The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots by Beatrix Potter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The title kitty isn't the bland pet her woman thinks. This cat has worked out a scheme with a friend that allows her to get out whenever she likes, in order to get into trouble. Trouble being a gun and a rather smart tweed hunting suit.
I was prepared to find the art jarring, because Blake isn't particularly similar to Potter, but it worked beautifully. Successful find on all counts. I wish there would be more.
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Monday, January 22, 2024
Review: The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
Review: Ghost Cat
Ghost Cat by Kevan Atteberry
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Using books to raise topics with children has never especially appealed to me, but for those who do want an entree into a conversation about death and grief, this would be a good one. It is a warm and quiet book, not at all creepy. Sweet, really, about missing someone, feeling as if they're still right there, and eventually, letting go and letting someone new in.
Lovely, even if you've never had the bittersweet pleasure of being haunted by your own beloved cat.
Library copy
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Friday, January 05, 2024
Review: Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Whenever one studies people with behavior at the extreme end of the bell curve, one finds qualities present in most of us. That's my theory. It might not be original. As tool-using apes, there is a definite social utility to be found in collecting stuff and finding new uses for it. This book is mostly about the horrific toll for individuals afflicted with hoarding, and their families and friends. Some of the insights were fascinating: the way people afflicted with hoarding see connections between stuff and people, the way the see utility where I would only see trash, the rich stories associated with every thing.
Weirdly, the section that most frightened me was the one on animal hoarding. These well-meaning folks set out to rescue animals (usually cats) from a dreadful fate (euthanasia at over-crowded shelters). When they invariably become overwhelmed by the necessary care and costs for the animals, they are blind to the neglect, even as they seek to rescue more, even those who may not be strays or neglected at all. And why? They feel a special connection, that they, above other humans, really understand and relate to the cats. I've thought that, because the cats always like me best. And strays (or near strays) can be so sweet, and so appreciative, and it would be lovely to have a cat curl up with me every time I sat down....This chapter in particular gave me a very strong sense of disaster narrowly averted.
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Monday, January 01, 2024
Review: The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism
The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism by Jen Gunter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jen Gunter on Twitter is my hero!
Her books are excellent and I agree with what Ayelet Waldman said of The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina—Separating the Myth from the Medicine: you need to read this book "if you have a vagina or spend any time at all in reasonably close proximity to one."
I wish I had this book in my early 40s so I could be forwarned about what to expect, know how to discuss symptoms with my doctor, and know how to deal with the transitional chaos and the flooding. I really wish I had known about the flooding ahead of time. Warning: surfing the crimson tide is one thing, but after years of the same waves there will come random flood tides. Be prepared: these will be super plus AND extra heavy overnight situations.
Also it's good to know someone who isn't afraid to call out bullshit on medical advice from celebrities or misogyny on the internet. Gwyneth knows what she did. Also Oprah, and Suzanne Somers. Dr. Jen has zero toleration for doctors who are ill-informed, fat-blaming, or otherwise unacceptable.
Since it wasn't written yet, I've been reading this after the fact, and it is still helpful in practical advice for dealing with my much-interrupted sleep at night, which of course I thought was just me.
And the science geek in me really loves that, when applicable, she includes racial and ethnic breakdowns of the studies, as well as including disparities in outcomes by demographics.
Read this and be well.
Somers spelling corrected 30Apr2922
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