Book Reviews

These are some of the books that I have been reading lately and my thoughts about them. Several of them would be great holiday gifts.

Rescue Meez – Siri Zwemke

This is a wonderful book and anyone who is thinking about starting a nonprofit organization should definitely read it. I hadn’t read the book before I interviewed Siri, but I found her so interesting and I was so amazed by her organization’s accomplishments that I needed to find out more, both about her success and the success of the Siamese Cat Rescue. This organization has placed over 12,000 Siamese cats and has had foster homes in 16 states.

As you can imagine, there were lots of cat stories in the book. I would say Siri shared stories of about 15 cats that have come into her care. We get all the details and learning moments as Siri makes a few mistakes along the way. Most of her stories are funny, but some are sad. As we all know, this business can be emotionally draining, but through it all, Siri learns how to effectively manage a virtual organization.

Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals, Second Edition – Darian Rodriguez Heyman and Laila Brenner

This is a great resource for anyone who is on a board of directors or thinking about being an executive director of a nonprofit organization. It is a large book that covers all of the major topics, like fundraising, strategic planning, collaborations and alliances, financial management, human resources, liability, marketing/communications, board and volunteer management, and technology.

The book is actually a collection of contributions from fifty-five different leaders in the nonprofit industry. Two things in particular about the book really interested me. The first is that there was a tremendous focus on work/life balance in the first couple of chapters. The authors really want to let it be known that if you enter into this nonprofit management world, you need to protect yourself. The second interesting part of the book was that Chapter 3 was a chapter on collaboration, mergers, and alliances. I wouldn’t think this would be something that many executive directors would need to know about early in their careers. Mergers and alliances are certainly becoming more common, and maybe the trend is moving even more in that direction, but I was still surprised that the editors felt it merited such high placement.

You Know Your Cat Loves You Because … The Sweet, Silly and Scientific Ways Our Cats Show Us How Much They Love Us  – Jeff Parks and Nina Brissey, with illustrations by Mark Sean Wilson

This is a feel-good book. It is fun and light and a joy to leaf through, with its whimsical illustrations. It made me grateful to have a cat at home even though he does many of the silly things mentioned in this book. This is one of those books that is good for both the young and old.

I would say that my cat Hooch does at least half of the silly things mentioned in the book. It would make a fun gift for all the crazy cat lovers on your list.

Urban Tails: Inside the Hidden World of Alley Cats – Photography by Knox and text by Sara Neeley

While this is an older book (published in 2006), I am still always struck by the emotional photos depicting the lives of several colony cats in Atlanta. Knox and Sara capture in pictures and words the truly hard life that feral cats had before aggressive spay/neuter programs. There are a series of stories written about the cats that describe the females having litter after litter and spending their time defending their kittens from raccoons and coyotes. As time goes on, the authors begin to get the colony spayed and neutered and offer shelter, but my sense is the early days were tough and filled with a lot of disease and fighting.

The vivid photos of kittens trying to make the best of their environment and the adults adapting to the loss of companions and offspring depict how hard this life can be. While the pictures were beautiful, the stories are what brought me to tears. I am so very glad that today, while in many parts of the country there may still be cat colonies, most of them are mainly adult cats and thanks to TNR, eventually, the colonies will disappear through attrition.

Feral Cat Rescue Tips and Techniques for Caregivers – Casey Wright