I Am A Cat

tags: humor, Japanese, satire

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Written over the course of 1904-6, Soseki's comic masterpiece, " I Am a Cat," satirizes the follies of upper-middle-class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him.

"The New Yorker" called it "a nonchalant string of anecdotes and wisecracks, told by a fellow who doesn't have a name, and has never caught a mouse, and isn't much good for anything except watching human beings in action..."

Reading this novel took me ages to finish which is unusual for me. The book is not bad at all, in fact it is very funny, engaging, and makes the reader wonder about and laugh out loud at people's absurd behavior. The nameless cat sometimes drones on and on but the stories it tells are interesting and sometimes, maybe most of the time, philosophical and political. A rest between reading portions is a must to fully enjoy the book. I like it enough to give it 4 stars.

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This video of cats reminds me of the time the kitty takes a bite of rice cake that gets stuck on its teeth. The nameless cat tries to remove it and fails miserably. The humans see him on hind legs spinning around like crazy. Poor kitty but it is hilarious.

Inspector Hobbes and the Blood

tags: fantasy, humor, mystery-crime

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads, emphasis mine

As a crime wave breaks in the quiet Cotswold streets, Andy Caplet, a failed reporter, is reluctantly immersed in Inspector Hobbes's investigation. Allergic to danger and exercise, Andy is thrown into grave confusion as he discovers not everyone is human. Not only must he come to terms with Hobbes's extreme oddness, and the tooth-collection of Hobbes's housekeeper, the indomitable Mrs. Goodfellow, but he must work out if a suicide, a murder, and several robberies are connected? And what is the connection? Hobbes goes missing. The cops decide he's big and bad enough to look after himself, but Andy, striving against deep-rooted incompetence and clumsiness, sets out to find him. With a big bad dog to assist, armed only with a leg of lamb, and despite losing his trousers, he discovers the key to the mystery is in the blood. But whose blood? Where is Hobbes? And can he catch vampirism off false teeth?

This is the first in Wilkie Martin's unhuman series of fast-paced, comic fantasy crime adventures, with lashings of great food.

'I ought to tell you, dear, he can get rather wild when he's hungry'

I loved the strangeness of both Inspector Hobbes and his housekeeper, Mrs. Goodfellow. Hobbes is a huge person and looks beastly but is very gentle, intelligent and polite, does not tolerate bad language, and he and Mrs. G never forget to say grace before having the delicious dinners she prepares. I laughed out loud several times regardless of the annoying narrator, Andy Caplet. Andy is extremely gullible, physically unfit, lazy, incompetent, naive, accident prone, jealous of his handsome co-worker, and obsessed with a girl co-worker (whom he describes as not pretty at all). I want to smack him upside the head and am wondering why the good Inspector keeps him around. He redeems himself toward the end of the book and I kinda forgive him. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

Highly recommended for urban fantasy and mystery readers.

Imagine Parody

I'm sure everyone has seen the video of clueless affluent celebrities singing out of tune John Lennon's communism anthem, Imagine, one of the worst songs he ever wrote. Gal Gadot, how could you?  A number of hilarious parodies have come out on YouTube. 

I like this one, although made long before the hypocrite celebrities' awful performance.   This is a parody of A Perfect Circle's cover of Imagine. Emojine. LOL. The guy can sing and sounds a little like Maynard. 

IMAGINE PARODY- we’re all in this together. @realjeffreyross @chelcielynnn @KingBach @MaryLynnRajskub @AveryFunny @sarahcolonna @JonRyan9 @ryansickler @JoshAdamMeyers @jeremiahstandup @realjoeyfatone @JadeCattaPreta @JessimaePeluso @sinbadbad @BrittanyFurlan @adamraycomedy pic.twitter.com/KZROo7b8ay

— Josh Wolf (@joshwolfcomedy) March 21, 2020

This parody is actually funny and better than the original celebrity cover.