Reviews of books about cats have been a standard element on my blog over the years, though not for quite a while now. The new Reading the Meow challenge, hosted by Mallika of Literary Potpourri, was a good excuse to revive the feature. I read all of these from the library. #ReadingtheMeow2023 #LoveYourLibrary
Alfie, who turned 15 last month, accompanies me in all things, including reading. I made him a medallion for his birthday that reads “World’s Best Cat” on one side and “World’s Most Annoying Cat” on the other.
The Cats We Meet Along the Way by Nadia Mikail (2022)
Just the one cat, actually. (Ripoff!) But Fleabag, a one-eared stray ‘the colour of gone-off curry’ who just won’t leave, is a fine companion on this end-of-the-world Malaysian road trip. Mikail’s debut teen novel, which won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2023, imagines that news has come of an asteroid that will make direct contact with Earth in one year. The clock is ticking; just nine months remain. Teenage Aisha and her boyfriend Walter have come to terms with the fact that they’ll never get to do all the things they want to, from attending university to marrying and having children.
Aisha’s father died of cancer when she was young, and her older sister June disappeared two years ago. Aisha decides that what is most important now is finding June and trying to heal their estrangement, so she and Walter set out in a campervan with his parents and her mother (and Fleabag, of course). Mikail sensitively portrays the tangle of anger, grief and fear these characters feel, and it’s interesting to encounter the food and flora of a country that will be unfamiliar to many. Even though everything feels doomed, there are hopeful tasks Aisha and her family can be part of. Teens will no doubt be smart enough to realise that we face a similar calamity in the form of climate breakdown; it’s just that the timescale is a little different. 
A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye (1962)
My second from Tangye. I’ve read from The Minack Chronicles out of order because I happened to find a free copy of Lama a few years ago and read it for Novellas in November. Tangye wasn’t a cat fan to start with, but Monty won him over. They met in the Savoy hotel when Tangye and Jeannie were newlyweds of three months, and Monty was six weeks old. He lived with them first in the London suburb of Mortlake, then on their flower farm in Cornwall. During the London years they kept long hours and often returned from gatherings at 2 a.m., to be met with Monty in the front window giving a lordly and annoyed glare.
When they moved to Minack there was a sense of giving Monty his freedom and taking joy in watching him live his best life. In between, they were evacuated to St Albans and briefly lived with Jeannie’s parents and Scottie dog, who became Monty’s nemesis. Ever after, he would attack dogs he saw on the canal path. In Cornwall, the threats to a free-roaming cat included foxes and rabbit traps, but Monty survived into his 16th year, happily tolerating a few resident birds: Hubert the gull, Charlie the chaffinch and Tim the robin.
Tangye writes warmly and humorously about Monty’s ways and his own development into a man who is at a cat’s mercy.
I had observed … that cat owners … were apt to fall into two types. Either they ignored the cat, put it out a night whatever the weather, left it to fend for itself when they went away on holidays, and treated it, in fact, as a kind of better class vermin; or else they worshipped the animal like a god. The first category appeared callous, the second devoid of sense.
He portrays life as a series of manageable incidents. This was really the perfect chronicle of life with a cat, from adoption through farewell. It’s the kind of thing I might like to write about Alfie, if only for my husband’s and my benefit, after he shuffles off this kitty coil. 
Cats in Concord by Doreen Tovey (2001)
My seventh from Tovey. I can hardly believe that, having started her writing career in the 1950s, she was still publishing into the new millennium! (She lived 1918–2008.) Tovey was addicted to Siamese cats. As this volume opens, she’s so forlorn after the death of Saphra, her fourth male, that she instantly sets about finding a replacement. Although she sets strict criteria she doesn’t think can be met, Rama fits the bill and joins her and Tani, her nine-year-old female. They spar at first, but quickly settle into life together. As always, there are various mishaps involving mischievous cats and eccentric locals (I have a really low tolerance for accounts of folksy neighbours’ doings). The most persistent problem is Rama’s new habit of spraying.
Towards the end, Tani succumbs to a virus while Rama recovers … and guess what, Tovey immediately gets a replacement. In fact, the last lines of the book are “If anyone reading this book has lost a beloved cat and is grieving, I would urge them to get another. I am sure they were put into this world for our admiration—and I think that they think that way too.” I’m probably done with Tovey; Cats in the Belfry and Cats in May were terrific, but it’s been diminishing returns ever since and I’ve ended up skimming most of the last few I tried. 
I also recently enjoyed these two picture books, one about a cat’s mercurial day-and-night moods and the other about an indoor cat who doesn’t realize how good he has it. (Also pictured in the left-hand photograph above.)
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
What a sweetheart, that Alfie–and 15! I do miss a cat. My 90-lb. dog tries to sit in my lap while I read, but it’s not quite the same thing. If your cat reading and your holiday reading ever collide, I have a wonderful, old, children’s book to recommend: The Christmas Cat by Efner Tudor Holmes. Maybe I’ve recommended it before? Hope not.
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Ha ha! What kind of dog do you have?
