Cat Women: Female Writers on Their Feline Friends

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 300 pages
• Published by: Seal Press March 21, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1580052037
• ASIN: B00127QAKY
• Book Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
McMorris (Women's Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives) collects 29 well-crafted and enjoyable short essays that often focus on how the writer's cat (or cats) has affected her love life—both for better and worse. Kristen Kemp relates how she collected cats to get the affection her boyfriend wasn't giving her. Editor McMorris describes how, after a rough start, when her six-year-old tabby peed on her boyfriend's clothes, he gradually learned to enjoy the cat. A sadder story is told by Susan Schulz Wuornos, evoking the death of her pet just one week before her wedding. The majority of the selections emphasize the individuality and independence of cats, who make certain that their owners know precisely what they want. Erin Torneo stresses that felines are not people pleasers: "They will not plunge into a relationship without careful consideration," And they always have an escape route, lessons she applied to her own relationships. This collection will appeal to all those (especially women) already seduced by the enigmatic feline. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist
Why do dog people never feel compelled to explain their companions but cat people are often apologetic? McMorris (Women's Best Friend: Women Writers on the Dogs in Their Lives, 2006) vowed to get to the bottom of this quandary and encouraged her female-writers-with-cats friends to include the ambivalence of admitting how much their cats mean to them when they submitted their essays. Although each I-love-cats persona may be subtle, it is there: Jenna Schnuer's cat, Maynard, may be presented in a macho homage to a macho cat, but when he sleeps cute his owner just has to mention it. Jennifer Jalalat's Dulcinea teaches her to love what you've got in the physical department and to see that everyone is a sexy beast; Barrie Gillies' Fat Annie proves that we can all squish together and therefore make happiness. A little cat, hit by a car, saved a long-term friendship for Melinda J. Combs. Cats, in all their colors and personalities, affect each author differently, and each short piece reveals another side of the woman-feline bond. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Cat Women: Female Writers on Their Feline Friends (Paperback) In fairness, I want to say that many of the essays in this book are five-star essays by excellent writers, and they actually seem to fit in the collection. Before getting this book, I read the title, the subtitle "female writers on their feline friends"), and the back cover. I was prepared to have my heart warmed and broken by fellow cat lovers who could poignantly express this love. I was not prepared to find in this book essays by people who might be decent writers but who dislike or are indifferent to cats. I'm struggling to understand this editorial decision, considering the subtitle and what I assume is the intended audience (am I taking too big a leap to think it would be cat lovers?)--not to even mention the puzzling inclusion of an essay about a stuffed animal cat. Perhaps this could have been split into two volumes--one with the current title and the other with something like "Cats. Ugh." I don't know where the stuffed animal story should go, though. :-) There was the writer (who in the acknowledgements section the author names as one she "personally begged" to contribute!) whose neglect resulted in her cat losing her ears to frostbite (an incident about which she said this not-exactly-a-cat-woman quote: "A few beers with the right crowd and, okay, Tink's special-needs ears are good for some laughs"), the one who "sorta" wanted her cat to die, the ones that gave away their cats for reasons of convenience, the indifferent-to-cats person who wrote about a friend who took in someone's cat and wanted to give it away (a very mysterious inclusion, as the essay seemed to have nothing to do with the cat in question), the woman who dislikes cats but did trap-neuter-replace (which was a humane choice, but again, why is this essay in this book?!), and a continued parade of indifferent "not a cat person" writers who were not converted at any point--and who I'm sure are wonderful people nonetheless, but isn't that category of humankind the opposite of cat women, the title of the book? This feels like bait and switch to me, and I regret spending time and money on the book. Still, I write this with apologies for the low rating; many of the authors wrote beautiful essays that fit the book's title. Comments (2) | Permalink | (Report this)