Reading In and Out 12/16/2025

Happy 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth!

OUT

Cat + Crazy, Vol. 2 by Wataru Nadatani - This showed up on my desk just in time for me to take it to my MRI appointment Friday afternoon. I started it in the waiting room and finished it that night after Nerd Night. This one was less bizarre. One morning all the stray cats in town have disappeared. It turns out, they were taken by a woman who wants to give them all a cushy home to live in. After some discussion, she was convinced that not all cats like being indoors. Some feel confined. Our main character has to go do an internship at a cat cafe. The cats are divided into three groups and rotated in 4 hour blocks onto the "showroom floor" where they can be played with by people. Except the cats always end up fighting with each other and they are losing business. Main character figures out that there are 3 kinds of cats and if you make sure the cats are in a group with their own kind, there's no fighting. The kinds relate to personality types. It's cute and interesting.

Plum Crazy! tales of tiger-striped cat by Natsumi Hoshino - While I was logging my Cat + Crazy book on The Storygraph website, it served me this one. I nabbed a copy at the library and read this one Saturday after dinner. This one is about a cat named Plum that lives at a traditional Japanese dance school. One day she turns up with a little bundle she dragged out of the pouring rain. It turns out to be a kitten. The people take it in and care for it and when it gets better, it begins to bite Plum randomly. It's very scary for Plum. When a bigger cat threatens Plum, the little cat jumps in and scares him off. Eventually, they become good friends. Very cute.

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-Reum - I listened to this on audio, but I feel like I really need to acquire a hard copy of this book for reference. It was very interesting. It's translated from the Korean, and she talks about a lot of Korean authors and books. Also, she has some great ideas.

IN

Kind of Kin by Rilla Askew - It looks like I might actually get this thing finished before book club Friday! I am currently 80% through it. I sent out a reminder today and it looks like we will have at least 5 comers. That's exciting.

May Contain Murder by Orlando Murrin - This is the audiobook I started after the Reading book. Our main character, Paul, is a food critic and former chef who has been invited on a Super Yacht trip with his extravagantly wealthy friend while he helps her write her memoirs. The first evening, the friend's stupid expensive necklace goes missing and the husband thinks it was Paul. Then the Irish cook gets sick and the crew ask him to cook a few meals for the ship. He is also trying to figure out who stole the necklace. I'm about 15% in now. There must be a murder coming at some point, because title.

Alrighty, that's what is currently happening in my reading life. How about yours?