87 books like Homer's Odyssey

This book can be discussed with the young, the old, and everyone in-between. Anyone who’s had a relationship with an animal, be it dog, cat, horse, etc., any special pet, believes they know what the animal is thinking.

This book is in a dog’s point of view. Enzo, an amazing canine, and faithful supporter of Denny, gives the reader full insight to a day in a dog’s life. Actually, many days. From puppy to old dog, Enzo is loveable, laughable, and wise. 

This book provides range of topics explore, including how easily it is to believe that a dog told this story. Months later, my book club still talks about this book.

As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to start reading it again!

The animal is a number of racehorses. The human is a collection of owners, trainers, jockeys, and more, yielding a comprehensive look at human and animal behavior in the horse racing industry. A strong, intimate novel. I used to ride but never very well, and I’ve always wondered what a horse’s “thoughts” involved. Author Smiley gave me a feel for that as she applied her own assumptions to one horse in particular.  

The animal is a parrot who shows up suddenly, has been around, and won’t leave. The human is a thirty-year-old male who works alone in a night job with the Texas highway department and thinks he likes being a loner. A quirky, touching novel. It’s one of those books I look forward to reading again; it left me feeling so satisfied.

The animal is a wild pack of gray wolves. Also a dog. The human is a capable and complex fifty-year-old divorcee who is determined not to let politics defeat the wilderness in her state of Maine. A vibrant and educational novel. Though I live in Maine part-time, I’m an indoorsy type. Author Neily is an outdoorsy type, and she proves it with her plots, settings, and characters.

As cute as it gets! This story of a kitten and her adoption into a family and interactions with children and other animals will make any cat-lover smile. Chi is always getting into trouble, as kittens do, and her adventures are sure to lighten the mood of any reader.

This heart-melting story of an unusual-looking cat and the widower who adopts him will bring happy tears to the eyes of any animal-lover. Fukumaru is a cat who isn’t conventionally cute, and worries he’ll never be adopted. When an older gentleman takes him home, they begin a new life together, introducing love and laughter into their days. An uplifting story, but make sure to have tissues handy when reading this!

Lost Cat centres around the author’s two 13-year-old tabbies, Tibia and Fibula, named after the bones and nicknamed Tibby and Fibby. Caroline was recovering from a plane crash, healing broken bones, and sinking into depression when Tibby disappears. Hobbling on crutches and painkillers, she and her partner Wendy, the illustrator of the book, begin their frantic search flyposting their San Francisco neighbourhood, touring animal shelters and feral-cat colonies before moving on to GPS tracking and animal psychics and pet detectives. Weeks later, Tibby saunters back home with the smug confidence of Jacques Costeau after a wild adventure to parts unknown. Caroline, also an animal-rights activist, poignantly captures the deep, elusive kinship between us and our animals. Cat people will understand this obsessive behaviour in this warm, funny memoir that, along with the gorgeous full-colour pen-and-watercolour drawings, is a fantastic feel-good read.

I thought I knew a lot about cats until I realized I didn’t. I needed to get up to date with what science tells us about cats. So I recommend Cat Sense because it is the easiest read of all the books about cats that are based on good science. If you work in the veterinary, rescue, or behaviour field this is a good basic text for anybody without much time for reading. It is firmly based on what we know from science about cat welfare and behaviour. Read this and the cats in your care will benefit enormously.

A fascinating story about two unlikely comrades, who, in their own way, save each other. James Bowen, the Author, is a London street performer (a busker), who earns a living playing his guitar. He's a recovering drug addict, who struggles to stay focused and clean. Bob is a homeless Ginger Cat who James finds injured in his apartment building and takes to the vet. James spends most of cash-on-hand to get antibiotics to treat Bob's wounds, and this act of kindness and sacrifice is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. You'll come to care about them both very quickly and you'll really hope that everything turns out well for both of them. James tells his story in very blunt terms, about dealing with addiction and trying to turn his life around.

This book has everything I love: An adorable kitten (named Ketzel, “cat” in Yiddish); a gentle, loving human, Moshe Cotel; and tender, pitch-perfect illustrations. And, it’s based on a true story. It will capture your heart as it did mine.

A young composer living in a noisy city hears a forlorn kitten on the busy street. He scoops her up and takes her home so they can “make beautiful music together.” When the composer labors over creating a one-minute composition for a prestigious contest, he finally gives up in despair until he hears little Ketzel strolling on the keyboard. He jots down the notes, enters it in the contest; Ketzel Cotel receives a certificate of special mention for “Piece for Piano: Four Paws”!

Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed is a sweet tale of friendship crafted to perfection.