The Cats of Book Riot Recommend Books to Read on International Cat Day

As a cat whose whole life revolves around food, Anansi recommends Hisashi Kashiwai’s The Kamogawa Food Detectives, a cozy story about a Kyoto restaurant run by a father-daughter duo. Customers come to the Kamogawa Diner in search of help recreating lost recipes and forgotten flavors. Drowsy the cat hangs out in front of the diner every day simply hoping for a taste of whatever they’re cooking up. If you love food like Anansi, it’s a deliciously fun novel you should definitely check out on International Cat Day.

Buffy is one of the sweetest, cuddliest cats you could ever have the fortune to meet, and she knows the healing power of snuggles, so she recommends Japanese bestseller We’ll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida. People experiencing difficult times in their lives may stumble across the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul, a strange office down an unexpected alleyway where patients are given a cat to take home. Although it may be an unconventional treatment, living with a cat can be transformative. Buffy thinks cats can solve any problem — or at least cause a pleasant distraction.

Felix may be sweet to his humans, but he’s also a fierce hunter with a taste for the wild side. He recommends looking at the world through the eyes of a group of stray cats in Nilanjana Roy’s The Wildings. In the Nizamuddin district of Delhi, the cats rule the alleyways: Miao the sage elder, Hulo the fighter, Katar the charmer, Beraal the beauty, and Southpaw the feisty youngster. When a tiny kitten with strange powers appears in their midst, their social order is upended. Felix prefers the cushiony indoor life, but The Wildings is his perfect form of escapism.

As Luna does most of her reading from the lap of her dad, Chris M. Arnone, she’s grown to love the adventurous science fiction and fantasy books he often reads. For this International Cat Day, she recommends checking out Jamaican author Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It’s an action-packed story of mystery and mythology following a gifted tracker searching for a missing child. Luna’s especially a fan of a character who shapeshifts between human and leopard; she thinks she’d make a pretty cool human if given the chance.

Maple is a master manipulator, known for using her good looks and bossiness leadership skills to get exactly what she wants 100% of the time. She recommends buying a copy of Italian author Babas’s How to Train Your Human: A Cat’s Guide, less for your own reading and more for your cat to learn techniques like Maple’s. Humans can enjoy the lovely illustrations while their cats can learn how to train them with techniques like early morning wakeup calls and selective snuggling.

As a sweet, cuddly old dude, Megatron recommends reading a cozy graphic novel about the joys of cat/human friendships, She and Her Cat by Japanese manga creator Tsubasa Yamaguchi. Through the eyes of Chobi the cat, we watch a year in the life of his human Miyu. Chobi doesn’t know exactly what goes on outside of their apartment, but he’s always there to remind Miyu that he loves her at the end of the day. Megatron says the book is best enjoyed with a cat on your lap.

Millay, Zevon, and Farrokh are three known schemers who dabble in mayhem, so they suggest checking out The Evil Secret Society of Cats. The truth is out: Our cats have been plotting behind our backs to manipulate us and take over the world. Get an inside look at the Evil Secret Society of Cats’ meetings, as led by the Feline Commander, to find out what they’re plotting next. Millay, Zevon, and Farrokh may be breaking the rules by letting us humans on to their secrets, but they doubt we’re clever enough to stop them.