About Me

My photo
Washington, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, October 30, 2015

book review: welcome home, bernard socks


(I was provided an advance copy for purposes of this review.)

Fester Cat, the one-and-a-half fanged feline spirit of a certain garden in Manchester, is back.  This time he's watching and narrating as his humans open their sore hearts to a cat with built-in hosiery and a party tooter for a voice.  This can only mean one thing: it's time to say, along with author Paul Magrs, "Welcome Home, Bernard Socks" (£9.99, Obverse Books, publication date December 5, 2015).
As the book opens, Fester Cat draws us back to Paul and Jeremy's.  He may not be on our physical plane, but he makes it clear he's perfectly fine and wiser than ever.  With love and the occasional impatience he watches his humans as they grieve, but then the call of kitty companionship draws them to a charmingly wacky rescue called Tharg.  There they find a long-legged, big-whiskered tuxedo cat called Sox.  Are they being disloyal to Fester's memory?  Is it too soon to love another cat?  What if something goes wrong?  What is that noise he's making?
Fester continues the tale of the newly christened Bernard Socks as the new guy settles in, including a very funny bit on how he finds baby frogs (stretchy and delicious), and a lyrical midsummer's night interlude of garden scents and cat spirits.
Then the family home suffers a dysfunction of frankly gargantuan proportions.  Will our three boys, damp, grubby and disenchanted, come through as one unit? You'll have to go on your own journey to Fester Cat's street to find out, but bring your party tooter.  Weeeee-ooooo!

(Quick edit: You can pre-order the book here.)

1 comment:

Vanessa Morgan said...

First time I'm hearing about this book. Now it's on my TBR list. Cat books are the best :-)