As a reminder, I am reviewing one book each day until Christmas, in no particular order.
Each choice is special in its own way. All would make great gifts for your cat addicted book lovers. Or your book addicted cat lovers.
Why cat books? Several reasons, really. I adore cats. Cats appear in most of my fiction. And I enjoy promoting cat books for the holidays, because I frequently give or get them as gifts myself. And finally, so many people have a cat, that cat themed gifts are an industry. You can’t go wrong.
Today I am reviewing “How to Tell if Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You” by The Oatmeal.
Yesterday we had a helping of cute, sweet, zany with Curious Zelda. Today, it’s a helping of dark, yet curiously spot-on cat comics. When you’re buying for the holidays, you often need a selection that includes a little bit of everything. And there are cat lovers with many kinds of taste.
For anyone familiar with The Oatmeal drawn by Matthew Inman, you’ve probably already seen some of the comics in this New York Times Bestselling book, but (at least at the time of release) some are new and not seen on the strip previously.
In this collection, Inman examines whether our cats just might have it in for us. After all, haven’t we cat owners all wondered if our house panthers’ baser instincts might be just below the surface?
The comic series that speaks to the book’s title tells us that a lot of our cat’s behavior isn’t what we think it is. Surprise! Kneading is checking our internal organs for weakness. Digging in the cat litter is actually practice for burying bodies. Bringing you dead animals is a warning. This is all food for thought in a dark and twisted way that will appeal to your snarky side.
There’s a segment on “The Bobcats” with cats in the workplace setting, basically annoying or ignoring the humans. Bob chases the red dot on the chart in the meeting. He sleeps on the keyboard and ignores emails. He drinks sriracha and vomits figure eights all over the office – wait what? Oh, that’s right, it’s The Oatmeal. It doesn’t all make sense, but it’s definitely funny.
There’s a segment on cats versus the internet that shows you all the ways your cat can annoy and distract you while you’re working on a computer. If you have a cat and a computer, deja vu will smack you in the face. Possibly even when the cat drops down on a rope with night vision goggles. The Oatmeal is on target even when it’s wild and crazy.
This book is 132 pages with a substantial number of comics. Because it is comics, it is still a quick read, but one that you’ll enjoy revisiting from time to time. This is a great gift for cat lovers. It will appeal even more for those with a dark or snarky preference to their humor. If you or your intended gift recipient is allergic to something a little off-color or the occasional f-bomb, they might be the rare exception, but otherwise, it will work for most.
And remember the next time your cat opens wide, as the jacket reminds us, “This is not a yawn. This is your cat’s war face.”
