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: 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: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: I never liked cats very much until my boyfriend got one. And then I was introduced to their odd idiosyncracies and bizaare habits. My boyfriend lent me this book and I really couldn't put it down. It's hard to believe that one cat could live such a fulfilling life with such adventures (and live to tell about them).
Christopher Wren is a gifted writer. A journalist by trade, he's able to give wonderful details about the exotic locations his family and their cat lived in. And it's obvious he and Henrietta shared a special bond because he was able to glean from her enough insight to bring her personality to life. Paris, Rome, Egypt and New York, friendly neighbors to distinguished ambassadors, it's all in there. If only humans can live half the life this cat did!
Rating:
Summary: Not charmed at all
Review: I'm glad I'm not the only one who was taken aback by this book. First, as a long-time cat owner, I find it hard to fathom that any feline would enjoy being shipped, time and time again, to new and frequently inhospitable locations; Henrietta would have to have been *very* unusual. And the Wrens manage to lose her in Cairo (somehow, she finds them again), then dump her off with relatives for a year when she becomes inconvenient. Another reviewer mentioned the atrocious "since I'm an investigative reporter, I forced myself to eat cat in a Chinese restaurant, and it was kind of tasty" anecdote. It's really miraculous Henrietta lived as long as she did.
Rating: 
Summary: Not particularly interesting or amusing
Review: I'm sorry, but the anecdotes in this book are not nearly as interesting or amusing as the premise would suggest. The stories are generally along the lines of "my cat sat on Andropov's lap" or "my cat ate from KGB trash cans." And more of the same. Sorry, although this sounds like such an adorable book, it does not live up to expectations.
Rating:
Summary: If only people were as smart as cats
Review: This is a wonderful book. Obviously, I have cats . . . . . or cats have me, as the case may be. My opinion is based on living with cats, which enables me to judge Wren's assessments on the basis of shared experience. Wren truly knows cats, and obviously Henrietta was able to sum up his qualities quite neatly and with a beautiful sense of humour. It reflects the inner and deeper qualities of Times reporters. Ostensibly, this book is about travels with a cat. If that sounds strange, think of John Steinbeck's Travels With Charlie after years of his writing semi-intelligible crap about the great issues of mankind in general and America in particular. Some of Steinbeck's sorriest writing came when he was trying to be most relevant, such as his World War II novel The Moon Is Down. His best writing came when he wrote as a reporter, from The Grapes of Wrath to Travels With Charlie. Wren is a great reporter, and this book reflects the habits and attitudes of people in the various countries where he was a correspondent. It's one thing to talk of Soviet bureaucracy, and South African Afrikaaner blind arrogance, or Canada's silly nationalism; but, when Wren describes such attitudes when dealing with his cat, the peccadilloes of various cultures becomes glaring in their absurdity. As a Canadian, I can attest to his experiences in taking Henrietta to Ottawa as a classic portrayal of Canadian silliness (which I have encountered at the border). When the The New York Times posted Wren to Canada, the following dialogue occurred: INSPECTOR: What are you doing in Canada ? ME: I'm covering it for The New York Times. INSPECTOR: Why can't your job be filled by a Canadian ? Touche. Wren is skilled at presenting such inanities throughout the world, often prompted by his experiences of traveling and living with his cat in various countries. The usual journalistic practice is to write dead-serious "thumb-suckers," those long introspective articles that probe, analyze and explain the inner meanings of esoteric issues. But, such articles have much greater impact when they can be explained in terms of an analogy, which is the accomplishment Wren manages superbly in this book. As Wren sums up, Henrietta was "an ordinary cat who thrived on extraordinary adventures." We all live like that. It's just that Wren is able to express it so succinctly. Sometimes we just need to look at ourselves through the eyes of a cat in order to understand. Writing such as this book is what makes The New York Times the finest newspaper in this nation. Sadly, it also illustrates a great weakness of the Times. Every day, The Wall Street Journal offers in its middle column on page 1 stories such as those in this book - - - and they invariable explain the world in far better terms than most of the "thumb-suckers" that plague so-called "serious" journalism. Hopefully, someday an editor as the Times will read Wren's book and ask, "Why can't we get our reporters to write stories like this ?" and then, it will slowly dawn that "We do have reporters like this, we just stifle their creativity." So, until "the old gray lady" learns to appreciate the superb talent of its reporters who can produce books like these . . . . . well, you'll just have to buy books like this. You won't find many that are any better in terms of explaining the human condition. It is a wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book for cat lovers...
Review: When my local bookclub picked this book for our monthly selection, I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, how much discussion can be generated by a cat book? Thankfully I am a die-hard cat fan, so at least I'll have some funny cat stories to share. The Cat Who Covered the World tells the true of story of New York Times Foreign Correspondent (and author), Christopher Wren, as he travels around the world with the family cat in tow. Not a born cat-lover, Chris took his time warming up to Henrietta. Eventually, however, she became an integral part of the family. And when Chris was dispatched to his first overseas assignment, Henrietta was sure to tag along. This book paints a sweet picture of a man just doing his job and the cat who made it bearable for 18 years. As for the book itself, it's cute. The writing is for the most part simple, but I did tend to get a bit confused when the author reminisces about certain political happenings in the countries he lived in. If you're not up on your foreign history, be forewarned! However, the story as a whole is good; the cat, Henrietta, is a very endearing and sweet character, and I see much of her in my own two cats; and the different countries discussed will allow the reader to do some armchair traveling of their own. I recommend this book as a quick weekend read, but I believe it was written solely for the cat lover. All others may not find it as endearing or sweet, or may not relate to the relationship between author and family pet.
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