Nevermore: Christmas at the Cat Cafe, The Other Mrs., That Night

 

Reported by Garry

Christmas at the Cat Café by Melissa Daley is a follow-up to Molly and the Cat Café, and picks up a few months after Debbie has settled into her café and into a cozy relationship with her boyfriend. Molly, Debbie’s cat and the narrator of the series, has a new litter of rambunctious kittens to deal with, and into this idyllic setting comes the whirlwind of Linda, Debbie’s heartbroken, shopaholic sister who is dealing with an out-of-the-blue divorce. Unfortunately for Molly, Linda comes with Beau – a yippy little dog who hates cats. Our reader was all smiles reviewing this delightful, lightweight book that is as cozy as a cat purring on your lap.  MS

                                                           

The Other Mrs. is a mystery thriller by best-selling author Mary Kubica. Sadie and Will Foust are a couple of Chicago professionals who are in need of a reset, and when they inherit Will’s sister’s home (and her creepy, violent, 16-year-old daughter), they encamp to a seemingly sleepy village on an island off the coast of Maine. Things quickly go downhill when Morgan, their next-door neighbor, is murdered, and Sadie becomes the prime suspect. Kubica brings her trademark twists and turns to this nail-biter that kept our reader’s enthusiastic attention.  AH

 

That Night by Alice McDermott. “What a magnificent piece of literature!” was the summary from our reader. This novel was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Set on Long Island in the 1950s, the story surrounds Sheryl and Rick, a teenaged couple deeply in love, and also expecting a baby. Sheryl’s mother forbids her from seeing Rick, which sets off a chain of violent events that echoes down through the lives of not only the three main characters, but their entire community.  DC

 

Didn’t We Almost Have It All: In Defense of Whitney Houston by Gerrick Kennedy is the candid, in-depth biography of one of the biggest pop stars of the last century: Whitney Houston. Too black for some, not black enough for others, too pop for some, not pop enough for others, Houston was always trying to live a life that was not her own and be the embodiment of an image that was projected onto her by those around her both personally and professionally. Kennedy peels back the layers of the forces that ultimately drove Houston to addiction and death, and argues that if she had existed in today’s society, her life-trajectory would have been considerably different. Our reader remarked not only on the meticulous research by the author, but also on his sensitive handling of the tragic life and legacy of Whitney.  KM

 

Also mentioned: 

 

Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica

On The Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton

At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott

How It Went by Wendell Berry

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

The Shining by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

The American Women’s Almanac by Deborah Felder

The Churchill Sisters by Rachel Trethewey

Remainders of the Day: A Bookshop Diary by Shaun Bythell

The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks

All the Broken Places by John Boyne

Mulch Ado About Nothing by Jill Churchill

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn

Christmas at the Cat Café by Melissa Daley

Reviewed by Jeanne

After a rough patch in life (as recounted in Molly and theCat Café), life has become sweet for Molly and her kittens.  She loves living with her human Debbie in the cat café, a novelty in the Cotswolds, and her five kittens are growing up into beautiful cats.  Even Jasper, the handsome tuxedo street cat who is the kittens’ father, has begun to come inside and enjoy the benefits of a home.

Into this picture of domestic bliss comes a storm in the form of Debbie’s sister Linda who has had a spat with her husband and decides to move in with Debbie.  Linda has brought along her dog, much to Molly’s horror, and proceeds to try to rearrange things to her liking.  She even decides to “help” at the café and brings in an aloof Siamese to draw in trade, the exotic cat being ever so much better than Molly and her kittens who are just “moggies.”

It’s not only the human family that is fracturing—there are spats and upsets in Molly’s own.  Will the families ever reconcile?

This is a lovely little holiday read with just the right amount of sweetness and frustration.  Molly is a delight, a wise little cat trying to understand the ways of humans and to look out for those she loves.  Debbie is a good person who tries to make peace with everyone:  her rather sullen teenage daughter, her shopaholic, self-centered sister, etc., at the expense of her own happiness. Debbie’s boyfriend Jim is being crowded out of her life and even the success of the café seems shabby under Linda’s scrutiny. 

The distinctly British setting is a plus for me, as is the way the book is resolved. This isn’t to say that all returns to the status quo but the ending was satisfying.

I finished the book with a happy sigh, and wished there was another to read.  I like spending time with Molly and family—both human and feline.