Entangled Life

This is without a doubt the best read in a while and I recommend this to anyone with a bit of interest in nature. It's great because of three things. First, it's a great introduction into the little-known but perhaps most important organisms on our planet: fungi. You can't imagine how incredibly interesting this stuff is. Second, it relates the complexity and systemic nature to so many other parts of our lives and the world that surrounds us. And third, it is incredibly well written. Great use of language, great anecdotes. Fantastic!

Any book that helps me keep my bees alive is a winner. I was struggling for a bit to want to pick this up, mostly because I had read a lot of nonfiction this year, but once the author starting talking animal behavior I was hooked. It's like a huge chunk of it was written specifically for me. Fungi are fascinating though and I think this book taught me a lot and scared the crap out of me as well.

Never even thought about fungi until I read this book. Only now are they starting to be recognised as something distinct from plants. And they seem to have this amazing ability to cooperate with other life forms. Google “fungus zombie ants” for one of the most amazing examples of what fungi can do. Not really a full book length of material in this book but mostly entertaining nonetheless.

This book is a brilliant choice if you want to pick up non-fiction that still feels fun. It's accessible, full on interesting facts and written in a pleasant way by a person who sounds cool.

Some people are incredibly odd in a great way. You know, like the people you randomly meet and then, you don't even know how, end up listening to blabbering about some totally unexpected topic AND they make you interested, even though you have no idea you could be.
This is what it feels like reading the writing of Merlin Sheldrake.
This book isn't dry at all, he has a lot of weird charisma about him.

I expected this book to be mainly about mushrooms that humans consume, and a bunch of it was. From truffle hunting to magic mushrooms, yeast that makes bread and alcohol.
But also a bunch of ways in which fungi communicate, breed, exist with other plants and animals. Ways in which they can be used to make compostable packaging and cure bees.
In that way, it felt almost short. I wanted to know more, I wanted to hear more from this person and his odd obsession with running around in a jungle. Making cider in a dorm room.

So while it was a lot of scientific information, it never felt too much or suffocating. It kept me interested and a lot of it was unexpected. This is the enjoyable way to learn. I have already recommended it to multiple people in my life and I will continue to do so.

I feel forlorn. There I was, two-thirds in, savoring every page, when suddenly: Epilogue. (The rest are endnotes. They look tantalizing, but I wish I'd known about them up front). Anyhow, I was enjoying it so so much and was not ready for it to end. I hope you'll be better prepared.

If you've been following the exciting work on mycorrhizal systems; if you loved Fantastic Fungi; if relationships (among humans and all living creatures) fascinate you – you will likely enjoy this book. If you ever ponder the illusion of Self, or marvel at our Earth – you will learn from this book and love the process.

A good tour of some of the ways fungi are shaping us, whether those avenues are medical, culinary, or even social. The writing is entirely accessible and the personal narrative weaving its way through gives it life and brings the sometimes disparate topics together into a cohesive book. 
I have learned and thought a lot because of this book. The author seems like an intriguing personality. 
In spite of these favourable views, I did still find myself thinking about whether certain things were repeated too often, and I did miss the presence of some kind of mycological scientific primer.

It's clear that the author comes to this subject with a sense of wonder, happy to explore new and old questions that don't necessarily have answers. It also seems the author is happy to float off a little farther outside the box than the textual framework might initially seem to support, and that he's happy to repeat himself if he thinks it will help convey the information he's focused on. There were many nifty tidbits, but it does feel more like a personal journey of the author's relationship to and ongoing studies of fungi, less like an investigative summary of the facts as we know them. 
 We'll chalk this one up to me having incorrect expectations. 🤷🏼‍♂️

⚠️Heads up:
Nematode worm eating/hunting fungus/mushrooms description and what  zombie fungi do to carpenter ants  could make great content for the relatively new subgenre of “sporror” I keep hearing about (that I will never ever read) (apparently the second one already has been inspiration for fictional media?)

I did also flip through the Illustrated Edition as my library also had it. A work of art. Absolute feast for the eyes. Photography, microscopy, and illustrations, all in full colour, a gorgeous coffee table book. (Coulda done with out a couple of those insect shots. 😶‍🌫️)