Title: Dewey’s Nine Lives
Author: Vicky Myron with Brett Witter
ISBN: 978-0525-95186-5
Story Length: 320 pages
Genre: Pet Stories

Description of Dewey’s Nine Lives

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World was a blockbuster bestseller and a publishing phenomenon. It has sold nearly a million copies, spawned three children’s books, and will be the basis for an upcoming movie. No doubt about it, Dewey has created a community. Dewey touched readers everywhere, who realized that no matter how difficult their lives might seem, or how ordinary their talents, they can-and should-make a positive difference to those around them. Now, Dewey is back, with even more heartwarming moments and life lessons to share.

Dewey’s Nine Lives offers nine funny, inspiring, and heartwarming stories about cats–all told from the perspective of “Dewey’s Mom,” librarian Vicki Myron. The amazing felines in this book include Dewey, of course, whose further never-before-told adventures are shared, and several others who Vicki found out about when their owners reached out to her. Vicki learned, through extensive interviews and story sharing, what made these cats special, and how they fit into Dewey’s community of perseverance and love. From a divorced mother in Alaska who saved a drowning kitten on Christmas Eve to a troubled Vietnam veteran whose heart was opened by his long relationship with a rescued cat, these Dewey-style stories will inspire readers to laugh, cry, care, and, most importantly, believe in the magic of animals to touch individual lives.

–From Amazon.com

Three Quick Points About Dewey’s Nine Lives

• Point 1: Some overlap. I purchased the first book so did expect some overlap in the recounting of Dewey’s related stories, but it’s hardly noticeable. It just gives the book an air of familiarity.
• Point 2: Immensely readable The prose style is casual, much like a friend telling you a story.
• Point 3: Surprisingly heart-rending. I expected to smile, perhaps giggle, while reading, but I never expected to cry (at least, not as much as I did).

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Back Cover of Sky Burial

As a young girl in China Xinran heard a rumour about a soldier in Tibet who had been brutally fed to the vultures in a ritural known as a sky burial: the tale frightened and fascinated her. Several decades later Xinran met Shu Wen, a Chinese woman who had spent years searching for her missing husband Kejun, after he disappeared in Tibet; her extraordinary life story would unravel the legend of the sky burial. For thirty years she was lost in the wild and alien landscape of Tibet, in the vast and silent plateaux and the magisterial mountain ranges, living with communities of nomads, moving with the seasons and struggling to survive.

In this haunting book, Xinran recreates Shu Wen’s remarkable journey in a grand story of love, loss, loyalty and survival. Moving, shocking and finally enriching, Sky Burial paints a unique portrait of a woman and a land, both at the mercy of fate and politics.

Three Quick Points About Sky Burial

• Point 1: There is a 99% chance that you will need a box of tissues nearby.
• Point 2: You will almost certainly be left wondering whether or not such profound and enduring love can even exist in our generation.
• Point 3: The story of Shu Wen will likely haunt you long after you’ve read the final sentence.

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