Scan barcode
nailahreema's review against another edition
2.0
I started off reading the physical copy of this book but was struggling with it. BBC Sounds have an abridged version of it so I switched to that. I am wondering if the abridged version drastically changes the story.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett writes in a diary like way, which I appreciated but the content didn't grab me. She had a lot of worries and anxieties which intensified during the lock down period. She decided to channel her desire to be a mother into caring for a kitten. I don't think it's the same thing but whatever floats your boat.
I did like some of the topics she touched upon such as pregnancy scares as a teen versus the desire to be pregnant as an adult, how women are expected to be grateful carers and not speak about about the burden of caring. Shitty male therapists. She spoke about the time a man strangled her on the street and how everyone else walked by. It was terrifying, and the lack of care the police showed. She spoke about Sarah Everard's murder without naming her. I think A Year of the Cat is so firmly placed in the Covid years, once you read it outside of that, the impact is lost even though the themes are applicable to all time periods.
When you don't enjoy reading/listening, you start to pick up on all the minor things that irritate you such as the editing of the abridged audio version. Usually in audiobooks, you don't hear the narrator breathe before they begin a sentence, even though everyone takes a breath before they speak. It bugged me a lot. I also didn't appreciate the austen-esque piano music to highlight the breaks in narrative. I also couldn't get over, how bored the author sounded, reading aloud her own book.
A friend read A Year of the Cat at the same time, and they loved it. They really appreciated how the narrative would jump across time periods because that's a natural form of speaking. Nobody discusses events in strict chronological order, they intersperse it with anecdotes, analyses, thoughts etc
Something they picked up on (which I didn't even think about) is the allocation of burden. Although Rhiannon and her husband agreed to get the cat, Rhiannon did most of the work. We had both read Invisble Women recently so this remains a hot topic. I felt that Rhiannon nagged her husband into getting a cat, and as the cat was mostly for her benefit, it made sense that she cared for it the most.
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend A Year of the Cat, but I can see from other reviews, people reacted to it very strongly. Mostly, I found it forgettable.
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett writes in a diary like way, which I appreciated but the content didn't grab me. She had a lot of worries and anxieties which intensified during the lock down period. She decided to channel her desire to be a mother into caring for a kitten. I don't think it's the same thing but whatever floats your boat.
I did like some of the topics she touched upon such as pregnancy scares as a teen versus the desire to be pregnant as an adult, how women are expected to be grateful carers and not speak about about the burden of caring. Shitty male therapists. She spoke about the time a man strangled her on the street and how everyone else walked by. It was terrifying, and the lack of care the police showed. She spoke about Sarah Everard's murder without naming her. I think A Year of the Cat is so firmly placed in the Covid years, once you read it outside of that, the impact is lost even though the themes are applicable to all time periods.
When you don't enjoy reading/listening, you start to pick up on all the minor things that irritate you such as the editing of the abridged audio version. Usually in audiobooks, you don't hear the narrator breathe before they begin a sentence, even though everyone takes a breath before they speak. It bugged me a lot. I also didn't appreciate the austen-esque piano music to highlight the breaks in narrative. I also couldn't get over, how bored the author sounded, reading aloud her own book.
A friend read A Year of the Cat at the same time, and they loved it. They really appreciated how the narrative would jump across time periods because that's a natural form of speaking. Nobody discusses events in strict chronological order, they intersperse it with anecdotes, analyses, thoughts etc
Something they picked up on (which I didn't even think about) is the allocation of burden. Although Rhiannon and her husband agreed to get the cat, Rhiannon did most of the work. We had both read Invisble Women recently so this remains a hot topic. I felt that Rhiannon nagged her husband into getting a cat, and as the cat was mostly for her benefit, it made sense that she cared for it the most.
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend A Year of the Cat, but I can see from other reviews, people reacted to it very strongly. Mostly, I found it forgettable.
books_and_tea_make_katy_happy's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
impla77's review against another edition
2.5
Perhaps not really for me, I felt this dragged a bit and retread ground already covered over and over again. The author seems very committed linking the 'crazy cat women' moniker to larger topics of feminism and historical misogyny, but it all seems rather trite and overwritten to me, placed throughout the book as a sort of bigger picture kind of thing.
The other part of the book, and ostenible reason for its existence, is the debate the author is having about whether to have a child. Obviously a deeply personal issue, this doesn't really connect for me at all, and I can't relate to it.
Just not a book for me overall!
The other part of the book, and ostenible reason for its existence, is the debate the author is having about whether to have a child. Obviously a deeply personal issue, this doesn't really connect for me at all, and I can't relate to it.
