The Secret Lives of Cows by Rosamund Young

 

I listened to the unabridged audio version of The Secret Lives of Cows by Rosamund Young, which was narrated by the author.

The Secret Lives of Cows by Rosamund Young was my first read for August 2025 and was a book that had been on my reading wishlist for some time. The Secret Lives of Cows is a work of nonfiction and is a quick listen at 3 hours, 41 minutes.

I'm glad I finally read The Secret Lives of Cows as I love cows and wanted to learn more about them from the author. Rosamund Young is an English farmer and she provided a lot of interesting information about cows on her farm. The personality and behavior of individual cows is amazing, but not surprising.

Rosamund Young discusses hens, sheep, and pigs in her book as well as organic farming. Although, I found these topics to be interesting, I wish they'd been excluded from this book altogether. The Secret Lives of Cows is already a very short book as it is and I'd rather have had the sole topic of this book be about cows exclusively instead of a book that included other animals in it.

Below is the publisher's summary for The Secret Lives of Cows by Rosamund Young from the Goodreads website:

Cows can love, play games, bond and form strong, life-long friendships. They can sulk, hold grudges, and they have preferences and can be vain. All these characteristics and more have been observed, documented, interpreted and retold by Rosamund Young based on her experiences looking after the family farm's herd on Kite's Nest Farm in Worcestershire, England. Here the cows, sheep, hens and pigs all roam free. There is no forced weaning, no separation of young from siblings or mother. They seek and are given help when they request it and supplement their own diets by browsing and nibbling leaves, shoots, flowers and herbs. Rosamund Young provides a fascinating insight into a secret world - secret because many modern farming practices leave no room for displays of natural behavior yet, ironically, a happy herd produces better quality beef and milk.

I am giving The Secret Lives of Cows by Rosamund Young a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!

Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata

 

I received a FREE advanced reader's copy of Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata and illustrated by Marianna Raskin through the Goodreads Giveaway program. 

Below is my honest, unbiased review of Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata.

Cynthia Kadohata is a new to me author this year and one of her previous novels, The Thing About Luck, became the 2013 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature.

I initially liked Saucy a lot more in the beginning than I did later in the novel. However, I enjoyed reading Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata overall. Saucy is a children's book with a girl named, Becca, as the leading character, which I enjoyed very much as I like seeing women/girls as leading characters in novels. Becca is a quadruplet and has three brothers for siblings. Becca's brothers all seem to be really good at something, but Becca feels she doesn't have any special talents like her brothers do.  

Becca, her brothers, parents and grandmother are a tight knit family and all live together in Ohio. As a family, they take nightly walks together. They soon discover an abandoned baby pig in the bushes that was very sick on one of their nightly walks. They rescue this baby pig, which survives and becomes their pet pig, Saucy. Saucy, the pig, becomes Becca's main purpose and gives her direction as she goes about caring for Saucy. In fact, the entire family falls for Saucy and her antics, but a growing pig becomes too much to care for when you do not live on a farm... So, Saucy is given to a pig sanctuary.

Eventually, we learn that Becca and her family live near a pig factory farm they didn't even know existed. Becca and her brothers sneak into the factory farm late one night without their parents knowledge. The kids are horrified by what they find at this farm and decide to rescue nine baby pigs from a horrifying life on the factory farm. One brother even snaps several photos with his smartphone, which they eventually use to make flyers and distribute within their community with help of their friends... The purpose to show the horrors of factory farming. It is eventually realized that Saucy must have come from this same factory farm and some how escaped or was disposed of because she was sick.

Becca feels good about rescuing the pigs. This seems to be her goal/talent in wanting to help animals. Who knows? Maybe Becca will eventually become a vet when she grows up?

Becca also makes up with a friend she feels guilty for abandoning and the two girls become fast friends once again. We even see a budding romance start to grow between Becca's friend and one of her brothers.

Below is the plot summary for Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata from Goodreads:

A story about a girl and her ever-growing pig, Saucy.

Being a quadruplet can make it hard to stand out from the crowd. Becca’s three brothers all have something that makes them...them. Jake has his music and dancing, Jammer plays hockey, and K.C. thinks they’re all living in a simulation and doesn’t see the point of doing much of anything. Becca is the only one with nothing to make her special.

But when she finds a tiny, sick piglet on the side of the road, Becca knows this is it. This is her thing. She names the piglet Saucy and between her own pleading and Saucy’s sweet, pink face, Becca convinces her family to take her in. Soon, Saucy is as big a part of the family as anyone else—and getting bigger. With each pound Saucy gains, the more capable she becomes of destroying the house and landing Becca in trouble.

Some tough decisions need to be made about Becca’s pet, and her search for solutions brings to light exactly where Saucy came from. Turns out, there are a lot more scared piglets out there, and saving them may take Becca and her brothers finally doing something together.

I am giving Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata a rating of 3 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!