
Poets Square
A Memoir in Thirty Cats
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Narrated by:
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Courtney Gustafson
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An intimate memoir about the importance of community and care in a world that can feel impossibly broken—and a story about accidentally going viral while tending to a colony of feral cats.
When Courtney Gustafson moved into a rental house in the Poets Square neighborhood of Tucson, Arizona, she didn’t know that the property came with thirty feral cats. Focused only on her own survival—in a new relationship, during a pandemic, with poor mental health and a job that didn’t pay enough—Courtney was reluctant to spend any of her own time or money caring for the wayward animals.
But the cats—their pleading eyes, their ribs showing, the new kittens born in the driveway—didn’t give her a choice.
She had no idea about the grief and hardship of animal rescue, the staggering size of the problem in neighborhoods across the country. And she couldn’t have imagined how that struggle—toward an ethics of care, of individuals trying their best amid spectacularly failing systems—would help pierce a personal darkness she’d wrestled with for much of her life. She also didn’t expect that the TikTok and Instagram accounts she created to share the quirky personalities of the wild but lovable cats, like Monkey, Goldie, Francois, and Sad Boy, would end up saving her home.
Courtney writes toward a vision of connectedness, showing how taking care of the cats reshaped her understanding of empathy, resilience, and the healing power of wholly showing up for something outside yourself. She takes us from the dark alleys where she feeds feral cats to inside the tragically neglected homes where she climbs over piles of trash, and occasionally animals, and then into her own driveway with the cats she loves and must sometimes let go. Compelling and tender, Poets Square is as much about cats as it is about the urgency of care, community, and a little bit of dumb hope.
©2025 Courtney Gustafson (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Truly moving; a heartfelt exploration of the humanity at the heart of animal welfare. Courtney masterfully weaves together stories of cats with stories of her own life and the lives of her community members—raw, flawed, and striving for goodness in a complex world. Her journey from cat observer to dedicated caregiver and community builder is profoundly inspiring.”—Hannah Shaw, New York Times bestselling author of Cats of the World
“Cats are mystical beings, bridging the spiritual and the tangible. Courtney Gustafson’s Poet Square is a book that helps us connect to this spiritual world, offering a bridge to the ethereal.”—Ai Weiwei
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Story
This book weaves together stories of the many dogs Elias has been lucky enough to know, both in his personal life and while doing his Dogist work. Told in a light tone that does not shy away from more serious issues (Elias is not above the occasional sentimental moment or dog pun), this book charmingly explores the ways that dogs are not just our family and our friends but also irreplaceable beings capable of generating boundless love and restoring balance to our lives.
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honest and humorous
- By Kimberly M. on 06-13-25
By: Elias Weiss Friedman, and others
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The Order of Things
- A Memoir About Chasing Joy
- By: Sarah Gormley
- Narrated by: Nancy Benincasa
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Sarah Gormley spent most of her life trying to outrun the persistent self-loathing that plagued her from childhood, convinced that self-worth was something she had to earn by doing rather than being. When she returned to Salt Creek Farm at age forty-five, Gormley had no idea that detaching from the success she believed defined her, untangling the complicated relationship with her mother, and continuing the hard work of therapy would lead to a wildly transformed life.
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Incredibly relatable & heartwarming!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-17-25
By: Sarah Gormley
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The Family Recipe
- A Novel
- By: Carolyn Huynh
- Narrated by: Vyvy Nguyen, David Lee Huynh
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesn’t want anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
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Could have been something
- By Kraig Odabashian on 06-11-25
By: Carolyn Huynh
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The Great Displacement
- Climate Change and the Next American Migration
- By: Jake Bittle
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Even as climate change dominates the headlines, many of us still think about it in the future tense—we imagine that as global warming worsens over the coming decades, millions of people will scatter around the world, fleeing famine and rising seas. What we often don’t realize is that the consequences of climate change are already visible, right here in the United States. In communities across the country, climate disasters are pushing thousands of people away from their homes.
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Where we're headed
- By Dr. Stuart A. Blair on 03-09-23
By: Jake Bittle
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Four Mothers
- An Intimate Journey Through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries
- By: Abigail Leonard
- Narrated by: Eleanor Caudill
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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As debates surrounding paid leave, universal daycare, and national healthcare rage on, Four Mothers is an intimate portrait of what those policies mean in the everyday lives of four women—and a compelling argument for the necessity and urgency of supporting parents.
By: Abigail Leonard
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Cat's People
- A Novel
- By: Tanya Guerrero
- Narrated by: Elena Rey
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a little resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighborhood’s stray cats. On her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-it notes left by a secret admirer in an area where she feeds her favorite stray—a black cat named Cat. Like most felines, he is both curious and observant, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.
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Wonderful and kind story.
- By Olesya Bracey on 06-08-25
By: Tanya Guerrero
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Still Life with Bones
- Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains
- By: Alexa Hagerty
- Narrated by: Rose Akroyd
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Throughout Guatemala’s thirty-six-year armed conflict, state forces killed more than two hundred thousand people. Argentina’s military dictatorship disappeared up to thirty thousand people. In the wake of genocidal violence, families of the missing searched for the truth. Young scientists joined their fight against impunity. Gathering evidence in the face of intimidation and death threats, they pioneered the field of forensic exhumation for human rights.
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Disturbing and Hard to Listen To
- By Alain R Gardner on 06-09-23
By: Alexa Hagerty
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Hope Dies Last
- Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future
- By: Alan Weisman
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Alan Weisman
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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A remedy to climate anxiety by one of the most important voices on humanity’s relationship with the Earth, Hope Dies Last fills a crucial gap in the global conversation: Having reached a point of no return in our climate confrontation, how do we feel, behave, act, plan, and dream as we approach a future decidedly different from what we had expected?
By: Alan Weisman
Thank you for sharing your story with us…the good, the awesome, the not so good, and the definitely not the best. And especially the lessons you somehow learned so young.
You’re a wonderful story teller and an even better human.
And I think you should read everything aloud for us for the rest of time.
Quite Frankly, Life Changing
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Poets Square is a stunning, unforgettable tribute to the complicated, messy, and deeply meaningful bond between humans and animals. Courtney Gustafson doesn’t just write about cats—she writes about responsibility, love, grief, and the strange kind of grace that comes from doing right by creatures who may never let you close, but still change your life forever.
With raw honesty and lyrical prose, Gustafson shares the highs and heartbreaks of caring for a feral cat colony she didn’t ask for but grew to fiercely love. Each cat has a story, and each story is a thread in a rich tapestry of connection and compassion. This isn’t a cutesy cat book—it’s a powerful memoir about showing up, even when it’s hard, even when it hurts.
Whether you’ve bottle-fed a stray or just love a good story about resilience and kindness, Poets Square will move you deeply. I laughed. I cried. I hugged my cat tighter. This book is a gift.
A memoir that purrs, roars, breaks your heart and inspires you.
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Brilliant, emotional, poetic
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Realized you can’t spell charity without cat =^..^=
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I laughed, I cried, I cried some more.
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This book made me a better person
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Hearwarming amd heartwrenching all in one
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Beautiful reflection on humanity seen through cat rescue
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Poetic and beautiful
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An Amazing tale of Love and Dedication
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