A read for any cat owner interested in what makes a cat do what a cat does. The book is well-written and well-researched.

Very informative and interesting book. I highly write recommend it. Very educational. Very enjoyable

Fascinating book on the history of domestic cats along with information on behavior and traits and how they inform feline communication. As a lifelong cat owner, and also a lover of nature and science, I found this book extremely interesting and enlightening. A must read for all cat people!

As a “cat lady” of my time, I found this book fascinating. I have tamed 3 ferals into my own indoor/outdoor mouse hunters and have 2 adopted indoor cats. I am happy to report that much of the experiences the author had in research mirrored my own. We also live in a community with a fairly robust cat population. This helped me connect further with the situations the book encountered. I enjoyed learning about things I knew happened, but never the science behind it - such as the Flehmen Response.

I would recommend this book to any cat lover looking to understand their companion on a basic, instinctual level. Thank you NetGalley, Penguin Group Dutton, and author Sarah Brown, PhD for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love cats and have read several books explaining cat behavior and communication. Those books were informative, light reading. The Hidden Language of Cats was written by a cat behavior scientist and it is not light reading. This book includes many studies that are discussed in detail and at times I felt it was way above my reading comprehension. I stuck with it and in the end I did learn a few news things about my favorite furry friends, but it was a lot of reading to get to those few tidbits of information. If you want to know the science behind a cat's behavior then this book is for you!

Thanks you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for my copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have Us at Meow by Sarah Brown is highly educational and helpful science journalism.

You can absolutely tell that the author is highly knowledgeable about cat behavior. She's a research scientist of over thirty years, and has been at the forefront of research in this field.

I'm glad that she wrote this book. Not only do we learn the history of how we domesticated cats and the various places where they came from, but we get to see a bit of how she does her research. I really enjoyed the sections of the book that outlined her observations of feral cat colonies in England.

I definitely learned a lot! Cats have so many different forms of communication, some I wasn't fully aware of, including vocalizations, tail signals, scents, rubbing, and ear movements. I'll definitely be paying more attention to my pets after reading this book!

This is a fascinating book with a lot of good information presented in a friendly, readable format. The author has a lot of knowledge and presents it in a way any cat lover will understand.

I interviewed the author about the content of her book for my weekly syndicated feature Pet Connection.
Humans have been intrigued by cats for millennia. Well before Egyptian civilization raised felines to the level of furry overlords and gave them an honored place in the home, archaeological evidence dating back 9,500 years showed a commensal, or symbiotic, relationship between the two species. Cats provided rodent control for humans, and humans had an easy food source for cats.

That evidence, the burial in Cyprus of a wildcat and a human together, suggests a strong association between cats and humans, at least on a symbolic level. Cats were not yet domesticated -- some argue that they still aren’t fully -- but some may well have been tamed.

It would seem, then, that we would be as familiar with cats as we are with dogs, but many people find cats to be mysterious and difficult to know. Fortunately, a plethora of new studies and books by cat-loving experts is revealing the secrets behind feline relationships, interactions, purring, movement, socialization, communication and more.

One of those experts is cat behavior scientist Sarah Brown, Ph.D., who earned her doctorate studying the social behavior of neutered domestic cats. Her new book, “The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have Us at Meow,” was published last week and is her fourth on the subject of cats. I asked her to weigh in on what we know about cats, their history and why they’re currently of so much interest to science.

Cats descend from North African wildcats, which likely were attracted to early farming communities some 10,000 years ago in the area of the Near East known as the Fertile Crescent. Picture a wildcat -- about the same size as the tabby napping on your sofa -- feasting on the rodents attracted to stored grain crops.

“As these farming communities spread to new areas, the wildcats followed, and the wildcat-human association became stronger,” Brown says. “A similar relationship developed between wildcats and humans in ancient Egypt; Egyptian paintings show that cats were living with people there by 3,500 years ago. The latest scientific evidence suggests that both the Egyptian and Fertile Crescent wildcat populations contributed to the gene pool of today’s cats.”

While cats have played important roles in human history, dogs have the advantage when it comes to garnering the interest of scientists, whether they’re studying aging, behavior, disease or some other topic. But cats are starting to catch up.

“I think scientists have realized more and more over the years that cats are not as uncommunicative as they are so often portrayed to be, and that there are many exciting new discoveries to make about them,” Brown says. “Alongside this, advances in technology have given us new and better ways of studying cats more closely, enabling us to look at previously unexplored areas of their behavior, recording and analyzing their vocalizations in detail, and investigating their scent deposits.”

Even though she has studied them for years, Brown says she learned many new scientific facts about cats in the course of researching and writing her latest book, but what stood out was just how much cats communicate not only among themselves, but also with humans. Some readers may be surprised to learn that cats meow primarily to us, not to other cats, she says. “These meows are pitched around the same level as the cries of human babies,” she says, “which is probably why their meows are so hard to ignore.”

Readers will learn about feline personalities, subtle signs of stress, how to pet a cat and why it sometimes goes wrong (who hasn’t been swatted by a cat who’s had one pet too many?), and what cats’ eyes tell us, among many other things.

Brown hopes her book encourages people to sit and watch their cats for a little while each day and to think about the world from their point of view.

