Do we have a book to recommend for all you cat people, or what? We just finished reading Review of My Cat, by Tanner Ringerud and Jack Shepherd, and we're still laughing. But why is it sophisticated? Because it presents an intimate portrait of the human-cat relationship, one cat and owner at a time. And witty it is when humans explain (in great detail) why their feline is bad, ugly or just plain useless. We also think it's quite cool that both authors write for that hip site, Buzzfeed, the one-stop Internet news (and everything else interesting) source with the tantalizing headlines. No wonder we think Review of My Cat is a must read, even for those poor souls who don't live with a cat!
Note: We were fortunate to receive an advance copy of this book from the publishers for review, and they will also provide a copy to our one lucky reader. Details to enter to win a copy of Review of My Cat provided at the end of this post.
Review Of My Cat is kind of a "tell all": An emotional release for all you cat owners (and those who are owned by cats) to tell the world how you really feel about that feline who shares your space. The idea for the book, as told to us during our conversation with co-author, Jack Shepherd, came to him after seeing the very first "cat review" on a blog written by Eric Karjala. Shepherd soon put out a call for cat reviews on Tumblr, and cat owners obliged by the hundreds—in a little over a year the book was born. According to Shepherd, "Dog people have a dog park, so the Internet is the virtual dog park for cat people." And the Internet seems to favor cats over dogs—"they've become the default currency of the Internet," says Shepherd. His theory as to why: "Dogs try too hard, [but cats] have an effortless charm." Think about it.
Our Bella's "effortless charm": As soon as I had camera in hand and book appropriately staged, she disappeared from her comfortable spot.
The book categorizes the reviews into, "The Good", "The Bad", "The Really Bad", "The Ugly" and "The Useless", because as all cat owners know, even the most angelic feline has a dark side: Agatha, for example, "Loves to meet new people...and touch their food," while Mindy would receive a "negative usefulness rating," from her owner, if that were possible. "Her presence in the household is actually counter-productive," her owner says, yet she still receives an overall, and apparently generous "B-" rating, falling into the highest category: "The Good". Go figure.
Not only can you have endless fun with these cat-human vignettes (reading them aloud to friends in particularly hilarious), you can give your cat a grade by entering your review on Review of My Cat.com. I wonder if they have any reviews of cats written by dogs...hmmm?
Now here's your chance to win your very own copy of "Review of My Cat"...
Here are the requirements to enter: No anonymous comments, please!
1. "Like" our Facebook page: See top of right sidebar or click here: www.facebook.com/pages/Boccis-Beefs/190090017696328?ref=stream
2. Follow Bocci's Beefs on Google Friends Connect on right sidebar, right under "Join the Fun"!
3. You must give this giveaway a shout-out on your Twitter or Facebook page by using the buttons below this post-easy! Please Note: "Liking" the Link on Facebook is not enough, you must give our link a shout-out to your followers. Help us spread the word to a new audience!
4. Comment on this post and indicate in your ONE comment that you'd like to enter this giveaway. Please leave only ONE comment—you will not get more opportunities to win for any comments beyond one. Thanks!
This contest will run from today, Friday November 29, 2013 through Monday December 9, 2013 at 8:00 EST.