Ape House, by Sara Gruen

I really try to buy my "new" books at yard sales, or online if I simply must have them now.  Unfortunately, "must have them now" generally stikes while I'm holding them in the book aisle and I therefore end up paying retail at Borders or Target.  Seriously, Target's book aisle is short, but sooo enticing...and that's where I happened upon Sara Gruen's latest novel, Ape House.

I absolutely loved her previous book, Water for Elephants, so I couldn't wait to read Ape House.  Bought it right then and there, had it read by the next day.  Ape House is the fictional story of a group of bonobos (a type of great ape) who live at a language lab.  Rather than doing harmful testing on them, the researchers have been working with them on language aquisition.  When the lab is bombed, one of the researchers is severely injured, and the bonobos disappear only to quickly resurface on a Real World-type TV show, the relationships among the humans in the story both change and come into clearer focus.

While this book wasn't as magical for me as Water for Elephants, it was well written and had a great story.  I enjoyed every moment of it.  Gruen is definitely one of my new must-read authors, and in searching for the link for her two books that I've already mentioned, I was excited to find that she has at least two other previously published books:
 Riding Lessons and Flying Changes.  If I can hang on until December, they'll be on my Christmas list!