Book Reviews with Amber ~ The Cat Book Connoisseur at The Mewton-Clawson Library ~ #348 featuring **The Cat Who Turned On & Off** by Lilian Jackson Braun **PLUS** Friendly Fill-Ins

From the shelves of the Mewton-Clawson Library, a curated review destination for cat-centric fiction at BionicBasil.com

✨ This Week’s Intro ~ 98% Stability & 100% Nonsense ✨

Hello, my gorgeous library guests

and

Welcome back to the Mewton‑Clawson Library at BBHQ.

Thank mew for joining me in the stacks once again. I’m delighted, and frankly astonished, to report that the library is now 98% temporally stable. Yes, we’ve made progress.

The micro‑time pockets have mostly fizzled out, the encyclopaedias have stopped plotting a revolt, and Oswald has downgraded the mice’s emergency status from “critical” to “mildly inconvenient.”

Of course, “98% stable” at BBHQ still means:

 

The poetry section occasionally thinks it’s 1892

The atlases insist it’s Wednesday somewhere

And the romance novels keep sighing dramatically for no reason

But compared to last week?

We’re practically a monastery.

Naturally, Melvyn is still a tad twitchy. He said. "If it looks too good to be true, it usually is."

And I must agree, in situations like this, it's always better to err on the side of caution until 100% stability is restored.

📚 A Conversation in the Library This Morning

Me: “Melvyn, sweetie, why are you holding a stopwatch and a clipboard?”

Melvyn: “I’m monitoring temporal fluctuations.”

Me: “But we’re 98% stable.”

Melvyn: “Amber, the stapler just aged six minutes in my paw.”

Me: “That’s within acceptable parameters.”

Melvyn: “No, Amber. It’s not.”

Me: “Sweetie, somepawdy online said we should ‘put things back together correctly.’”

Melvyn: “Correctly? In this library?”

Me: “Exactly. I laughed too.”

Melvyn: “Amber, the mice are still wearing hard hats.”

Me: “They’re fashion‑forward.”

Melvyn: “Lumie flickered twice during roll call.”

Me: “She’s dramatic at the best of times. But that's still a massive improvement on last week.”

Melvyn: “Amber, the encyclopaedias are humming again.”

Me: “They’re warming up their vocal cords.”

Melvyn: “Amber, please take this seriously.”

Me: “I am. I’m meditating.”

Melvyn: “Meditating or napping.”

Me: “Yes.”

So, my utterly wonderful library guests, if mew notice the occasional flicker, shimmer, or a mouse wearing PPE and carrying a clipboard, please don’t worry. This is the correct version of the library.

Probably.

Now, let’s begin this week’s review before Melvyn starts timing the books again and Oswald files a complaint about “unresolved cheese cube allocation.”

If mew're wondering where this week's Egypt Adventure is, sorry, we've had to move it to next week, as it was the P.A.'s birthday at BBHQ yesterday and we ran out of time!

Today, the P.A. is also joining in Friday Fill-ins Blog Hop with the pawesome 15 & Meowing and Four-Legged Furballs.

1. I ___________________ for fun.

2. I am tired of seeing _______________________.

3. I once had the crazy idea to _________, and it worked.

4. I spoke too soon when I said that _________.

The P.A.'s answers are...

1. I tickle Smooch's back paw for fun. It's his non-ticklish paw; you can tickle it for an hour, and he'll just purr away like a little engine that's idling contentedly!

2. I am tired of seeing Fudge act surprised when his ninja‑level zoomies knock over half of BBHQ. "Oh, did all the mail get caught in the 'tail' wind?" he asks innocently, looking at a sea of paper on the floor. His tail needs its own postcode!

3. I once had the crazy idea to give the B Team a “team meeting,” and it worked ... for exactly 12 seconds. LOL (Check it out on TIKTOK)

4. I spoke too soon when I said that the B Team couldn’t possibly cause more chaos. Just another normal day at BBHQ! LOL

Let's see what I've got to show mew this time!

