This month’s book is The Conditions of Love by Dale M. Kushner.Despite the big blue budgie on the cover, this book was not about a budgie! The Conditions of Love is the story of Eunice, a young girl struggling to find love as she journeys through life.

There is a budgie in the book, Mr. Puccini, a green and yellow bird (unlike the blue budgie on the cover) who teaches Mern, Eunice’s self-centered mother, “simple happiness”. When Mr. Puccini escapes through an open window Mern is devastated (as one would be). Though Mr. Puccini only appears on a few pages, Cooper thought he was the star of this beautifully written, poignant story.