Great title, great author, great book.

I loved, loved, LOVED Stacy Horn's Waiting for My Cats to Die: A Morbid Memoir.

Of course, with a title like that (much like Anneli Rufus's Party of One: A Loner's Manifesto) you knew I was going to love it. But why should you read this book? Well, if you think you might have anything in common with a woman in her early forties who's looking for love, struggles with work and the parts of her job she can't stand, and who cares desperately for not one, but two cats who have diabetes and require some intricate cat care regimes, you might, like me, find that you feel quite close to Stacy Horn.

For the most part, it's a straightforward memoir, with chapters with recurring titles like "Cats," "Romance," "Work," "Death," etc. For a woman in her early forties, Horn seems to think about death a lot, but that's only natural considering her areas of interest (more on this later); the poor thing also spends a lot of time caring for her beloved cats Veets and Beamers (as her vet says, "Ladies and gentlemen, guard your cats! Any cat that comes near that woman gets diabetes!"), and running the social networking website that she started way before such things were cool (called Echo, at echonyc.com, it's a place where New York City residents can chat). She even periodically includes interviews that she does with older people, with such questions as "What are the main differences between the young you and the you now?" (which is a great question). She also includes thoughts about her friends and romances and how the two sometimes just don't work:

"Joe and I keep waiting for our friendship to turn into a When Harry Met Sally thing. We have this level of comfort with each other. When I was obsessing about my stomach, for instance, we compared fat rolls. Does it get any better than this? Feeling unself-conscious enough around someone to compare fat rolls?Joe and I can't help thinking things would be even better if we could somehow move into the more-than-friends category. We're so close...In the future people may marry for friendship. Maybe Joe is simply ahead of his time. There is, I have to say, something exquisitely cmforting about Joe's knowing when my TV holes are. TV holes are the times when there's nothing good on and it's safe to call. Is this enough to make a marriage?" (pp. 71-72.)

Oh, I love her. I actually fell into this memoir ass-backwards; Horn is the author of the spectacular nonfiction books The Restless Sleep: Inside New York City's Cold Case Squad (one of the best True Crime books ever) and Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena, from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory; after reading those books, I finally figured out that I should probably see if she'd written anything else, and up popped this book. Do read it. For a morbid memoir, it's a lot of fun.

Comments

[Venta]

I LOVE the phrase "tv hole." Before tivo, when my husband was away on business, he would call me and leave a message, "I know you're watching Law & Order, but I wanted to call and say 'hi.'" This sounds like a gem.

[Citizen Reader]

Oh, Venta, it's just lovely. Particularly if you like cats. :)
And yes, "tv hole." And someone knowing your "tv holes." Truly the stuff great romances are made of.

[Jessica]

Okay, and this is even weirder. My mom called on this date to tell me she had my cat put down.

[Citizen Reader]

Oh, Jessica,
I'm so sorry. On this date, right, not actually TODAY? I hope not.
Sorry about your kitty.

I don't know if you'll like this one (I always hesitate to say with you, knowing our dance of hating the same books but not really loving the same ones) but she does do a lovely job of describing her love for her cats, complete with her fantasy of how she thought the end might come for her kitties, and how it really went. All cat owners will relate, I think.

[Teresa]

Wow. This sounds like a book I simply must read. I'm a single woman who used to have a cat who needed daily fluid injections for renal failure. (Current cat is just an amputee, which is much, much easier to cope with.) And then the talk of a When Harry Met Sally moment. I sooo get that. (And I also loved Party of One.)

[Citizen Reader]

Teresa,
It's a really interesting book, and if you've ever given an injection to a cat, I think you and Ms. Horn will have a lot in common. (I'm very glad I've never had to, and hope I don't have to.) I must say it was one of the more amusing morbid and midlife memoirs I've read.

And, gosh, you loved "Party of One" too? Have you read any other books by Anneli Rufus? No one ever knows who I'm talking about when I mention her books so I'm just tickled you've read her!