What do you think?
Rate this book
On Cats: An Anthology
For centuries, cats have been worshipped, adored and mistrusted in equal measure. This beautiful gift book contains a selection of essays, stories, and poems on cats by writers from across the ages.
In these pages, writers reflect on the curious feline qualities that inspire such devotion in their owners, even when it seems one-sided. Cats’ affections are hard-won and often fickle. Freud considered his cat an embodiment of true egoism; Hilaire Belloc found peace in his feline companion’s complacency; and Hemingway—a famous cat-lover—wrote of drinking with his eleven cats and the pleasant distraction they gave him.
Edward Gorey can’t turn down a stray despite the trouble they cause him, and admits he has no idea what they’re thinking about; Muriel Spark gives practical advice on how to teach a cat to play ping-pong; Nikola Tesla, who helped design the modern electricity supply system, describes a seminal experience with a cat that first sparked his fascination with electricity; and Caitlin Moran considers the unexpected feelings of loss after the death of her family cat.
These writers, and many others (including Mary Gaitskill, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Keats, James Bowen, Lynne Truss, and more), paint a joyful portrait of cats and their mysterious and loveable ways. As Hemingway wrote, “one cat leads to another.” The book features six black-and-white cat portraits by photographer Elliot Ross.
In these pages, writers reflect on the curious feline qualities that inspire such devotion in their owners, even when it seems one-sided. Cats’ affections are hard-won and often fickle. Freud considered his cat an embodiment of true egoism; Hilaire Belloc found peace in his feline companion’s complacency; and Hemingway—a famous cat-lover—wrote of drinking with his eleven cats and the pleasant distraction they gave him.
Edward Gorey can’t turn down a stray despite the trouble they cause him, and admits he has no idea what they’re thinking about; Muriel Spark gives practical advice on how to teach a cat to play ping-pong; Nikola Tesla, who helped design the modern electricity supply system, describes a seminal experience with a cat that first sparked his fascination with electricity; and Caitlin Moran considers the unexpected feelings of loss after the death of her family cat.
These writers, and many others (including Mary Gaitskill, Alice Walker, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Keats, James Bowen, Lynne Truss, and more), paint a joyful portrait of cats and their mysterious and loveable ways. As Hemingway wrote, “one cat leads to another.” The book features six black-and-white cat portraits by photographer Elliot Ross.
172 pages, Hardcover
First published November 2, 2021
115 people are currently reading
1203 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Atwood
667 books89.8k followersMargaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.
Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.
Associations: Margaret Atwood was President of the Writers' Union of Canada from May 1981 to May 1982, and was President of International P.E.N., Canadian Centre (English Speaking) from 1984-1986. She and Graeme Gibson are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Society within BirdLife International. Ms. Atwood is also a current Vice-President of PEN International.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
August 27, 2021
I'm a simple woman: I see 'cats', I see 'Margaret Atwood', I request the advance copy before even reading the blurb.
This short anthology collects essays, stories, and poems by writers across centuries who've pondered their relationship with cats—noble, beautiful, yet fickle creatures whose affections are hard-won. I enjoyed digging into one or two of these on my commute to work, after having left my own two cats behind at home; it's silly, but it felt a little like I was taking them with me, and I definitely found a lot of them and their quirks and personalities in these pages, which, taken together, are essentially a string of love letters to felines.
The contents range from anonymous Irish monk from the 9th century to esteemed writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Alice Walker, and also included an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (the scene in which Alice meets the Cheshire cat, of course). The introduction by Margaret Atwood had all her trademark dry wit, and I loved it. My other favorites were Caitlin Moran's A Death in the Family, which made me weep on the subway, and the piece by Ursula K. LeGuin. I was very much enjoying Edward Gorey's contribution, but it unfortunately cut off mid-sentence in the digital review copy.
