So the cat was my favorite character....

I need to start by saying that although I am a HUGE dog person, I don't dislike cats.  I just don't have a desire to own one.  We have what we call a neighborhood cat, named Snowball, whose owners live down the street, but we have heard he refuses to go inside.  We give him treats from time to time and he drives the dogs crazy.  Snowball loves my husband and not me...which is odd because he is less of a cat fan than I am.  Enough said on the subject and on to the review.

TITLE:  love in lowercase
AUTHOR: Francesc Miralles, Jule Wark (translator)
PUBLISHER: Penguin Books
PUBLISHING DATE: January 26, 2016

FROM GOODREADS: When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year’s Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments—until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he’s never been (next door) and to people he might never have met (his neighbor Titus, with whom he’s never exchanged a word). Even better, Mishima leads him back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought he’d lost long before.

In the spirit of The Solitude of Prime Numbers and The Guest Cat, Love in Lowercase is a charming and uplifting novel about how one man, thanks to a persistent cat-turned-catalyst, awakens to the importance of the little things in life—and discovers that sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters.

MY THOUGHTS: 
First let me say that I was provided a copy of this book for review from Penguin First to Read. Now that THAT technicality is out of the way...on with the review. I have to be honest and admit that I really didn't care for this book. If I had it in me to DNF books, this one would be on that list. It is being marketed as the next "Rosie Project" and although I planned to read that someday, maybe I shouldn't. I also think that because this book is a translation from a Spanish author, maybe it lost something along the way. I don't know. Also the chapters are really short and choppy and they don't flow very well at all in my opinion.

The plot is your average guy decides he doesn't want to spend his life alone so he tries to do something about it. However, this guy happens to be a German literature professor and is hooked on all things "language" which isn't a bad thing but which this book makes super annoying. He is also obsessed with classical music. Again, not a bad thing but I felt like the author was trying to force-feed me culture. I liked some of the characters in the book, just not Samuel, the main character, or Gabriela, the girl he has been in love with since he was a kid (just forget that he hasn't seen her in 30 years). I liked the old man who lives upstairs, Titus, and Valdemar isn't bad (conspiracy theories and all), except I kept wanting to call him Voldemort. I REALLY liked Mishima the cat...and I am a dog person...that should really clue you in on something.

This book is a quick read, and I really believe there is a more deep, philosophical meaning in there somewhere, but I didn't feel like looking for it. I am sure there will be tons of people that like it, it just wasn't for me. The cover is sort of cute and I'll admit it is what caught my eye. I didn't even like the ending because I feel the the wrong couple ended up together. I don't know who I would recommend this book to, but like I said, just because I didn't enjoy it doesn't mean that others won't and that it isn't a decent book.

RATING: 2 PAWS

This is Snowball - doing what he does best.