Hello, everyone, and welcome to my weekly book post. There are so many fascinating books on our To Be Read list that I hardly know where to start.
Aug. 26th - Sept. 1st - Can you say this sentence describes you? READING IS MY PASSION. (Submitted by Elizabeth)
The answer to this question is, maybe. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read. I enjoy it a great deal. Our family is made up of people who really enjoy reading. However, there are other things that I enjoy doing as well.
Whereas I do enjoy a good book, a lot of my reading in the past has been some very dry academic sort of reads and so, when I have to plow through those, I can’t say that I enjoy that.
Also, we have been given tons of books free through the Kindle Direct Publisher’s program. Authors give their Kindle Books away free with the hopes that someone will read it and post a favorable review. Many of these books are great. Some, however, are books that the author has cranked out like working on a bad assembly line, just to get the money with no real thought to the end user. I don’t enjoy books like that either.
I do enjoy a good how to book and I also enjoy a few works of fiction. I like
the works of Zane Grey and John Grisham. My kids loved the Warrior books when they were growing up. They even convinced Suzanne and me to read a few of them. I often made the deal with them that if I read a book they chose for me to read, they would read a book I chose for them to read. Our Marine, David, Jr., loved that challenge, so he would pick out books he did not think I would really read. I will share some of those books in later posts.
This week, in the spirit of the Warriors, I want to share a few books by an author who is also a fellow blogger and the mommy of probably the coolest cat I have ever read about. Jeanne Foguth is writing a series of books about a cat named Xander who is the Sea Purrtector.
Xander and his cohorts are sort of like James Bond and his spy friends. These cats appear to be just like your typical cats but, in reality, they have a spy network that puts any human spy network to shame.
Let’s look at the Prequel to The Sea Purrtector Files, Latitudes & Cattitudes. The beginning of the book starts out like this:
Xander strolled into the kick-boxing arena, to scattered cheers for "Kamakazi!" and few derogatory meows from those who favored Seattle's local favorite, Bruiser, a muscle-bound brute from the docks. A moment later, Bruiser, sauntered into the arena. The yowling doubled in volume, then doubled again, until it was impossible to hear anyone cheering "Kamakazi". Soon, it sounded like the only thing cats could scream was, "Bruiser, Bruiser, Bruiser, Bruiser, Bruiser." Xander swallowed and tried to remain calm as he turned to meet his opponent.
Foguth, Jeanne. Latitudes & Cattitudes: Prequel to The Sea Purrtector Files (Kindle Locations 73-77). Jeanne Foguth. Kindle Edition.
Xander cringed. The tom was obviously demented and it was his bad luck not to have noticed the defect before he’d followed him onto that rotten dock. Assuming he was alive, they were balanced on flotsam and within a whisker of death. And now, he was moving away from land and at the mercy of a potentially homicidal tom. Had the guy killed his sister?
Foguth, Jeanne. Latitudes & Cattitudes: Prequel to The Sea Purrtector Files (Kindle Locations 239-242). Jeanne Foguth. Kindle Edition.
Just as a way of disclosure, we got Latitudes & Cattitudes free through Amazon. Foguth gave us copies of the other three books free with the understanding that we would give an honest review of the books.
Latitudes and Cattitudes is the prequel to the Sea Purrtector series. This is a very quick read that introduces Xander as well as his pal Merlin and helps readers of the series to get a little of the back story to the Sea Purrtector. Readers get to read about the kick boxing tournament that helped to set the stage for other adventures throughout the series.
This is a very short read, but is entertaining. In this prequel, we haven’t gotten to the James Bond similarities yet, but we do see some of the similarities to the Warrior series and maybe a little Bruce Lee and Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles in the mix.
Purrsonally, I think this is a good, clean form of entertainment and a great read when you have a little time on your hands and want to get a little more information on the Sea Purrtector. Like the other Sea Purrtector books I have read so far, I give this one five paws up.
Xander supervised his humans, Mike and Ginny de Hunter, as their dingy circumnavigated Flamingo Cay, a lifeless piece of Bahamian rock, which wasn't home to any birds, let alone something as exotic as a flamingo.
And now, since I read this in a PDF version of the book, I can give you an
excerpt from page 56 for the Friday 56.
Xander tried to look like he was merely chatting about a casual topic. “Who or what is Clive?”
“The Rastaman, who lives there.” She pointed to the mangrove-covered area where Valentine had first spoken to the thin dogs. His attention narrowed on the grove, but he was too far away to see anything the dogs didn’t want seen. That area was something he’d have to investigate after he sorted out Simon’s situation. “
Clive goes around looking for lost or abandoned puppies, then he takes them back on that.” Sharkey indicated an odd flat thing fashioned with long circular yellowish pipes of varying diameter, each half in the water, a green plastic stacking bin was attached to the wider end. A similar yellow rod lay across its narrowest end.
And here is my review:
Let me preface this review by stating that I rarely read fiction. That being said, I am concerned with spoiling this excellent story by revealing anything of a plot.
This is a wonderful story. It reminds me in a way of the Warriors series by Erin Hunter that my children were in love with years ago.
This book is sort of a Warriors meets James Bond. There are high tech gadgets, espionage, and lots of adventure. This is an excellent story that tells the story of life from a cat’s eye view.
If you are one of those people under the misconception that people own cats, this book might not make much sense to you. As most cat people know, cats actually own the humans.
This is such a refreshing book to read. So many that I have read recently have been poorly written. The few fiction books I have read recently have had plot holes or jumps. This book gives plausible explanations along the way for all that takes place.
I would have to give this book five paws up. It is an excellent read for people of all ages. I can see that it would be a wonderful book for young teens, young adults, and, yes, even 54 year-old men like me.
The author of this book is a friend and gave me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. I would not post a review that did not give my honest opinion.
As you can see, this is an interesting series. I have actually read more of the series than I tell you about here. Soon, I will share more of the series with you. Let me know what you think.
Also, coming soon, we have our How to Manage Your Monkey course. We plan to offer it free so, watch our blogs for the announcement to let you know when it is finally available. We are working on some frugal recipes so, if you have any you wish to share, send them on.
Well, here is wishing you a Happy Decoration Day. I know that the meme It’s Monday What Are You Reading is geared more towards fiction than for non-fiction reading. 