The rest were fine, a bit of a mixed bag, as is to be expected, but there were two stories I actively disliked: One about baseball and skinning cats for fur which I didn't even finish, and one by some french writer who claimed to adore cats but also had an urge to strangle them—why the editors chose to include stories involving animal cruelty in an anthology celebrating the loving bond we form with cats is beyond me, and the inclusion of those two pieces only detract from the collection, which is being marketed as a "beautiful gift book"... but I guarantee that no cat lover will appreciate them. Those two aside, I found this to be a rather heartwarming volume featuring a wide variety of cats—from kittens to old age, feral to fully domesticated, mistrustful to loyal—best enjoyed with a purring feline on one's lap.
—————
Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This short anthology collects essays, stories, and poems by writers across centuries who've pondered their relationship with cats—noble, beautiful, yet fickle creatures whose affections are hard-won. I enjoyed digging into one or two of these on my commute to work, after having left my own two cats behind at home; it's silly, but it felt a little like I was taking them with me, and I definitely found a lot of them and their quirks and personalities in these pages, which, taken together, are essentially a string of love letters to felines.
The contents range from anonymous Irish monk from the 9th century to esteemed writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Alice Walker, and also included an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland (the scene in which Alice meets the Cheshire cat, of course). The introduction by Margaret Atwood had all her trademark dry wit, and I loved it. My other favorites were Caitlin Moran's A Death in the Family, which made me weep on the subway, and the piece by Ursula K. LeGuin. I was very much enjoying Edward Gorey's contribution, but it unfortunately cut off mid-sentence in the digital review copy.
The rest were fine, a bit of a mixed bag, as is to be expected, but there were two stories I actively disliked: One about baseball and skinning cats for fur which I didn't even finish, and one by some french writer who claimed to adore cats but also had an urge to strangle them—why the editors chose to include stories involving animal cruelty in an anthology celebrating the loving bond we form with cats is beyond me, and the inclusion of those two pieces only detract from the collection, which is being marketed as a "beautiful gift book"... but I guarantee that no cat lover will appreciate them. Those two aside, I found this to be a rather heartwarming volume featuring a wide variety of cats—from kittens to old age, feral to fully domesticated, mistrustful to loyal—best enjoyed with a purring feline on one's lap.
—————
Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 12, 2021
Collection of 26 essays, stories, and poems and an introduction by Margaret Atwood.
If wasn’t for a few good short stories, this book didn't deserve a 3-star. This was an anthology so, I kept continue reading it but unfortunately couldn't finish it.
Some stories were beautiful, others not. The worst thing about a cats' beautiful story it’s ending. I know I know about collateral beauty and something like that but, it's heartbreaking. So some stories were heartbreaking, others weren’t enjoyable and were so strange, and even animal cruelty seems!
I hate to give a low rate especially for a book that had few readers till now. But I have a shelf avoid-animal-cruelty and it's hard for me to finish this to get maybe-better stories.
I liked the Hemingways story (Letter to Hadley Mowrer) and Cat-echisms:
Time spent with a cat is never wasted. Colette
What greater gift than the love of a cat. Charles Dickens
Thanks to Edelweiss for giving me the chance to read On Cats: An Anthology, I have given my honest review.
If wasn’t for a few good short stories, this book didn't deserve a 3-star. This was an anthology so, I kept continue reading it but unfortunately couldn't finish it.
Some stories were beautiful, others not. The worst thing about a cats' beautiful story it’s ending. I know I know about collateral beauty and something like that but, it's heartbreaking. So some stories were heartbreaking, others weren’t enjoyable and were so strange, and even animal cruelty seems!
I hate to give a low rate especially for a book that had few readers till now. But I have a shelf avoid-animal-cruelty and it's hard for me to finish this to get maybe-better stories.
I liked the Hemingways story (Letter to Hadley Mowrer) and Cat-echisms:
Time spent with a cat is never wasted. Colette
What greater gift than the love of a cat. Charles Dickens
Thanks to Edelweiss for giving me the chance to read On Cats: An Anthology, I have given my honest review.
Read
April 22, 2022Caitlin Moran made me weep!
