kept thinking that Bone Collector was better and that while this book was good, it wasn't all that great, but at the end there are two huge twists that you will not at all see coming. I promise you. If you see these coming... well you won't and if you say you did then you're a liar. If you're thinking of continuing the Rhyme series, I definitely suggest you do so, because I am.



4. I love Jeff Deaver's books in general and this one was excellent! Lincoln is one of my favorite fictional characters. Deaver never disappoints when it comes to suspense, twists and character development.



5. I didn't really care for THE COFFIN DANCER very much. Jeffrey Deaver is obviously a very intelligent author, but I didn't feel that much of an emotional connection to this book's storyline and its large cast of mostly stereotypical characters. For the most part, this was a rather colorless read, with a lot of action scenes and research on forensics, but not very much heart.
   
   Further, most of the dialogue is quite stilted and the action scenes have a unbelievable, contrived quality. There's a bit of romance in this book, but the "love triangle" scenes struck me as forced and inauthentic. I would not recommend this novel to someone who cares deeply about good dialogue and characterization.
   
   There are two very clever plot twists at the end of THE COFFIN DANCER, but they weren't enough to save the book for me. Clearly, I'm in the minority when it comes to Jeffrey Deaver's novels, since he obviously has a very large fan base. If you're never read Deaver before, I suggest reading THE BONE COLLECTOR, which is the first novel featuring his recurring character of Lincoln Rhyme.

5 comments about A Dark, Dark Tale (Picture Puffins).

1. This book is rather cute and there is a cat that runs through the pages, making an appearance here and there. I loved the fact that this book presents itself as a "dark, dark" book and it really is funny that it is not a "dark" tale at all. The "darkness" is more about the lack of light than it being about evil.
   
   You start in a moor and walk through a woods. Then there is a dark castle and you walk up to the door. Once you enter the castle, you are in a dark hall and go up some dark stairs. You are in a fairy tale castle and then you see a dark passage. You are tempted to look behind a dark curtain and then the cat stands looking up at a dark cupboard.
   
   The last page shows a mouse in a box with a rather frightened look on its face. So the only fear in this book is that the cat has found the mouse. Although it does seem the cat leaves the mouse sleeping happily in his little bed with his miniature candle and miniature slippers.
   
   The beauty of this book is in the art. Ruth Brown studied art at the Birmingham College of Art and the Royal College of Art. She has worked on animated films for the BBC.
   
   Meowingly Cute.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



2. A wonderful choice for young children at Halloween or any time of year. Reading this aloud is lots of fun -- you can make it seem scary as you go through each page, then watch your child's reaction at the end. My son wanted me to read this over and over. We also have fun looking for all the little critters in the forest: owls, bats, tiny glowing eyes peeking out of the dark places, the cat, even a badger!



3. This "Dark Dark Tale" by Ruth Brown is simple, short and sports a gothic flair. The illustrations (also by Brown) are nothing short of brilliant. Brown the artist captures the fog, shadows and light of her own dark dark little world. Perfect for preschoolers (my two year old loves it and always anticipates the ending), it holds their attention (there can't be more than 120 words in the entire book) with the repetative prose that children love. Perfect for lovers of children literature and childrens illustrations as well (which is what drew me to the book in the first place). We love it and read it daily.



4. The artwork is beautiful and detailed. My three year old loves to find the cat in each picture and to find the faces in the windows, walls, and curtains. One can always find something new in the paintings. The story uses repetitious wording, so he can virtually read it to me. We have read this book many times, yet neither of us ever gets bored with it.



5. Having read this book to three to five-year-olds at Halloween for three years running and having it be a HUGE hit every time, I decided to get my own copy. The children love the repetitiveness of it and the spooky pictures. The tension builds and builds right to the end when everything turns out to be just fine. (Note: That's a total of 180 children with very big eyes and almost no wiggles!)

4 comments about Boone.

1. A great story about T. Boone, his dreams and his company. T.Boone, like David is not afraid to take the Goliaths head on. This book has some great quotes, like "Is you is or is you ain't, my baby". I also learned why you should never borrow neckties or shotguns. Really an enjoyable read about a great corporate raider.



2. A quick, enjoyable read, Boone provides the reader with insight regarding the motivations of corporate executives -- self preservation. T. Boone consistently highlights one theme -- creating shareholder value -- as the justification for his actions throughout the 1980s. The book provided an altogether different slant than that portrayed by the media and by corporate America. The reader should be prepared however, as T. Boone is self praising and absorbed throughout the majority of this book. In fact, one should consider this book to be the "other-side" of the corporate raider story.