This book left me unsure of what to express. This wealth of information about cats took a more scientific approach that, in my own experience, I can't back up. As a lifelong cat owner and caretaker of cat communities and sanctuaries, one might say I'm a crazy cat lady. My knowledge is based on love and experience, which this book seemed to lack. I found myself questioning some of the perpetuated myths and information presented. My real-world experiences, including successfully taming many cats deemed untameable (including a 15 year old feral), clashed with certain notions suggested by the book. Any cat-human communication that it mentions in the blurb is buried very deep into talk about research. While the book had its merits, and I appreciate her own personal experiences she shared, I'm struggling to genuinely embrace and like the book. I appreciate the author, Netgalley, and the publisher for allowing me to read and review.

I enjoyed this book. It had information that help me understand my own cats.
It explains different things that cats do to communicate with humans and other cats. And what we could be looking for when were around are furry friends.

I received a complimentary copy via Netgalley. This is my honest unbiased opinions.

This is basically a nonfiction book about animal behavior focused on cats. In my opinion, this book is not aimed at the general public or the average cat lover. I have actually taken a university course in animal behavior and have done research professionally. I doubt people without a science background could appreciate the content of this book or even be able to understand much of it. Basically I believe this book has a narrow audience.
That being said, the book may be aimed at a more academic audience. I personally enjoyed it and found it interesting. It is well written and definitely well researched. The author included cute cat drawings and anecdotes about her own cats that added an element of sweetness to what could have otherwise been a rather dry book.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How Cats Communicate with Us and Each Other

Dr. Sarah Brown is a respected scientist who has studied the behavior of cats for thirty years. In this book she condenses her research for the general public, particularly cat lovers. She discusses the history of cats from their background as wild cats in North Africa to today’s feral cats and those lucky domestic cats living in loving homes.

I was fascinated about how cats use their tails to communicate. Dr. Brown also goes into other forms of communication such as their vocalizations and ear movements. The fact that cats use their meow which mimics the cry of a baby to communicate with humans was fascinating.

In addition to her scientific research, Brown has amusing anecdotes about her cats and those she’s studied. This book can be very helpful in understanding cat behavior. The science is understandable and the antics of her cats are fun to read about.

Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for this review copy.

3.5 stars. Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is filled with lots of info about how cats communicate along with a history of cats, taming vs. domesticating, and scientific research. I have had many cat companions over the years and 90% of the info I've gathered from their body language and behavior - use of tail, ear and whisker movements, meows, body language, over-stimulation, etc. Yet, I learned how extreme importance of scent, they see clearly only to about 10 inches in front of them, that cats don't meow to each other only us, and their sight is mainly to detect movement not colors (graphic patterned toys are better than solid brightly colored ones). Hopefully, my little companions will benefit from this additional knowledge.

I felt that broaching this topic by a qualified fellow cat lover was the best way to introduce the author to the audience. I felt less trepidation venturing into the science and mythology behind cats knowing that the author too is subjected to the whims of a furry overlord and therefore has a special bond that can add layers to her scientific research and findings.

A very good, insightful view of cats, what their behaviors truly mean, how they perceive us as humans and interactions overall with them.
I love my cat and he makes me happy, but I have always wondered what he was really thinking. I don't know if I have any clearer idea of what he is thinking or feels now after reading this book, but it was an interesting view of cat's lives.
Thank you to Penguin Group, Dutton and to Net Galley for the free ARC, I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

A VERY well researched and thoughtful report on how cats communicate with each other and with humans. If you are a cat lover, you'll be fascinated by this book and/or it will confirm what you've always thought about your cat. The research itself is fascinating and the book is well written. It's both academic and readable and those are two qualities that are often not found together. Kudos to the author!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. I'm purring with delight.

I am a huge cat person so I enjoyed reading this book and the way cats have adapted and succeeded with getting their needs met with human contact. The science behind it is fascinating and Dr. Brown does a great job looking at the research.

We have recently added a cat to our family and it has been fascinating to watch her grow and interact with the world. I am somewhat obsessed and this book was great and giving me new and interesting things to look out for..

I absolutely love reading about these mysterious creatures. Even with two black cats in our household, I don't think I'll ever understand every bird-like chirp, 2am random zoomie, or obsession with the laundry room. Dr. Sarah Brown does a stunning job at providing a clinical approach to understanding women's best friend. The anecdotes, matched with scientific-based writing, provide an in-depth perspective. Exploring the physiology of these divine creatures (who treat us like WE'RE the pets they're taking care of) is fascinating. I especially appreciated the illustrations added throughout the book.

I unashamedly read a lot about cats. There's many attempts written to try and figure out these creatures, and I enjoy a lot of them. Sarah Brown's takes the gato to a whole new level. First, her writing is readable, yet not in a condescending tone. The organization of the book is great, focused on different cat actions associated with body parts, and why they do what they do. Who can honestly resist a good cat headbutt?? Brown does a great job balancing anecdotes with science writing- there's a lot about physiology and neurophysiology that took what I knew, and adds some layers.

Anyone who appreciates felines will benefit from this book; however, I definitely recommend for new cat owners who want something a little more substantial to read.

People always benefit when they can understand their higher authorities more. Since cats are our bosses, and we just tend to their comforts, all would be wise to learn a little bit more about those we serve.

Also, while they're simple, I was mesmerized by the drawings that were sprinkled throughout the book. There was something about them that captured my attention and I found myself meditating on them several times. Maybe my cat is trying to tell me he wants a portrait?