Rate this book

Alex & Me CD: How A Scientist And A Parrot Discovered A Hidden World Of Animal Intelligence--and Formed A Deep Bond In The Process (2008)

by Irene M. Pepperberg(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0061734942 (ISBN13: 9780061734946)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

HarperAudio

review 1: I'm not sure how to classify this book. It feels like a strange cross between very specific memoirs and a layman's guide to Pepperberg's research on African Grey Parrot intelligence, but it doesn't do a particularly complete job with either. It starts especially slow with too many letters giving condolences about the death of Alex before we're even introduced to Alex, and then we're given another chapter of pre-Alex life with birds, which felt further like being put off before the main event. Once Alex entered the picture, the book became much more fast-paced and humorous and interesting, though it felt like it not only read too fast, but was written too fast. Things clipped along with a lack of detail sometimes, and it sometimes felt like Pepperberg couldn't determine whe... morether she was writing about herself or about Alex, and it landed somewhere in between without fleshing out either one fully. It's a fair read, but I didn't come away with much beyond a sense of watching an amusing story. And that can be fine. It just doesn't make it compelling or enlightening or moving. It's just a pleasant way to spend a few hours.
review 2: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take an animal to the vet, if that animal could look at you in terror and say "I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry. Want to go home"? I feel like I keep up on the developments of non-human cognition more than the average joe, but the intellectual and emotional skill of this bird-brain blew me away. I don't love Pepperberg's writing style, but I love the work she does and the reasons she does it. I disliked the first chapter, full of sappy condolence emails about Alex's death, but the sprightly life of that bird in the remainder of the book made it worth the read for me. At the very least, everyone who cares about challenging the smug, speciesist, human self-satisfaction that facilitates our cruelty toward other kinds of living things should look up some articles about Alex's life immediately. This bird -- and the others Pepperberg is working with -- is a little window into the complexity and richness of non-human cognition. less

Download links for: Alex & Me CD: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence--and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process

Advertising