Ape House by Sara Gruen

I read Water for Elephants also by Sara Gruen back in April prior to going to see the movie. I was taken back by how much I loved the book. I am animal person, I went to school for Fish and Wildlife, and while I may not work in that field now, I am still really captivated by animals. So I really appreciate books about animals, wildlife and in the case of this book, what they are capable of. When I started using overdrive, I added Ape House to my wishlist of books to read in both audio and ebook form. I figured I would read it at some point when it was available for download.
The other day I was on overdrive and going through my wishlist and Ape House came up as available, so I checked it out without further delay and put it on my MP3 player. I didn't even bother reading the description of the book. I had no idea what it was about, but I assumed monkeys of some kind would play a part in it.
The first half of the book I wasn't really sure where the story was going. You are introduced to two main characters, John, a journalist working on a series of articles about apes and what they are capable of. Isabelle is a scientist working at a linguistic centre at a university with Bonobos, who not only speak ASL to each other and humans, but can fully understand spoken English. The ability of these Bonobos to communicate is unbelieveable. They are capable of expressing a full range of feelings from happiness to anger and rejection. They know how to manipulate their human handlers to get what they want, even if it is only a frappucino.
I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, so I won't give anymore details. The story doesn't focus on what the Bonobos are capable of, it is the background story. There is a riveting, page turning plot to the book that will keep you glued for hours on end. I literally kept doing chores and stuff around the house so that I could continue to listen. I may or may not have purposely slowed down on the way home from work last night to eke out a little more listening time.
I would rec this book to pretty much anyone, but especially those who love animals as much as I do.
After finshing this book today, I immediately downloaded another Gruen novel,  Riding Lessons, and will hopefully start that later this week.

To wrap it up in a way a Bonobo would understand: Kiss Kiss, K Love Ape House!