Just not a book for me overall!
hannahg1702's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
booksthroughmyveins's review against another edition
slow-paced
- thanks to @hachetteaus for my #gifted copy of this book
As a cat person myself, I jumped at the opportunity of what promised to be a Memoir about isolation, desire for motherhood and cats. Perhaps this is simply a matter of expectations, as it often happens with literature, but I did not find what I was looking for in this book.
Similar to Sarah Sentille's Draw Your Weapons, Cosslett shifts between her account of the first year of COVID —when restrictions were severe and isolation increased— and mainly research about a wide range of topics, from feminism to trauma. However, this style was unsuitable for what Cosslett wanted to transmit, resulting in a fragmented narrative that increased the distance between the author and the reader. The lack of conventional structure was detrimental to the overall flow and contributed to an overwhelming amount of seemingly unrelated information.
Structure and research aside, the personal paragraphs in which Cosslett explores her doubts about motherhood, mixed with the adoption of a kitten and her PTSD, did not grasp me like I hoped they would. Halfway through the book, I started feeling like I was reading someone's diary instead of a Memoir, full of unordered thoughts and diatribes. And yes, one could argue that Memoirs are deeply personal, just like a diary would be. Still, there is a clear, see-through difference between the informal and unpublished and the formal and published. Here, the formality and relevance necessary for publication were missing.
By the end, I was also deeply disappointed by the little content about cats. Cosslett focuses mainly on portraying her never-ending personal back-and-forth between wanting to pursue pregnancy or not and questioning all her life choices during the pandemic, and very little about her adopted kitten Mackerel and the significance to her life.
Overall, The Year of the Cat was not my cup of tea. A disorganised and unfocused Memoir that left me feeling displeased and disappointed, with very little of the promised content about the life-changing power of cats.
As a cat person myself, I jumped at the opportunity of what promised to be a Memoir about isolation, desire for motherhood and cats. Perhaps this is simply a matter of expectations, as it often happens with literature, but I did not find what I was looking for in this book.
Similar to Sarah Sentille's Draw Your Weapons, Cosslett shifts between her account of the first year of COVID —when restrictions were severe and isolation increased— and mainly research about a wide range of topics, from feminism to trauma. However, this style was unsuitable for what Cosslett wanted to transmit, resulting in a fragmented narrative that increased the distance between the author and the reader. The lack of conventional structure was detrimental to the overall flow and contributed to an overwhelming amount of seemingly unrelated information.
Structure and research aside, the personal paragraphs in which Cosslett explores her doubts about motherhood, mixed with the adoption of a kitten and her PTSD, did not grasp me like I hoped they would. Halfway through the book, I started feeling like I was reading someone's diary instead of a Memoir, full of unordered thoughts and diatribes. And yes, one could argue that Memoirs are deeply personal, just like a diary would be. Still, there is a clear, see-through difference between the informal and unpublished and the formal and published. Here, the formality and relevance necessary for publication were missing.
By the end, I was also deeply disappointed by the little content about cats. Cosslett focuses mainly on portraying her never-ending personal back-and-forth between wanting to pursue pregnancy or not and questioning all her life choices during the pandemic, and very little about her adopted kitten Mackerel and the significance to her life.
Overall, The Year of the Cat was not my cup of tea. A disorganised and unfocused Memoir that left me feeling displeased and disappointed, with very little of the promised content about the life-changing power of cats.
whatlacereads's review against another edition
5.0
I had no idea what to expect going in to this and it turned out to be everything I didn’t know I needed.
The breadth of topics covered in this book are astounding and yet I couldn’t get enough. It truly had everything. Discussions on motherhood, fertility, lockdown, health anxiety, disability, violence at the hands of men, ptsd, Parisian living, care work, womanhood, societal pressures, feline friendship and even witchcraft! This book literally has it all and yet not once did it feel overwhelming, it just felt right. Like these thoughts were coming from inside my own head. I think so many people are going to relate to many aspects of this book and I think that’s so special.
Not to mention the writing is incredible. Everything flows so easily, and I could of listened to Rhiannon’s voice all day long.
I can’t wait to see what this writer does next!!
(Big thanks to Netgallery for giving me access to this audiobook
The breadth of topics covered in this book are astounding and yet I couldn’t get enough. It truly had everything. Discussions on motherhood, fertility, lockdown, health anxiety, disability, violence at the hands of men, ptsd, Parisian living, care work, womanhood, societal pressures, feline friendship and even witchcraft! This book literally has it all and yet not once did it feel overwhelming, it just felt right. Like these thoughts were coming from inside my own head. I think so many people are going to relate to many aspects of this book and I think that’s so special.
Not to mention the writing is incredible. Everything flows so easily, and I could of listened to Rhiannon’s voice all day long.
I can’t wait to see what this writer does next!!
(Big thanks to Netgallery for giving me access to this audiobook
fictionalsarah's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25