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tifferpok88's review against another edition
Oh my word the language of this is so annoying to me. The pov of the cat sounded super cute and I was really looking forward to reading but it ended up just sounding stuffy and pretentious to me. I decided to read spoilers and call it good on this
erebus53's review against another edition
challenging
funny
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
2.0
This audiobook really got me wound up in a bad way and I have had to sit with in for a couple of days to sort out my feelings about it and cool down a bit. The result is the difference between hot mess.. and congealed lump... it's not pretty. - edit to add.. no, thinking on it? actually the writing was not overshadowed by the badness of the narration.. it actually WAS bad.
To separate the sins, I first have to say WORST. professional. narrator. EVER. I rate this reading at about a 1/5 only marginally worse than AI text to speech. It got to the point where I was stopping the book every 5-15 minutes to, figure out what she was saying and marvel at the lack of familiarity with English language words. I gave her a pass on being able to pronounce Japanese because she had already proven herself unfamiliar with Greek and English. I was concerned at the first paragraph, realising that she was going to be reading in a snooty, condescending, aristocratic/academic, feline voice for the whole book, and that she was already pronouncing words in a way that I found, displeasing... It worsened from there. Eventually I started noting down weird interpretations of words in a text file, rather than type-screaming my frustrations at the members of my online book club. I was going quite silly in the head.
Here is a quick list of words that I found really bizarre, could barely understand, or needed to stop and breathe because she seemed unfamiliar with the conventional way of saying them:
learned (adj.), Bucephalus, grandeur, obeisance, teetotallers, Canopic, funerary, propitious, ailurophobe, Hecate, hallowed, Christendom, harbinger, wan, pontiff, clergy, tortoise, pugilistic.
....hint: if the character being voiced likes to use fancy and technical words, and names from Greece, India and Japan, please hire a narrator who is familiar with them, or knows how to parrot back a word they had to look up online.
As far as the author is concerned, the decision to have the whole book as if it was written by his cat is, cute, but I feel it failed a bit in the execution because it claims to be told from the viewpoint of a cat, but is basically all about humans, and their attitudes toward cats.
A major gimmick of this book is the photographs of the cat Baba, dressed up in various theme costumes. This is lost in the audiobook, but honestly I feel like I have been spared. I have never liked pictures of cats dressed up in clothes, as it seems something done solely for the gratification of humans, and then to write from the cat's viewpoint and pretend that the cat feels proud about it seems ... not to my aesthetic. You might like this if you think that "funny pictures" of a cat in a wig and doll costume are cute. That's a market, but I am not the target audience.
I like stories of myth and legend (and have read too much Rick Riordan!) so the section on cats in Greek and Norse religion and mythology was mostly familiar ground. I couldn't see any real reason why a cat would want to use the example of Alexander the Great's horse to describe the human-centric view of history; I guess nobody ever rode a battle-cat across Asia...? The basic anthropology of the domestication of cats was interesting, as were some of the stories about ships' cats. The implicitly pro-military stories about cats in war, were icky.
Again, because the history of witchcraft is familiar to me the sad atrocities of the 1400s came as no big surprise, though I am sure they may upset some readers. The most irksome and distressing part of the book for me was the blithe description of the Colonization of America which utterly erases the existence of Indigenous and enslaved people in USA. Made me feel a little ill to be frank, and for a narrative where cats think that Nationhood and lines on maps are stupid and human contrivances, Baba the cat is expressed as someone who is very proud of the superiority of American cats. ( ew )
If you are going to write a non-fiction book in a humorously effete tone.. do your grammar good. I get that it's supposed to sound funny but to me it's just ugly when you are trying to sound posh, and it is clear you are only trying. Do away with tautologies like "ascending upward" for starters.
TL:DR just look up "Room 8" the cat. Very cute, lived AAages, and was a wonderful emotional support cat. This was the most enriching part of the book.
