(Note: I first wrote this for Amazon.com book review section, and decided to include it here.I have made some spelling corrections but otherwise this is exactly how it appears on Amazon.com)

Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (Temple Grandian)

This book is engagingly written. It is, however, quite full of factual inaccuracies. This is the first book in nearly a decade I declined to finish because of the level of inaccuracies. There are the minor ones (for example, she refers to insects as not animals - she meant they were not mammals, I think) that show sloppy editorial review. There are also substantial ones (for example, she refers to the collie breed as being stupid because poor genetics have morphed their brain case; this is a theory first put forth around 1900 and conclusively disproved numerous times, and is now considered entirely discredited). Even her description of cattle behavior, a topic on which she has substantial traction, is apparently dangerously inaccurate according to two friends who grew up on dairy farms.
While the book is engagingly written the number of substantive factual errors suggest the best thing you can do with this book is discard it. Ms. Grandin is well respected in the field of autism research, I hope she is a lot more careful talking about autism.