Mewton-Clawson Library Copy

The Cat Who Turned On & Off

       

The Cat Who… Mysteries, Book 3

by 

Lilian Jackson Braun

Today I'm back to The Cat Who series; there are 29 in total, I think, but don't quote me. I've been rereading this epic series for the first time since 2007.

Here's the previous four reviews, fluff knows what I was thinking, jumping to the middle of the series, maybe it was the catnip and I wasn't thinking straight:

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards ~ BK 1

The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern ~ BK 2

The Cat Who Moved a Mountain  ~ BK 13

The Cat Who Wasn't There ~ BK 14     

📚 This Week’s Paw‑Approved Top Pick: The Cat Who Turned On & Off

Cozy fans, fluff your whiskers and prepare your detective instincts, because this week’s read is a crime classic featuring two of literature’s most refined and legendary feline sleuths: Koko and Yum Yum. Naturally, I felt right at home, a mystery, a journalist, and two cats solving crimes while the humans bumble around! MOL

❓ What’s the Vibe?

Think vintage charm, quirky characters, and a mystery wrapped in dust, antiques, and a faint whiff of danger. It’s cozy crime at its finest, gentle, clever, atmospheric, and delightfully cat‑centric. Purrfect for curling up with a warm drink and pretending mew, too, have psychic whiskers.

🐾 What’s the Story?

Jim Qwilleran, moustachioed journalist, professional snoop, and full‑time servant to two Siamese masterminds, is assigned to write a feature on Junktown, a wonderfully shabby enclave of antique dealers, eccentrics, and bohemian oddballs.

Naturally, he moves right in.
Naturally, Koko and Yum Yum come too.
Naturally, chaos follows.

When Qwill’s landlord, the respected (and slightly mysterious) C.C. Cobb, takes a fatal tumble, Qwill’s investigative instincts start tingling… but Koko’s whiskers twitch first. And when Koko develops an obsession with tape recorders, yes, really, the clues begin to unravel in that uncanny, feline way only he can manage.

Dusty shops, hidden motives, eccentric neighbours, and one very clever cat… It’s all here, wrapped in Braun’s signature charm.

⚔️ What I Loved

😼 Koko: Sharp, smug, and always three steps ahead of the humans. His tape‑recorder fixation is iconic.

😺 Yum Yum: Soft, sweet, and quietly brilliant. The purrfect counterbalance to Koko’s dramatic flair.

📰 Qwilleran: A lovable mix of earnest journalist and slightly bewildered cat dad. His moustache does half the detecting.

🏚 Junktown: Atmospheric, quirky, and full of secrets. A character in its own right.

🔍 The Mystery: Clever, gentle, and satisfying, with just enough twists to keep your tail flicking.

📖 Final Thoughts

This is a warm, witty, and wonderfully feline mystery that purrs along at just the right pace. It’s not dark or gritty, it’s charming, clever, and full of purrsonality. Koko and Yum Yum steal every scene, as they should, and Qwill does his best to keep up.

If mew love cozy crime, eccentric characters, and cats who are clearly the brains of the opurrration, this is a must‑read.

🪄 Summed Up in One Sentence

🐾 A whisker‑twitching cozy mystery where the cats solve the case, and the humans just try to keep up. 🐾

A Top Paw Read!

Paperback: 276 pages

Audio CD: Expensive

My Ratings Scale

Ratings of:

The Cat Who Turned On & Off

Overall Enjoyment

Other Fun Blog Hops to Join in Today

          Brian's Home   Catblogosphere    Feline Friday   Nature Friday    Flashback Friday   Friendship Friday       

I really hope mew enjoy the book as much as I did.

It's time for me to say BFN or bye-for-now as mew know the drill, so many books, so little time, and I'll be back next week with another specially paw-picked book just for mew, and don't forget that all my previous reviews can be found on my Book Review page.

Until next time...

Keep calm and read more books

Amber 

The Cat Book Connoisseur

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