   Overall, Boone is a read which provides a glimse into the personality which exemplifies the corporate raider. Upon finishing the book I was taken two things: 1. The names of some partners: Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, and so forth. 2. The continued "bloatedness" of big business (regardless of the industry) in America -- apparently things have not changed much in the last 15 years since Boone was originally written.




3. Despite Pickens constantly patting himself on the back this
   turned out to be a very good book. You are able to get a good
   history of Picken's very own company,Mesa Petroleum.You also get
   an insight into Picken's marriages and life. Most of the book
   was taken up with the various corporate raids that Picken's had
   a hand in initiating on some of the bigger companies in America.
   It is a very interesting look at the actions of a corporate raider.Pickens also gives you his insight on the management of some of the big companies that he was raiding. All in all a very
   interesting book.



4. I thought this was a great book with lots of stories of corporate raiding. T. Boone Pickens is an amazing man with lots of what I would call street smarts and then some. It is an autobiography with a little family history but mostly dwells on the later business years with Mesa Petroleum. He tells of the ups and the downs of the numerous businesses he was in including the cattle business and commodity trading. Lots of good stuff that will keep you interested in what is going to happen next. Pickens also is quick to tell his point of view on how a Corporation should be run in order to give the stock holders, those who actually own the business, some profit. I think you will enjoy it.

2 comments about Grumpy Cat.

1. 
   
   
   This book is superb, completely true to the actual life of a wandering male stray tomcat who once lived with me, several other cats and a kitten.
   
   Had I not seen it first hand, this would be little more than a clever story, well written, interesting, and perhaps meant as a lesson to small children to be nice. Instead, in real life 'Fluffy' was a dominant male who ruled the other cats with an iron paw, but would never lift even a clawless paw to a kitten who decided to adopt him.
   
   It needs to be understood that I'm the 'boss cat' in our household; and secondly, like small children, the charm of kittens is their continual playfulness. Kittens have absolutely no respect for the authority of an old boss cat (whether me or Fluffy), new curtains, or any small object that moves or can be knocked down or shredded. W#ith that spirit and knowledge, this book portrays the experience of an old cat and a kitten with complete authenticity. As an allegory, it is a charming reminder of the obligation of adults to look after the small and weak and fragile dwellers in our world.
   
   In all likelihood, Britta had an adult cat who fell victim to a kitten exactly as she portrays it in this book. People just don't have the imagination to invent stories such as this. It's a wonderful tribute to a real cat, a real kitten and Britta's superb sense of observing the two as they lived together.
   
   In addition to being a delightful story, maybe it's really meant to offer a lesson for children and adults: The strong have a moral obligation to look after the weak and helpless. It's certainly posible to draw such an analogy from the brief but very poignant, very true, very touching story.
   
   It's a wonderful book.
   
   Trust me. Every word of it is authentic.



2. I like it when the kitten purrs and when Grumpy Cat gets the fish. I also like when Grumpy Cat saves the kitten.

3 comments about Big Cats.

1. Seymour Simon's book "Big Cats" is wonderful introduction for children to the world of the big cats. Children will love the huge, full-colour photographs of these gorgeous felines as they learn about lions, leopards, tigers and more. Written in terms that the young can quickly comprehend, this book presents interesting insights into these cats of the wild and makes learning about these animals a delight.



2. You would be mistaken if you think big cats cannot purr. They can. But not all big cats can roar. In fact, three cannot roar: puma, cheetah, and snow leopard. The seven "big cats" are tiger, leopard, lion, jaguar, puma, cheetah, and snow leopard--and they all purrrrrrr.
   
   Seymour Simon provides interesting facts like this in his two or more-page spread about each Big Cat. Let's go back to those roars for a moment. When a lion roars, creatures (including people) can hear that roar up to five miles away. No wonder we show extreme respect to that magnificent animal.
   
   I once read a customer review on Amazon concerning another of Simon's animal books. The person stated that captions for each picture would be nice for her and her child. What I discovered in "Big Cats" is that each animal is the focus of two or more pages: one is a photograph, the other is a page of information. Why is a caption necessary if an entire page is about the photo? I think she wanted something quick per photo. If so, Simon's Level I readers still do not have captions, but they do have just a couple of sentences per page--in essence a caption.
   
   What I find with Simon is that once you have read one of his books in a particular series, you become attached to his writing. Simon is an excellent science writer of every kind of science and writes mostly for elementary children. "Big Cats" is written on a fourth or fifth grade level. The back of this book says he is author of over 100 science books for young readers. Actually, that was 1991. In 2007 he has over 200 books to his credit.
   
   Here are some things you will learn in "Big Cats": the leopard likes to drag his kill up a tree for safe storage from other predatory animals. There is a photo to prove it. A cheetah works alone, uses his burst of speed up to 70mph, eats as much as he can right then, and leaves the kill because he is too exhausted to guard it. A cheetah is the only big cat without large canine teeth and often loses cubs to predators because she has difficulty defending them.
   
