Rating: 
Summary: One cat that needs frequent flyer miles
Review: Being a cat lover, I've read a few books about the mischievous trouble making creatures. My personal favorite is The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren. Wren, being a writer for the New York Times, travels the world with his family, including the cat.
From Cairo, to Paris, to Beijing, there's not a place Henrietta, the cat, hasn't been. Henrietta is the most amazing cat I've ever heard of. She has very prototype catlike qualities, intelligent, resourceful, cunning, just to name a few. She's like super cat. Her qualities as I've just listed, are doubled compared to any normal cat. She even has a refined taste; she'll only eat certain kinds of fish and other meats, not like other cats that just eat whatever is in front of them.
Wren's style of writing is very interesting. He's very descriptive, and seems to know exactly what word would fit where. It seems like he's memorized the dictionary. He uses a lot of bigger words that I couldn't even figure out from context, for example the word "eschatological", which has some thing to do with death and what happens after. I've never heard of that word in my life. You definitely need to be an experienced reader to read this. I love how he describes the actions of the cat, and the cat herself. Everything he says about her is catlike and very descriptive, giving people a clear picture in their minds.
People can learn things from this book. Like how people in different countries treat cats, and their opinions and superstitions about them. One example of superstitions would be that I learned that some people in China think cat's eyes have magical features. I now know more about customs of people in different countries and their views on Americans and reporters.
One thing the Wren's had to consistently go through were baggage checks and customs every time they entered a new country. This seemed to be a problem for Henrietta. In some countries they made her visit a vet and were very suspicious about her having foreign diseases. The veterinarians at these places would poke and prod at her as if she was a stuffed animal. In other places they would love her to death and let her go through without a problem.
Wren adds a sense of humor to his book as well. I think that's one thing that made it so captivating. Knowing the behavior of cats is an important thing to have stored in the brain to understand some of the humor. If people have never owned a cat they may not understand why something would be funny. Such as in one part of the book he has the schedule of Henrietta in the morning. It talks about what a cat does in everyday life. People can't possibly understand the humor of the cat's schedule unless they've lived with a cat or an animal with the same kind of behavior.
Overall Wren did a great job on this book. I would recommend The Cat Who Covered the World to any cat lover or cat owner. I only wish more people would write books like this about their cats.
Rating:
Summary: One cat that needs frequent flyer miles
Review: Being a cat lover, I've read a few books about the mischievous trouble making creatures. My personal favorite is The Cat Who Covered the World by Christopher S. Wren. Wren, being a writer for the New York Times, travels the world with his family, including the cat.
From Cairo, to Paris, to Beijing, there's not a place Henrietta, the cat, hasn't been. Henrietta is the most amazing cat I've ever heard of. She has very prototype catlike qualities, intelligent, resourceful, cunning, just to name a few. She's like super cat. Her qualities as I've just listed, are doubled compared to any normal cat. She even has a refined taste; she'll only eat certain kinds of fish and other meats, not like other cats that just eat whatever is in front of them.
Wren's style of writing is very interesting. He's very descriptive, and seems to know exactly what word would fit where. It seems like he's memorized the dictionary. He uses a lot of bigger words that I couldn't even figure out from context, for example the word "eschatological", which has some thing to do with death and what happens after. I've never heard of that word in my life. You definitely need to be an experienced reader to read this. I love how he describes the actions of the cat, and the cat herself. Everything he says about her is catlike and very descriptive, giving people a clear picture in their minds.
People can learn things from this book. Like how people in different countries treat cats, and their opinions and superstitions about them. One example of superstitions would be that I learned that some people in China think cat's eyes have magical features. I now know more about customs of people in different countries and their views on Americans and reporters.
One thing the Wren's had to consistently go through were baggage checks and customs every time they entered a new country. This seemed to be a problem for Henrietta. In some countries they made her visit a vet and were very suspicious about her having foreign diseases. The veterinarians at these places would poke and prod at her as if she was a stuffed animal. In other places they would love her to death and let her go through without a problem.
Wren adds a sense of humor to his book as well. I think that's one thing that made it so captivating. Knowing the behavior of cats is an important thing to have stored in the brain to understand some of the humor. If people have never owned a cat they may not understand why something would be funny. Such as in one part of the book he has the schedule of Henrietta in the morning. It talks about what a cat does in everyday life. People can't possibly understand the humor of the cat's schedule unless they've lived with a cat or an animal with the same kind of behavior.