June 28, 2025
Vraiment cute. C’est genre un ramassis d’extraits de romans fameux où l’on faisait mention de chats. Ça devient un peu redondant à la longue tho et c’est bizarre à lire parce que ça mène un peu nul part. Love you madame Atwood tho🫶
June 26, 2023
An anthology of 2-6 page stories about cats and their owners. Once you read this, you’ll see that all cat owners are the same, and why. It doesn’t even matter if they are from the 1800s or from today, everyone finds the same in cats.
My favourite story was written by Caitlin Moran and is called ‘A Death in the Family’. It’s incredibly sad but absolutely beautiful. Don’t do what I do; I read it on the train, and got some seriously concerned eyes monitoring me…
My favourite story was written by Caitlin Moran and is called ‘A Death in the Family’. It’s incredibly sad but absolutely beautiful. Don’t do what I do; I read it on the train, and got some seriously concerned eyes monitoring me…
March 29, 2025
3.5/5 stars
I really enjoyed a few of the writings in the anthology, highly disliked one, and was neutral (leaning slightly positive) about the rest.
I really enjoyed a few of the writings in the anthology, highly disliked one, and was neutral (leaning slightly positive) about the rest.
May 8, 2022
Although I fully support the concept of small presses with idiosyncratic mission statements, like the Notting Hill Press attempting to revive essays, the concept, it’s hard to ‘grade’ this collection. I’m preternaturally predisposed to be in favour of anything Regarding Cats, but there are limits. I did not like the dude who kicked his pet cats, and I always find Tove Janssen a bit cold.
Some of these ‘essays’ are exceedingly short, a one-hand number of paragraphs sliced off from a larger work … many of which, like those by Doris Lessing (also, bold to steal her title!), Lewis Carroll, and James Bowen, I have already read. Because, Regarding Cats. I was also significantly unimpressed with Auden’s translation of ‘Pangur Bán’ – not that Seamus Heaney’s is much better, but the ultimate has to be Robin Flower’s, which has the added benefit of using the Irish title, jeez, imperialism much, Auden?
However, I did like some ‘essays’ greatly. My mother found me in tears over Caitlin Moran’s ‘A Death in the Family’, and was most disgruntled to realise my distress was over a long-dead cat belonging to a stranger. But that’s cat people for you.
Lynn Truss:
‘Having a cat, I find, makes you susceptible to this line of reasoning – perhaps because it is your only direct line of consolation. ‘I wonder if he loves me.’ you think [...] ‘Well, of course he does. I mean, he’s here, isn’t he?’’
On the Death of a Cat, a Friend of Mine, Aged Ten Years and a Half, Christina Rossetti
‘And whoever passes by
The poor grave where Puss doth lie,
Softly, softly let him tread,
Nor disturb her narrow bed.’
Rebecca West:
‘He was physically frivolous, a ball of orange fluff with topaz eyes, he might have been the sort of Christmas present the more expensive stores in New York think up, and have a bottle of scent inside him; yet he was a serious-minded cat.’
‘The price I paid was enormous but I got full value for it.’
Nikola Tesla:
‘I was thinking abstractedly. Is Nature a gigantic cat? If so, who strokes its back? It can only be God, I concluded.’
Alice Walker:
‘Frida made herself the exception. She was an exceedingly garrulous cat. She set out every morning to tell me the latest installment of her sad, heartrending tale, six or seven lives long, and she chatted steadily for an hour or so. When I was thoroughly rattled, she stopped, went upstairs, and took a nap. This was our entirely inauspicious beginning.’
Some of these ‘essays’ are exceedingly short, a one-hand number of paragraphs sliced off from a larger work … many of which, like those by Doris Lessing (also, bold to steal her title!), Lewis Carroll, and James Bowen, I have already read. Because, Regarding Cats. I was also significantly unimpressed with Auden’s translation of ‘Pangur Bán’ – not that Seamus Heaney’s is much better, but the ultimate has to be Robin Flower’s, which has the added benefit of using the Irish title, jeez, imperialism much, Auden?
