I had absolutely no expectations when A Year of Cats and Dogs arrived on my doorstep, I'm not sure whether that was a good thing or not.
I'll readily admit that as I chugged through the first few chapters I found myself disliking Maryanne. I found her sad-sack personality a bit off-putting - though that's one of my own character flaws, as I feel this way whether the person in question be on the page or moping before me. I was starting to get worried that this book would forever be a glimpse into the uneventful life of a deflated balloon of a woman, when it turned into something more. Maryanne seemed to develop more facets that I had come to expect and the story moved along nicely.


I'd have to agree that this is the anti midlife-crisis story of a woman who seems to be in the middle of a very difficult year. And while it isn't a life-altering novel, it is a nice little slice of life and a good read to boot. ( )

The format to this book is not something i would normally read, and that made it a little harder to get through. But all in all this was a great book and i would probably read it again to get a better grip on this book.

I very quickly connected with Maryanne, the main character who tells her story first person, memoir style. She brought a knowing smile to my face as she related how she just passed through a major transition in her life and then chose to go through another. What she discovers about herself and her immediate world reminded me to accept and believe. The book isn't all lesson, however. In large part, it is simply enjoyable with language that paints word pictures I'm still holding in my mind, having laid the book to rest around 1:00 this morning.

The author uses a few devices to advance the book and add layers of understanding, the two most notable being those I mentioned earlier – animals and the I Ching. While the I Ching does show up in the text, it is mostly found as the chapter titles, corresponding to each of the 64 hexagrams in the Chinese divination system. The I Ching is also known as the Book of Changes, an apt parallel to the year Maryanne shares with readers. Her relationship with her cat Clement and several dogs, especially Bob, Gregoire and Harvey are key to the self-discovery Maryanne experiences as well as much of the action in the book.

I read A Year of Cats and Dogs over about five or six sessions, mostly as my evening relaxation reading. I'm not a particularly fast reader, with fiction especially, so you may find it faster for you. I find that I like to re-read a section or pause to take in the images or feelings of what I've read. As with all fiction (that I like), I had to force myself to call a break for sleep after an hour or so. I could have easily stayed up in to the wee hours reading it from cover to cover.

While I'm neither a voracious fiction reader nor particularly critical of literary conventions, I do want are books that offer glimpses into the human condition through character studies, relationships and symbolism. A Year of Cats and Dogs met my reading requirements nicely. ( )

I really, really enjoyed this book. I read it over the course of an afternoon. It is a quick and easy read, yet it really moved me with its details of relationships between people and their animals. It is not sappy (think Marley and Me), but tells it like it is, which to me is so much more meaningful. It is also laugh-out-loud funny in some parts, yet other parts made me cry. All in all, a great read. I'm looking forward to the author's next novel! ( )

When I left my job five years ago, feeling like the walls were closing in on me, I immediately started taking classes toward a nursing degree. Basically I segued from one unhappy situation to a highly stressful situation and nearly had a mental breakdown. In A Year of Cats and Dogs, Maryanne leaves her rather dreary day job with every intention of living off her savings and doing “nothing” for a while. She’s 49-years-old and recently divorced, which has proved rather stressful of late, and she feels that she deserves this sort of break from reality and routine. She figures she’ll be happier on her own timeclock. Maryanne approaches her life in a very Zen way. Things are going to happen and she cannot change the outcome but she can make everything more bearable, more enjoyable, and more entertaining in some manner. She finds that animals can communicate with her through telepathy [she’s basically an “animal whisperer”]. This special talent leads to a job at the animal shelter and a romance with the veterinarian. Maryann also finds out that her father, who she cooks dinner for every week, has late-stage prostate cancer. Though she is surrounded by death, Maryann finds hopefulness in her own life. A Year of Cats and Dogs reads like a memoir instead of a novel as debut author Margaret Hawkins uses coin throws from the Chinese book of changes, I Ching, as headers for each chapter and intersperses comforting recipes throughout the book. A Year of Cats and Dogs is a quirky, engaging story about resilience, empathy and love. ( )