This book is about keeping chickens, but it is also a feather-clad soap opera of primal urges. Written from firsthand experience, its pages are filled with the quest for absolute power, sex, death, jealousy, and huge vet bills. Beyond all the intrigue and drama, however, there are even some practical lessons to be learned about what not to do when keeping chickens.

Martin Gurdon’s hilarious “chicken memoir” relives the highs and lows of chicken ownership. The relationship between birds and humans is by turns heartwarming and bewildering, but it is always entertaining.