However, I did like some ‘essays’ greatly. My mother found me in tears over Caitlin Moran’s ‘A Death in the Family’, and was most disgruntled to realise my distress was over a long-dead cat belonging to a stranger. But that’s cat people for you.
Lynn Truss:
‘Having a cat, I find, makes you susceptible to this line of reasoning – perhaps because it is your only direct line of consolation. ‘I wonder if he loves me.’ you think [...] ‘Well, of course he does. I mean, he’s here, isn’t he?’’
On the Death of a Cat, a Friend of Mine, Aged Ten Years and a Half, Christina Rossetti
‘And whoever passes by
The poor grave where Puss doth lie,
Softly, softly let him tread,
Nor disturb her narrow bed.’
Rebecca West:
‘He was physically frivolous, a ball of orange fluff with topaz eyes, he might have been the sort of Christmas present the more expensive stores in New York think up, and have a bottle of scent inside him; yet he was a serious-minded cat.’
‘The price I paid was enormous but I got full value for it.’
Nikola Tesla:
‘I was thinking abstractedly. Is Nature a gigantic cat? If so, who strokes its back? It can only be God, I concluded.’
Alice Walker:
‘Frida made herself the exception. She was an exceedingly garrulous cat. She set out every morning to tell me the latest installment of her sad, heartrending tale, six or seven lives long, and she chatted steadily for an hour or so. When I was thoroughly rattled, she stopped, went upstairs, and took a nap. This was our entirely inauspicious beginning.’
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2022
Surprisingly good for a short anthology.
It's not as sentimental as I expected, it's much more subtle, ambivalent and even sour at times, in a good way. Cats aren't all fluffy.
Bits to think about later, & others to enjoy just for 5 minutes, a few that brought me to tears.
Lovely photos too!
It's not as sentimental as I expected, it's much more subtle, ambivalent and even sour at times, in a good way. Cats aren't all fluffy.
Bits to think about later, & others to enjoy just for 5 minutes, a few that brought me to tears.
Lovely photos too!
April 14, 2024
Well on my way now to a crazy cat lady, reading this surrounded by my three other cat-based books, wearing a t-shirt with photos of our cat Bella.
They are such wonderful creatures!!!!!!
They are such wonderful creatures!!!!!!
December 8, 2021
Like any anthology, there are stories you like and some that you don't, overall human's love and admiration for our feline friends shines through.
February 12, 2025
The cover ("the writers in these pages celebrate cats") and the introduction create a reasonable expectation that you are about to read a compilation of works by people who love and appreciate cats. What you most certainly do not expect is to be ambushed by pathological and sadistic accounts of someone enjoying watching a cat die, being able to save the animal, noting that had this been a dog, the author would have saved it, but it being a cat, the author just stepped back and delighted in the animal's suffering. Have the editors or indeed Margaret Atwood read the book cover to cover? I have the same question for the self-proclaimed cat lovers giving this book 4- and 5-star reviews here. I had to physically remove and destroy the pages to be able to sleep in the same house as this book. A gross editorial misstep that should never have happened.
I wrote to the editors, who replied that they intended to show a broad range of attitudes toward cats. This is not factually accurate as the book's back cover and the introduction by a famous writer both indicate that this is a celebration of cats. It is incomprehensible how a sadistic essay about enjoying watching a cat struggle and die could fall within the ambit of the book presented this way. Had the cover mentioned that the essays within contain a wide range of attitudes (including hatred), I would have never bought the book. Or if I had, at least I would have been going into it with my eyes wide open. They messed up, and the book is heading for the donation box today. Disgusting and unacceptable.
I wrote to the editors, who replied that they intended to show a broad range of attitudes toward cats. This is not factually accurate as the book's back cover and the introduction by a famous writer both indicate that this is a celebration of cats. It is incomprehensible how a sadistic essay about enjoying watching a cat struggle and die could fall within the ambit of the book presented this way. Had the cover mentioned that the essays within contain a wide range of attitudes (including hatred), I would have never bought the book. Or if I had, at least I would have been going into it with my eyes wide open. They messed up, and the book is heading for the donation box today. Disgusting and unacceptable.