I think you did mention that this past Christmas. I would love to find it someday.
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A Chesapeake Bay Retriever–very on-brand for Maryland and very affectionate.
Ugh, I should make notes of these things!
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Thank you for joining in and reviewing all new to me books 🙂 I love the sound of both The Cats We Meet Along the Way and A Cat in the Window, both books I will be looking out for (how lucky and wonderful that Monty was able to adjust in such different environments). Re the Tovey, while I do like the idea of her describing life with the cats, I find it hard to ‘replace’ pets; in fact the ones who’ve come into my life after I lost some pets are ones who made their way into my life rather than me looking for them if that makes sense. So may be that part won’t be as easy to digest!
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Forgot to say, both the picture books looks very cute–especially Cat Jekyll and Puss Hyde 😀
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I’m glad I could introduce you to a few books that take your fancy.
I feel like it would be sensible and seemly to have a mourning period, much like you would for a spouse before remarrying.
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Yes, something like a period of mourning would be necessary, and would help one come to terms with the loss too rather than simply covering it up by bringing in someone new.
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I read lots of Doreen Tovey books when I was at school – mainly because I found them in our local library. I absolutely loved them, and ever afterwards wanted a Siamese cat. Finally got 2 sisters about 18 years ago – the second died last year, and I got a new one – a boy – though he is, at the moment, living with my daughter (she needed the company!)
i hadn’t even heard of the Tovey book you mention. I can imagine that they do get a bit tedious in the end, but I have happy memories of her Cats in the Belfry, The New Boy, etc, and also of her pre-cat book, whose title escapes me, about her life with Aunt Louisa. I think it also featured donkeys.
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Tovey’s books certainly are easy and pleasant reading. Raining Cats and Donkeys was the first I read, but not among my favourites, so I’m glad I tried again with her. Aunt Louisa does turn up in this one, too.
I’ve seen photos of your Siamese on Twitter — gorgeous!
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There are lots of fun picture books about cats (and some not so fun, but helpful, ones about pet loss!. Jory John is a favorite picture book writer here at my branch. Alfie looks like a marvelous companion! And what cat isn’t simultaneously the best and the most annoying, ha ha!
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Another of my favorites is Six-Dinner Sid. Have you ever come across it? There’s a final book in that Mog series from the right-hand photo above about Mog’s death 😦
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We have one copy of Six Dinner Sid in the system so I’ll try to get it. I haven’t seen it before!
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What a lovely and quite varied selection, Beck! Mog was a favourite, but the others are new to me.
On and off over half a century we’ve had cats – at least half a dozen or so – but having had the distressing experience of having three of them put to sleep at the vets for medical reasons I don’t think we could put ourselves through that again. But they’ve all been characters and company in their own individual ways. Books about cats aren’t quite a substitute but certainly provide memories of what they meant to us.
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I’ve read a few from the Mog series and we gave our goddaughter an omnibus edition.
Yes, we’re dreading the inevitable day when we will have to say goodbye to Alfie. He’s our first pet together (my husband’s first full stop) and has lived with us for nine years. Although he has early-stage kidney disease, his health has been holding steady and, apart from being overweight, he is generally well. Selfishly, I hope he might go in his own time so we don’t have to make that decision. I still think about the day we put my childhood dog to sleep.
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Good reviews. I sadly tossed one of my choices (it may appeal at another time), but did review two little cat books yesterday. I love this challenge and hope it becomes an annual.
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Thanks! I’d also love the excuse to read more cat books each year.
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I loved the Tovey and Tangye books when I was an early teen and we did have a Siamese which I think might have been inspired by Tovey (he was a nightmare as very much my mum’s cat so would wail for her when she was out). I don’t read cat books as I get too distraught at the end, especially after the trauma of losing our ginger and white boy in 2019 to a difficult illness. Oh and my husband could not bear to be without a cat so we got the current imcumbents too soon which is, as you say, not a good idea, although I have a friend who gets a new dog immediately she loses one and is comforted by that, so …
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My husband and I keep saying that we should get more cats soon so we don’t ever have an ‘interregnum’, but Alfie wouldn’t like sharing!
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[…] A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye – Tangye wasn’t a cat fan to start with, but Monty won him over. He lived with newlyweds Derek and Jeannie first in the London suburb of Mortlake, then on their flower farm in Cornwall. When they moved to Minack, there was a sense of giving Monty his freedom and taking joy in watching him live his best life. They were evacuated to St Albans and briefly lived with Jeannie’s parents and Scottie dog, who became Monty’s nemesis. Monty survived into his 16th year, happily tolerating a few resident birds. Tangye writes warmly and humorously about Monty’s ways and his own development into a man who is at a cat’s mercy. This was really the perfect chronicle of life with a cat, from adoption through farewell. Simon thought so, too. […]
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[…] has run the past two Junes) or whether it will hurt too much. A couple of years ago I decided that A Cat in the Window by Derek Tangye was the perfect chronicle of life with a cat. Maybe I’ll pick it up to reread and […]
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