Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I’ve had Dewey:  The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World sitting in my house since my Borders days (may it rest in peace!); I even started it once upon a time, but I didn’t make it far enough in to commit.  (Kids.)  When my hubby found it on audio for me, however, I jumped in with both feet, and found it to be–surprise!–exactly the book it says it is.  It really is a book about a library cat in an Iowa (Iowan?) small town who touched more lives than anyone could have predicted.  (He had visitors from Rhode Island and New Hampshire–he was in a Japanese documentary about cats, for Pete’s sake!)  Dewey’s life makes for an interesting and enjoyable read that feels rather like a love song to Iowa, which I can appreciate.  (If we’re lucky, we do love our home towns.)  I was interested the whole way through, and I suspect that anyone who enjoys memoirs and/or cats will be also (it is also Vicky Myron’s memoir).  I don’t see myself rereading it, however, and I’m not sure if that’s because once you’ve read it, you’ve read it, or because my own cat experiences were so very different from anything in Dewey’s life.  (I loved my cats, but they were outdoor cats.  We didn’t take them to the vet, we didn’t buy them fancy cat food, and most of them did a bit of mousing for their keep.)  Cat lovers and memoir readers, tell me what you think!