February 16, 2024
Margaret Atwood introduces this anthology of stories about cats. Most of the entries are stories or memoirs that I've never encountered before, even those from literary and historical figures who were already known to me, and some from people I now plan to look up for more of their writings and more about their lives. Some entries are humorous, some poignant, some cozy, some very strange, some tragic, with a couple that I found disturbing because they recounted either planned or actual abuse of cats. Historically, and even today, though, that is unfortunately sometimes the way of cats and humans. As a cat lover possibly since birth - they fascinated me since I can remember, even before I was allowed to touch them - I find nearly any story about a cat worth my while to read.
Some of the stories come from people we are all familiar with through their work: Earnest Hemingway, Lewis Carroll, Doris Lessing, Edward Gorey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nikola Tesla, the Brothers Grimm, Alice Walker. There were others whom I never heard of before, but who now feel like friends.
Well worth the time I spent before sleep, lying in bed with one of my own cat friends snuggled behind my knees while I read. Highly recommended, and one you might want to own, to revisit as you wish.
Some of the stories come from people we are all familiar with through their work: Earnest Hemingway, Lewis Carroll, Doris Lessing, Edward Gorey, Ursula K. Le Guin, Nikola Tesla, the Brothers Grimm, Alice Walker. There were others whom I never heard of before, but who now feel like friends.
Well worth the time I spent before sleep, lying in bed with one of my own cat friends snuggled behind my knees while I read. Highly recommended, and one you might want to own, to revisit as you wish.
November 7, 2025
i want to say cute little book because physically the copy of this book i read was very cute and little but actual content of the book was not so… i feel like the tendency for a lot of the authors in this book to anthropomorphize cats did not gel well with some of the authors getting really weird about people finding a cat super attractive or having inexplicable violent thoughts toward a cat. i also found it interesting how writers feel very inclined to learn toward a certain archetype of aloof uncaring selfish cat though there was definitely a good amount of silly little single brain cell cat and intense untamed hunter cat.
in general i really liked some of the poems and more fiction-feeling stories of cats and i did get a sense of how these people writing about cats did a lot to humanize authors that i really only know for their famous works and i think it is true that there is something about cats and maybe animals at large that bring about universal feelings within people that are possibly uniquely human or possibly generalizably animal. also felt that i want to read more works published prior to 21st century as it feels like writers then took such care to capture the world which feels so much simpler in a nice way than the one i exist in.
in general i really liked some of the poems and more fiction-feeling stories of cats and i did get a sense of how these people writing about cats did a lot to humanize authors that i really only know for their famous works and i think it is true that there is something about cats and maybe animals at large that bring about universal feelings within people that are possibly uniquely human or possibly generalizably animal. also felt that i want to read more works published prior to 21st century as it feels like writers then took such care to capture the world which feels so much simpler in a nice way than the one i exist in.
January 5, 2022
This is a quite delightful little book consisting of a wide selection of book excerpts, essays, letters, poems and short stories dating from the 9th to the 21st century, all about cats and the humans that love them. Margaret Atwood has written a charming introduction telling the story of her life with cats. Most of the selections are very interesting and entertaining, often highlighting the peculiar nature of the human/cat relationship. A couple of them seemed to be a poor fit, most notably, the Ernest Hemingway letter and the Ring Larner essay. Particularly enjoyable is Ursula K. LeGuin' story, "My Life So Far, By Pard", told from the perspective of the cat. And most moving is "A Death in the Family" capturing the bond between cat and human and the loss that the death of a beloved pet bring - "a cat is a place where you put all the feelings you can't share with humans.... They clean our hearts, these tiny cats."
