Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

When I finished Dewey:  The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World last month, the afterward mentioned Dewey’s Nine Lives:  The Legacy of the Small-Town Library Cat Who Inspired Millions.  I found myself interested enough to pin it, mostly because the original book was also Vicki Myron’s memoir, and the afterward made it clear that the follow-up would carry her through Dewey’s loss and fully into her (happy) next stage of life.  When I mentioned this to my friend Britt, she responded with ‘oh, I think I’ve got an ARC of that somewhere;’ we uncovered it shortly afterwards, and since I’d read Dewey recently and was interested, it came home with me.  I finished listening to the audio tonight–because finding on audio books that are taking me forever to get to is helping me sort through my TBR piles–and while I enjoyed it (not passionately, but in a calm sort of way) and I was interested all the way through, I’m passing the hard copy on to my sister.  It was nice–it kept me going on the elliptical and entertained me while I was folding laundry–but I don’t see myself rereading it, you know?  Fans of Dewey will likely enjoy Dewey’s Nine Lives, but it’s more of a cat book and less of a memoir (even if it ends with Vicki in a long term relationship).  Its collection of cat-and-owner stories are touching, you understand, but rather than a true collection of cat tales (so to speak–groan if you want to!), it feels more like Myron’s response to her Dewey fan mail.  It answers questions about what happened next with her; it shares reader experiences that she most connected with.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, you understand, but it lacks the (fairly) cohesive “story of a small town and its library cat” plot of the original.

Bottom line?  This is an enjoyable read, but you do have to really care about cats–and be at least somewhat interested in Vicki Myron’s life.  If that describes you, go for it.  If you didn’t care much about Dewey–OR if that’s not what you enjoyed about it–than I’d probably pass.