   One of the many things I appreciate about this book is Simon's fierce dedication to animal and habitat preservation. His last page is devoted to this topic through its young readers. Raise up a child the way it should go....
   
   Whether it is purring, killing, raising young cubs, losing its natural habitat, Big Cats have much in common. According to Simon, it is up to us to make sure they continue to have an existence.



3. As a teacher I'm always on the look out for books that my boys will like. They love animal stories like this one and Seymour's alligator book.

5 comments about The Town Cats and Other Tales.

1. Lloyd Alexander is great at putting emotions into his books. I've never laughed out loud because a book was funny until I read his books. I loved how smart the cats were.



2. "Never take a cat for granted!," warns the back-cover copy of this collection, and Alexander, like myself, has obviously enjoyed a long association with felines and knows whereof he speaks. I originally read this book out of the library years ago and was delighted to find it back in print. Any child (or adult) for whom Puss-in-Boots was a major hero will want to have it in his collection. Alexander's cat-heroes, from Pescaro, who dupes an unwelcome royal bureaucrat in the title story, through Witling in "The Apprentice Cat," may all be able to talk, but otherwise they clearly *think* like cats--sometimes to the detriment of the people around them. (As Mark Twain famously declared, "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would be an improvement for the man, and a comedown for the cat.") There's Margot, who helps a princess marry the man she wants; Baraka, who plays chess and teaches the sultan a valuable lesson; Quickset, who relieves his village of the tyranny of a greedy storekeeper; Vaska, who shows his human the folly of trying to imitate one's betters; Hillesum, who saves the career of the painter he lives with; and the Master of Revels, who helps the fiddler Nicholas earn the recognition that is his proper due. Laszlo Kubinyi's illustrations are as delightful as the stories (don't miss the vignette on the title page). This book will remain on my shelf till the floor falls through.



3. The Book I am going to review is called "The Town Cats" by Lloyd Alexander, author of the Prydain chronicles. This book resembles Aesop's fables, with animals acting like men, but it does not have so many morals. This book is a collection of short tales about cats, acting in the capacity of men. It doesn't fall into any generic category; however, it is humorous, and some of the stories could be called fairy tales.
   For example, one of the stories begins like this: a tailor becomes rich. He starts acting strange, trying to live up to his wealth. Yet his strange behavior does not agree with his cat, Vaska. In a strange and hilarious way, Vaska teaches his master how to act normal again. That is one of the stories with more of a moral at the end.
   The book is very funny, and it is original. It has a particularly funny tale about a cat and his master, a painter. The subjects he paints are never satisfied, and they never come to sit and let him draw them. Then, the cat takes up the brush, and the subjects learn a lesson about their image of themselves.
   As the author says, "Cats being more sensible than the rest of us, the idea of a set of tales demonstrating this came easily to mind. The problem wasn't finding enough examples, but keeping them to a manageable number." I think he did a good job of showing humans' greed and lack of sense, and he made it neither too short, nor too long, but just right.
   Lloyd Alexander is a great author. He spun eight great tales about cats into a wonderful book. I recommend it to cat lovers, and people who like to laugh (I include myself in both categories).



4. I am a big fan of Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, and saw that he had written other books as well, so I decided to check them out. This was the first that I read, and I must say that I am looking forward to reading the rest even more now. This book is an excellent collection of short fairy tales starring feline heroes/heroines. Each story is mean to teach a lesson, as in Aesop's Fables (I am not sure why a previous reviewer said that this was not the case, as it is rather obvious from reading the book). I will give only one example, as I do not want to give too much of the book away. One story which Alexender tells is about a Cat and a fiddler. The fiddler is invited to play for the cats evening party, and enjoys it so much he promises to come back again the next week. During the week he is offered a tidy sum of money to play for a prestigious man on the same night that he was to play for the cats. The fiddler does the right thing and keeps his promise to the cats, and after a few more incidents in which he also keeps his word even though it is to his immediate disadvantage, he is rewarded by the royalty of his country for his goodness.
   
   Mind you, it is not just simply stories with a moral either. Alexander manages to make the stories delightfully funny as well. It almost reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories (the method of telling the story, not the content), and he has some of Kipling's sense of humor as well.
   
   This is one of those rare books that has the mark of a true fairy tale: both children and adults (those who are not too serious, mind you) are delighted by them. They are fun enough for children to enjoy and deep enough for adults to read withough feeling as if they were wasting their time on nonsense. Such a combination is becoming harder and harder to find these days, and Alexander provides us with a gem in the fading art of fairy tale telling.
   
   Overall grade: A



5. Great book for any cat lover
   
   author of "Hobo Finds A Home"