Overall Wren did a great job on this book. I would recommend The Cat Who Covered the World to any cat lover or cat owner. I only wish more people would write books like this about their cats.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant and delightful animal tale
Review: Christopher Wren, a foreign correspondent with the New York Times, was no great lover of cats when he lucked into a kitten that came to him with a bottle of scotch. Henrietta made faster friends with his wife Jaquelin, daughter Celia, and son Chris, and together they insisted she travel with them to Wren's postings in Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, and Johannesburg.Naturally there are wonderful adventures with Andrei Sakharov, diplomats, and other journalists, as well as near-death experiences and disappearances. Wren lightly describes the lore of cats in the various countries they visited, a touch of feline physiology and psychology when useful, and the more practical concerns of how to feed a kitty and procure her litter in faraway, isolated lands. This charming book is enhanced by a handful of ink and watercolor illustrations in a Chinese style by Meilo So, and would make a perfect gift for any cat lover. Unfortunately, this book is yet another victim of publisher slovenliness and neglect: I found a taxi "weaving through Rome's narrow seats" (72), "an smiling vendor" (95), "other more more obscure meanings" (143), and "...we spared the cat the seventeen-hour flight back to Beijing and by leaving her with the young schoolteacher...." (150). The text also seems confused about whether Henrietta got lost in Cairo "more than a month" (86) or "nearly a month" (88). One cannot but regard this as yet another sign of contempt on the part of the publishing world for readers, books, and the poor author, but one can do nothing about it but complain.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for cat lovers
Review: Do not give this book as a gift to a cat lover such as myself. Henrietta's first owner only had her because she never bothered to spay her female cat. Instead of responsibly finding good homes for the kittens, she placed the kittens with anyone who would look twice at an offer of a bottle of scotch (and cheap scotch, at that). Mr. Wren adopted the cat as a thoughtless and last minute Christmas gift, a common way animals end up in shelters. He goes on (and on) to explain how he tried to get rid of the cat so he'd be free to travel. I didn't get much past that, but I take it they lost the cat several times in foreign countries, and who knows what the poor thing went through. I work for a humnane society and see too many animals neglected and subjected to such misconceptions as contained in this book.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: Having recently become a cat person, I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of Henrietta's feline personality (I could relate). The book is entertaining and, despite the contentions of one reviewer, not at all the sort of book you wouldn't give a cat lover. The Wrens were so lucky to have had Henrietta in their lives (and Henrietta was lucky to have them!). The only upsetting thing was the inevitable ending (sob! sob!).
Rating: 
Summary: Hack cat hater tries to cash in
Review: How much mercenary gaul can a hack journalist cram into one thin book? There's not much evidence that Mr. Wren has ever liked cats, "Henrietta" included. True, he admits as much in the introduction (well, that makes it alright), but the few genuinely affectionate details come second hand from his children, who should be writing their own books, not his. When Mr. Wren isn't subscribing to a general I-hate-man and-beast facsimile of humor, he finds time to: 1) Complain constantly about Henrietta's upkeep
2) Begrudge her a redemptive talent for eating house rats (paying her board I guess).
3) Eat a cat (yes, a cat) at a Chinese restaurant (but he didn't tell Henrietta, *giggle*) Read carefully and you'll see that Mr. Wren really wishes he'd abandoned Henrietta or his book contract or both. Maybe someone should pay a real cat lover to write the travel/cat book he wouldn't.
Rating:
Summary: Wren did a great job but not for children
Review: I can say many things about Henriettetas crazy adventures, but let me start out by telling you a little about the book The Cat That Covered The World By Christopher Wren. In this book it fallows Christopher Wren, his wife, two children, and there New York City cat Henrietteta on an adventure covering world events in Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, Ottawa, and Johannesburg. While the family tries to cope with the change in cultures and atmosphere Henrietteta tries to cope also. In Beijing Henrietteta tries to deal with her terrible first visit to the Veterinarian. In Cairo she was living like Cleopatra down by the Nile with all those rats, but in Alaska she has to fight her way through the snow like a sled dog. I thought this book was very enjoyable and Christopher Wren made all of Henriettas antics very funny. Wren also gave very descriptive accounts of the cities in which the stories take place. There were also a few things I did not like about this book. The author used very mature words, and I constantly found myself looking in the dictionary for definitions. Some paragraphs in the book were confusing and I would strongly recommend this reading to older teenagers to adults. I wish the author would have extended the adventures because they were very entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: If its good enough for NPR...
Review: I heard about this book on NPR and HAD to go right out and buy it! Its a wonderfully uplifting story for any cat-lover. I give it 5 MEOWS, m'self.
Rating:
Summary: one of the wittiest most touching books
Review: I love this book , by Christopher Wren about his beloved cat Henreitta and their travled together as a news correspondent around the globe. It's a must read for any cat lover. It's funny in many parts, moving , touching and sad as well.
I'd recomend it to anyone. It's am enjoyable read for adult and children as well. For anyone who lvoes there feline baby very much this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: one of the wittiest most touching books
Review: I love this book , by Christopher Wren about his beloved cat Henreitta and their travled together as a news correspondent around the globe. It's a must read for any cat lover. It's funny in many parts, moving , touching and sad as well.
I'd recomend it to anyone. It's am enjoyable read for adult and children as well. For anyone who lvoes there feline baby very much this is the book for you.
|