November 30, 2021
In some ways this book was a disappointment. I suppose I expected the book to be a celebration of cats. I didn’t have an issue with some of the works dealing with the passing of a cat, but I did have an issue with one essay that dealt with animal cruelty. The piece entitled “On Cats” by Guy de Maupassant should not have been included at all. I am also on the fence about the piece entitled by “All My Cats” by Bohumil Hrabal. I think that most readers are going to be looking for a collection that celebrates cats.
The other issue I had was that there was no coherent style. Poems were mixed with essays and pieces of fiction with no real rhyme or reason. It felt messy to read this collection as there was no cohesion between the pieces so that you could see why they were selected over other pieces.
The other issue I had was that there was no coherent style. Poems were mixed with essays and pieces of fiction with no real rhyme or reason. It felt messy to read this collection as there was no cohesion between the pieces so that you could see why they were selected over other pieces.
March 10, 2022
An anthology of cat stories, what’s not to like! It provides a lovely insight to how people have loved cats throughout history, but the stories vary so strongly in quality that the book as a whole doesn’t make much sense. Also sad to see that such few writers have tried to write from the perspective of a cat. Ursula Le Guin is the notable exception here. Apparently she did a whole novella, ‘My life so far, by Pard’, which turns out is no longer available anywhere 😿
March 20, 2023
This book gave me the warm feels! Loved the myriad stories, from accounts of people's pets, to excerpts about cats borrowed from varied genres, to quotes and poetry. Any cat lover would see their own cats in some of the cats described- each one distinctive and heartwarming. I also really liked getting a snapshot into how famous authors relate to their feline buddies! Worth a read for all cat lovers! Hugged my cats immediately after reading:)
January 31, 2024
Hay historias muy variadas y no puedo decir que todas me gustaron, pero disfruté la mayoría. Muchos relatos son de hace tiempo cuando el cuidado de los gatos no era como lo es hoy, pero aún así se entiende el contexto, pero el relato de Guy de Maupassant lo quitaría!! Creo que es horrible para los amantes de los gatos.
January 31, 2025
This book started out promising as I enjoyed Atwood’s introduction, and while I was also familiar with many of the works and authors here, I did not enjoy the majority of this book. I found many of the entries had an awful lot of cruelty, and for me, this took away from the very few gems. The book is blurbed to ‘celebrate cats and their curious ways,’ which I think is majorly misleading.
November 12, 2021
Most of the stories were sweet and humorous--there were a few that spoke of violence towards furry little friends, that I think they should have left out, as no cat-lover wants to read a book about harming cats!
January 19, 2022
Decent little book that collects various stories and writings on cats by authors, famous and not. Most are meditations on humanity, using cats as a mirror to reflect on love, loss, happiness, and sorrow. My favourite story from this collection was by Mary Gaitskill from Lost Cat.
March 8, 2023
I bought this when my cat died, and because I like Margaret Atwood … I didn’t find it as fascinating as I thought I would, hence 3 stars, a lot of the cat stories read the same after a while. But it was pleasant enough and I dipped in and out of it.
April 7, 2023
This was pretty hit or miss. It felt like a superficial exploration of what cats mean to their people but there were a few I enjoyed - Edward Gorey’s and Caitlin Moran’s in particular
plus some genuinely moving movements in a few of the other works. The ‘cat-echisms’ at the end were cute too.
plus some genuinely moving movements in a few of the other works. The ‘cat-echisms’ at the end were cute too.
Want to read
October 26, 2021why not?
(side note: i'm allergic to cats so this might be the closest i can ever get to them)
(side note: i'm allergic to cats so this might be the closest i can ever get to them)
December 1, 2021
It was okay - a little too highbrow for me.
December 7, 2021
A darling book of cat stories from multiple prolific and well known authors. It was fun and joyful to read.
February 10, 2022
Excerpts from many authors about cats.
April 29, 2022
Loved this sweet selection of short stories by many of my favorite authors another's I had not read.
October 6, 2022
This the third and final book with this title that I have committed to reading this year. It was a collection of essays and poems. Some were heartwarming and others were heart wrenching.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews