This week Mallika of Literary Potpourri is hosting her annual Reading the Meow event, a celebration of cats in literature. I’m hoping to post a new review later in the week but first I thought it would be interesting to look back at some of the other cat-related books I’ve read.
I’m only listing books here that I’ve actually reviewed on my blog. I’m sure I read more before I started blogging!
The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr by ETA Hoffmann – A fascinating 19th century German classic partly written in the form of a memoir narrated by Murr, an unusually intelligent cat who has taught himself to read and write.
We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida – A Japanese novel about a clinic which prescribes not medicine but cats. Entertaining, but a bit too bizarre for me!
Thomasina by Paul Gallico – The story of a young Scottish girl and her beloved cat, Thomasina. I loved the Disney film as a child but didn’t get round to reading the book until Reading the Meow in 2024.
Jennie by Paul Gallico – Another cat-themed Gallico novel in which a boy awakens after an accident to find that he has been transformed into a white cat. I enjoyed it, but think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I’d read it at the target age!
The Cat Saw Murder by Dolores Hitchens – The first in a mystery series starring elderly spinster detective Miss Rachel Murdoch and her black cat, Samantha. All of the other books in the series have cat-related titles, although I haven’t read any more of them yet.
Gobbolino, the Witch’s Cat by Ursula Moray Williams – This lovely book from 1942 about a witch’s cat who just wants to live an ordinary life with a family who love him was one of my childhood favourites.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov – A weird and wonderful Russian classic with several unusual characters including Behemoth, the demonic black cat who is part of the devil’s entourage. I must read this book again one day!
Have you read any of these books – or any other books about cats?
She Reads Novels 
Thank you for this post, Helen. A lovely list of titles of which I’ve read The Master and Margarita, Tomcat Murr, We’ll Prescribe You a Cat and Thomasina–the last I’m revisiting with Emma for a buddy read this week!
Tomcat Murr was indeed fascinating as was Master and Margarita–so many layers to the latter that it does call for a revisit. I enjoyed We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, though I agree it did get stranger as one read on and there were things left unexplained.
Looking forward to your review later in the week!
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed some of these books as well. I can think of a few more cat books I read before I started blogging, such as The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat by Enid Blyton and Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, but I’ve only listed the ones I’ve actually reviewed.
Oh yes, the Blyton books–I used to love disappearing cat because I thought it was so creative, the way they made her vanish! Old Possum is such fun as well.
I have The Master and Margarita on my classics list and keep putting it off so thanks for the prod – weird and wonderful sounds more fun than I was expecting! Gobbolino was my daughters favourite bed time book so I’ve read that a million times!!
I remember finding The Master and Margarita very entertaining and not really what I had expected either. I definitely recommend it.
I have The Master and Margarita in the 746 and keep meaning to read it sooner rather than later!
It’s a great book – I hope you can get round to it soon!
I love cats and serve two, Phoebe and Ra. Of these, I’ve only read Gobbolino, and that was to my class of 6-year-olds when I was teaching. I have to say, I found Gobbolino a bit whingey, but the children loved it. My all time favourite cat books, though, are the Carbonel ones by Barbara Sleigh. Carbonel is King of Cats (with an attitude to match), but he’s been put under a witch’s spell, and his human friends, John and Rosemary, are trying to free him. If they hold the witch’s broom (one of the things they have to collect in order to break the spell), they can hear him talk, and Carbonel has plenty of opinions to offer! Fun, adventure, a great plot and good ideas, I loved it, and when, aged 8, I was allowed to have my own black kitten, I called him Carbonel (though unfortunately, unlike his namesake, he proved to have had a complete personality bypass!). Best of all, I read them to my son when he was 7 or 8,and he loved them too.
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Gobbolino does whinge, I suppose, but I didn’t really notice that as a child! I don’t think I’ve ever come across the Carbonel books, which is a shame as they sound like exactly the sort of books I would have loved. It’s good that you were able to share them with your son.
Such interesting titles! I love The Master and Margarita, and the antics of Behemoth and Koroviev are my favourite!!
Yes, it’s a great book! I need to find time to re-read it.
I’ve only read We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, which I did enjoy. I have Thomasina on my TBR list because of your review of that book, and now I’ll be adding The Cat Saw Murder because I do love those classic mysteries. Fun post! 😀
I think you would enjoy The Cat Saw Murder. I need to look for the next book in that series!
Gallico seems to have had a thing for cats. In addition to the two you mentioned, I vaguely remember reading one about a cat that is left behind when it’s owners move. I don’t think it was Jenny.
I think he did write some other books about cats that I haven’t read yet.
So many tempting titles – the Bulgakov, particularly – along with the one or two titles I happen to have read! And naturally I enjoyed your review of the Ursula Moray Williams book. 🙂
The Bulgakov is excellent – it’s definitely a book I would like to revisit so I can pick up on some of the details I know I missed the first time.
I dont think ive heard of the Disney film Thomasina 🤔 I think I could enjoy The Cat Saw Murder and I’ve been curious about The Master And The Margarita since I saw it on a book list.
I recently loved Agnes Aubert’s and thought The Last House On Needless Street, which had a cat’s POV in it, was very cleverly done, although I did struggle with that particular story. Besides that I know I had a book about a rescue cat as a child and I always loved Tom Kitten 😂
The full title of the film is The Three Lives of Thomasina and I loved it when I was a child, but hardly anyone else seems to have seen it, which is a shame. The Master and Margarita is really good – I hadn’t expected a Russian classic to be so entertaining. I would like to read it again one day.
I remember seeing your review of Agnes Aubert. It does sound great!
I can definitely recommend:
Four Seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley
The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
Later in the year I’m ‘planning’ to read:
Falling Felines & Fundamental Physics by Gregory J Gbur
The Cat in Magic by M Oldfield Howey
The Cat in Ancient Egypt by Jaromir Malek
The Age of Cats – From the Savannah to Your Sofa by Jonathan B Losos
Thanks for all those suggestions! I’m definitely interested in reading the Japanese books. I’ll have to investigate the others, which all sound fascinating – I hope you enjoy them.
I read The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa last year and I have The Goodbye Cat by the same author that I hope to read soon! 😺
I hope you enjoy The Goodbye Cat. I would like to read both of those books as well!