I cannot remember the last time I read a non-fiction book; it has been a while. So it was with interest when a friend choose this book for a group of us to read. We have a bit of a buddy read group and once a month one of us gets to choose something completely different. The purpose is to get us out of our reading comfort zone. 
 A Primates memoir is way out of my normal genre, but I have to say I enjoyed the change. I also have to say that I was expecting something completely different to what i got. Born Free or Gorillas in the Mist kind of story seemed obvious, but instead this book is more of a light hearted approach of a scientist cum writer who has set about revisiting his time in Kenya in the seventies. As I began reading the story I was expecting to hear a lot about baboons and how they interacted and what new scientific finds Sapolsky discovered with his intense study. But I guess I did not read the title properly, this isn't just about baboons, its a memoir of Sapolsky. 
 There is a lot of anecdotal stories in this book, surrounded the basis of the theme; a troop of Baboons that he studies over many years. Some of the side stories are just out there, 'I was wondering around Nairobi when I found an amazing rice shop, but the guy wanted my shoes' and other stories are really quite interesting from an historical point of view. I learnt something about how the Masai fought during World War 2 in africa, I read an interesting tiem spent hitch hiking through Uganda during the fall of Idi Amin, as you do. 
 But, I kept wanting to go back to the baboons, I was fascinated with the group and the Alpha Male battle, I wanted more of that. So all said and done, I enjoyed it, a great choice to break the Fantasy/SciFi habit. It is a nice easy read. Put it down, pick it up a few days later, no problems. I spent a Sunday morning with a cup of tea in bed finishing it off and that was a luxurious morning.