The Parrot Who Thought She Was a Dog by Nancy Elis-Bell

If you love animals stories ...

What I enjoyed most about this book was its unique subject: a blue-and-gold macaw. Not a dog, or a cat, but a big opinionated bird with a personality. And I don't have anything against good dog or cat stories - but there are truly a million of them out there. How many bird books have you read?

When Ellis-Bell adopts Sarah, a rescue bird that had been wild-caught, injured, and mistreated throughout her life, she wasn't really prepared for the magnitude of their life changes. Thank heavens her husband is so laid-back and agreeable, because Sarah upends their whole lives. There were definitely times where I thought, "Have you lost your mind, woman?" Eventually, even Ellis-Bell ponders what kind of adoptive mother she has become to all her other critters, once Sarah has established her reign of terror.

It's an interesting book, and especially informative about the quirks of bird personality. Many chapters were just a couple pages, and Ellis-Bell doesn't get bogged down in chronology - sometimes an uneventful year just flits by between chapters, summed up in a sentence or two, which helped to keep the narrative moving along briskly.