The Art of Purring by David Michie

**This review is part of the Amazon Vine Program**

I've read "The Dalai Lama's Cat" and absolutely loved it. So I was very eager to read this book. And it was good. Not as good as the first, but still informative and a positive read.

Rinpoche is the Dalai Lama's cat. She has a considerable amount of freedom as she rules his household and goes to a local coffee shop to hang out with her friends there. But being his cat has some responsibilities too. She has to work at improving herself and in this book he gave her the task to study the art of purring. Just why she purrs and what happiness means in general.

Rinpoche is a cat. She narrates as a cat. But she has a pretty deep sense of the world around her. And even herself at times. So even though you know that she's a cat, she does read as a human being talking. But that's ok, this is fiction. I like the way she as a cat describes the people around her and the good and bad of them. She may not be peaceful all the time, but she has a goal of peace and happiness and that really gets to the heart of what this book is about. There wasn't much of the Dalai Lama in this one though, he was mostly just someone she referred to when musing about different things.

Most will probably immediately associate this as a book about Buddhism. And it kind of is. But not in the sense that it's crammed down your throat. It's just not that type of style. It's more life lessons, things we can do to be happier, all without being overt about saying "Hey meditate and do yoga and life will be peachy!" So I appreciated it for that. And like in the first book, there always seems to be some kind of lesson that really hits home for me and what I'm currently doing in my life. I suspect it would be the same for others because it really does cover a wide variety of topics. My only compliant would be that there was more about the side characters in this book and I thought that it took a bit of the focus away from Rinpoche and the lessons she was learning. But it's a very, very small complaint.

Such a nice book and I would continue to read more the author wrote about Rinpoche and her life with the Dalai Lama. The first two will definitely have a permanent position on my bookshelf.

The Art of Purring
Copyright 2013
208 pages

Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker and Carol Kline

Ok, admittedly after awhile these all start to run together. I mean the collection of Chicken Soup books is just humongous. But I'm a sucker for anything involving animals, so I decided to delve into this particular collection of short stories.

If you're not familiar with the Chicken Soup series, they are a bunch of books, usually themed that contain lots of short stories that are meant to be uplifting and inspirational. This particular book, for the Cat & Dog Lover's soul, is about animals. But not just cats and dogs, in a little side note in mentions other critters too, although with the extensive amount of books I'm not sure why they just didn't make this one about cats and dogs; but I digress. Some of those stories will rip your heart out, because let's face it, a lot of these stories are about losing a special animal, while others are meant to be inspiring, like those animals that rescue humans from their burning houses. The Cat Who Needed A Night Light was one of these such stories, involving a guy and his heroic cat who saved his life.

There are a wide variety of animals in here, and some really aren't even that remarkable. The majority of the stories actually seemed to deal more with people's feelings about their pets than about the animals themselves. It was about emotions running high when pets were in danger or dying or when the person themself was losing a battle, be it physical or mental. I'm more of an animal lover than a people lover, so I would have to say that I wished the stories were a little more about the pets themselves.

And so many sad tales. I sometimes wonder if the Chicken Soup authors aren't in league with the sellers of tissues, as they seem to make you want to cry in every book. There's always someone or something dying and it gets a little depressing after awhile. A book full of happy stories would be just terrific. And yes I know I can skip the sad ones, but I find it hard not to read a book straight through so I always end up with a tissue in hand reading the rest of the books. And a lot of the stories are faith based, this is a Christian publication after all, but they are not in your face about it, so just about anyone can enjoy these tales. Since it's broken up into short stories you can read this in one sitting, or split it up into as many different reading times as there are stories.

An ok collection. All unique stories when compared with the other books in the series so you won't be rereading too much. And great for animal lovers, regardless of what kind of animal they're fond of.

Chicken Soup for the Cat & Dog Lover's Soul
Copyright 1999
408 pages