Poets Square: A Memoir in Thirty Cats
This is another book I saw in a display of new books at the library. This was published in 2025 and the condition of the book itself seemed very new. It is a memoir about a woman who lives in Tuscon and cares for feral cats that live in her yard, as well as others throughout the Tuscon area. It was a very quick read and I finished it within three days due to how much time I had for each reading session, but it likely could be finished in one or two days if you have enough time.
The writing style is adept and serviceable but not highly literary or anything. It worked for what this book is. The book primarily covers the time in the author's life after moving to Tuscon and beginning to care for the cats, though there are a few brief parts about things from her past. There are parts of the book that are somewhat sad.
There aren't a ton of contextual/explanatory details about some of the settings and situations she finds herself in when trying to help feral cats throughout Tuscon. I wished there had been more context in some parts because I like knowing lots of details about things, but I guess it wasn't the focus of the book.
I was curious to know more real-life information about the neighborhood the woman lives in that serves as the title of the book. It's a real neighborhood in eastern Tuscon, slightly north of the Air Force base. Streetview shows that it consists primarily of mid-century ranch-style single-family homes, though some have been renovated or rebuilt to look different. The neighborhood is indeed a square shape on the map and about four streets are named after poets, but otherwise there doesn't seem to be much linking to its name. I'm not familiar with Tuscon at all, so I can't say how this neighborhood fits into the context of the city.
Towards the end of the book, the author and her husband are able to buy the home they had previously been renting because the landlord wanted to sell it. She received donations for the down payment from social media followers, since she had built up a major following by posting about the feral cats (@poetssquarecats) during her time living there.
Out of curiosity, I looked up housing prices in that zip code. They seem to be in the (mid-upper) $200k to $300k range, with a few in the $400k or $500k range. The vast majority of the listings are for houses like the aforementioned ranch-style homes.