To separate the sins, I first have to say WORST. professional. narrator. EVER. I rate this reading at about a 1/5 only marginally worse than AI text to speech. It got to the point where I was stopping the book every 5-15 minutes to, figure out what she was saying and marvel at the lack of familiarity with English language words. I gave her a pass on being able to pronounce Japanese because she had already proven herself unfamiliar with Greek and English. I was concerned at the first paragraph, realising that she was going to be reading in a snooty, condescending, aristocratic/academic, feline voice for the whole book, and that she was already pronouncing words in a way that I found, displeasing... It worsened from there. Eventually I started noting down weird interpretations of words in a text file, rather than type-screaming my frustrations at the members of my online book club. I was going quite silly in the head.
Here is a quick list of words that I found really bizarre, could barely understand, or needed to stop and breathe because she seemed unfamiliar with the conventional way of saying them:
learned (adj.), Bucephalus, grandeur, obeisance, teetotallers, Canopic, funerary, propitious, ailurophobe, Hecate, hallowed, Christendom, harbinger, wan, pontiff, clergy, tortoise, pugilistic.
....hint: if the character being voiced likes to use fancy and technical words, and names from Greece, India and Japan, please hire a narrator who is familiar with them, or knows how to parrot back a word they had to look up online.
As far as the author is concerned, the decision to have the whole book as if it was written by his cat is, cute, but I feel it failed a bit in the execution because it claims to be told from the viewpoint of a cat, but is basically all about humans, and their attitudes toward cats.
A major gimmick of this book is the photographs of the cat Baba, dressed up in various theme costumes. This is lost in the audiobook, but honestly I feel like I have been spared. I have never liked pictures of cats dressed up in clothes, as it seems something done solely for the gratification of humans, and then to write from the cat's viewpoint and pretend that the cat feels proud about it seems ... not to my aesthetic. You might like this if you think that "funny pictures" of a cat in a wig and doll costume are cute. That's a market, but I am not the target audience.
I like stories of myth and legend (and have read too much Rick Riordan!) so the section on cats in Greek and Norse religion and mythology was mostly familiar ground. I couldn't see any real reason why a cat would want to use the example of Alexander the Great's horse to describe the human-centric view of history; I guess nobody ever rode a battle-cat across Asia...? The basic anthropology of the domestication of cats was interesting, as were some of the stories about ships' cats. The implicitly pro-military stories about cats in war, were icky.
Again, because the history of witchcraft is familiar to me the sad atrocities of the 1400s came as no big surprise, though I am sure they may upset some readers. The most irksome and distressing part of the book for me was the blithe description of the Colonization of America which utterly erases the existence of Indigenous and enslaved people in USA. Made me feel a little ill to be frank, and for a narrative where cats think that Nationhood and lines on maps are stupid and human contrivances, Baba the cat is expressed as someone who is very proud of the superiority of American cats. ( ew )
If you are going to write a non-fiction book in a humorously effete tone.. do your grammar good. I get that it's supposed to sound funny but to me it's just ugly when you are trying to sound posh, and it is clear you are only trying. Do away with tautologies like "ascending upward" for starters.
TL:DR just look up "Room 8" the cat. Very cute, lived AAages, and was a wonderful emotional support cat. This was the most enriching part of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: War and Violence
desert_side_notched's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
5.0
egat's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. Everything from the audiobook to Baba's pictures was excellent. This feline journey made me 'feline' happy and all fuzzy inside.
pinkalpaca's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
3.0
Historic But Not Comedic
If you're a cat lover, you might enjoy this book.
The book offers a fun and light-hearted exploration of the role cats have played throughout history.
Although I didn't find it particularly funny, I still found some of the facts and stories interesting.
It's not a particularly deep or informative read, but it might make for a nice diversion if you're in the mood for something lighthearted.
Overall, it's a cute and charming book that any cat enthusiast would appreciate.
3.0/5
If you're a cat lover, you might enjoy this book.
The book offers a fun and light-hearted exploration of the role cats have played throughout history.
Although I didn't find it particularly funny, I still found some of the facts and stories interesting.
It's not a particularly deep or informative read, but it might make for a nice diversion if you're in the mood for something lighthearted.
Overall, it's a cute and charming book that any cat enthusiast would appreciate.
3.0/5