Book Review | Book Chatter

I just finished Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched The World by Vicki Myron. Amy, from My Friend Amy sent this book to me as one of the giveaways for Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Thank you Amy!

On a cold night in Spencer, Iowa, Vicki Myron hears a noise coming from the book-drop of the Spencer Public Library. With the assistance of another librarian, they pull out a near frozen kitten…weak and completely matted with dirt. It’s at that moment that Vicki realizes that things at the library will never be the same.

It doesn’t matter if you are a cat lover, or a dog lover, this book is charming and sweet and any animal lover will be able to relate to Myron’s story about a cat that managed to work his way into the hearts of library patrons everywhere.

Much of the story is about Dewey’s antics and his relationship with the staff and patrons of the library but what I really enjoyed were the little tidbits Myron shared about the town, the economy, what it was like to live in a “corn” state, etc. I really got a feel for the town and the people that lived there.

Also, my feline friend of 17 years passed away this past Valentine’s Day so I could certainly relate to the bond Myron had with Dewey. Anyone that has had both a cat and a dog at once can tell you how different cats are. They are just… stumbling for a word here…different. They are self-sufficient but often choose not to be.

Anyway… this book would make a wonderful Christmas gift. It gave me the warm fuzzies. It was also on my Fall Into Reading 2008 list so I am happy to cross another book off that list. Progress. Yes!

If you’d like to read more about Dewey’s life, click here for his bio.

I first saw In The Woods, by Tana French while on vacation in Denver. I was in the Tattered Cover Bookstore and it was sitting on the bestseller shelf and it immediately caught my eye. BUT, and there is always a but, I was on vacation and did not want a heavy read. So I added it to my TBR list for another day.

After reading Jill’s review, I decided I had to read it and she was nice enough to send it to me! Thank you Jill! In case you were wondering, Jill did not like the book but her comments intrigued me enough to want to read it for myself.

There are two stories here. One centers around the murder of a 12 year old girl, the other centers around an earlier incident where three children went missing, with only one child being found. The child that was found, Adam Ryan who now goes by Robert Ryan, goes on to become a murder detective and has been assigned to the case of the 12 year old girl.Rob Ryan and his partner Cassie Maddox work the case and come to the conclusion that the two cases may be related.

As the case unfolds we learn more about the two friends that never returned and the bond that Adam(Rob) had with them. As you can imagine, any possible relationship between the two cases would naturally force Rob off of his current case, so he and his partner keep it from their superior. This is easy to do for awhile since no one on the force knows of his involvement with the first case except for his partner, Cassie.

I was touched by this book. French does an excellent job of describing what it’s like to be kid. Poor Rob(Adam), besides knowing that there could be a connection between the two cases, really cannot remember anything about what happened to him or his friends. This is something he lives with daily. He holds the key to the mystery yet he is not capable of providing the answers.

Cassie understands this and knows how to be around him…when to step in, when to take a step back. Their relationship can be compared to that of a married couple. Innocent bickering, completing one another’s sentences, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed them and found their friendship to be charming. When a third detective by the name of Sam is added to the investigation, he steps right into the investigation without batting an eye. I don’t know if French intended it but the threesome reminded me very much of the Adam and his two friends that disappeared. I was touched by this.

I won’t go into how the book ended for obvious reasons but if you enjoy a character driven plot and don’t mind a lot of descriptive details, you will enjoy In The Woods as much as I did. I think anyone reading it can relate to summers of years past where friends were everything to you and all you had to do was play and have a good time.

Tana French has a follow up to this book titled The Likeness. It features some of the characters from In The Woods. My copy of In The Woods had the first chapter of The Likeness in it and I have to say, it held my attention. If you want to read more about The Likeness, check out this review posted by Trish over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’?

Chatting with friends about books and life…