Calming ideas, Japan and Cats

This is an interesting, easy to read book about how to achieve a more balanced and calm life.  As well as many useful ideas on restoring calm into our often (always) hectic lives, there is plenty of wonderful information about Japanese culture, and of course cat comparisons and stories are interwoven into the narrative. 

Straight away I must admit that I don’t know anything about Zen, apart from what was within these pages, however I loved the various ideas around habits, lifestyle and intuition which all make sense and are easy to incorporate into everyday life and thinking patterns.  The chapters, which are labelled as letters of the alphabet (minus the 4 letters that don’t exist in Japanese) are further broken down into small sections, so this is a perfect book to read in small chunks – if you can put it down. 

Carla Francis refers to the many people she has spoken to about beliefs and customs in Japan, plus books she has read – these are referenced at the end.  The writing style is light and enjoyable to read, with great cat anecdotes, and ideas on how humans might learn from cats.  I must admit that there were moments when I thought “but my cat doesn’t have to pay the bills”, but I quickly put aside these frivolous thoughts and  got back to enjoying this book and its message. 

5*s for this beautiful and enjoyable book which I read because I loved The Cat With Three Passports by CJ Fentiman (same author, different name), not because I felt any great need to be calmer.  I loved so much about this book including learning about many aspects of Japan’s culture and lifestyles, and enjoyed the ideas to bring more calmness to my inner world – I’m already incorporating many of these into my days.   

Afternote:  I am now going to lend this book to my young Ragdoll cat, in the hope that he can be a little more Zen-like, and a little less manic, though he is always “in the moment”! 

Publisher:  Macmillan Australia

Publication Date:  27 June 2023

My rating:  5 out of 5

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Some of the other book/s I have read, and reviewed, by this author (click on book cover to see review) :