maxinevsg's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

Very informative book that unfortunately went over my head a bit at times with the technical terminology of so many different fungi and species. But well written and the way she weaves her life into it makes it easier for the more casual (less forestry background) reader! 

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scmiller's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25


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hellavaral's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0


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camoo3032's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

2.5

This book is an autobiography interdispersed with science. Although both were interesting, the way they were spread throughout the book disrupted the flow of it. You never knew what the next page would contain (personal life or method of an experiment)

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redheadorganist's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

2.0

I did not enjoy the book, but I think it is still an important read. If you are interested in ecology or forestry, this will be more up your alley.

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carlyoc's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.5

A sweeping epic that covers decades of research intertwined with a memoir of personal discovery just the way the roots of the trees Simard studies mix with the mycelium of fungi. 
It is a slow burn, and definitely took me a while to get hooked. A little dense, frontloaded with facts about biology and history, it is not as approachable as Braiding Sweetgrass, which it otherwise has a lot of similarities with. 
We begin way back with Simard's ancestors engaging in small-scale logging, than Simard's early career in large-scale industrial logging. We follow her through grad school, marriage, early presentations of her work that met with great skepticism. Then raising kids, divorce, surviving breast cancer, finding new love, gaining renown and respect in the scientific world. 
We start with the idea that maybe clear cutting trees indiscriminantly is bad, then learn that trees of different species share nutrients with each other rather than existing in a state of pure competition. Then we learn that reaource sharing can go two ways, that mother trees can recognize their kin, that trees can transmit information about dangers and how to survive them, and that even the livelihood of yhe salmon in the rivers affects the surrounding trees. Within the decades encapsulated in this book, our entire understanding of trees has completely transformed. And now we get to see the woman behind many of those discoveries and learn how they transformed her own life too. 

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sramac's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

3.75


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officialgrittynhl's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

The general consensus seems to be Simard is not an effective writer. I really wanted to like this book, but I found it quite boring. It needed to be more explicitly marketed as an autobiography. I didn't know the personal cost to Simard for her discovery and I believe her life story does deserve to be held in books and by readers. I really wish she would have written more about indigenous concepts before the last chapter. I do love the allegory of Simard herself as a mother tree - although that was never explicitly mentioned and I believe she would have benefited from a straightforward comparison to herself as a mother tree at least once in the book. She has a powerful and moving story. Most people seem to find her description of her experiments boring, but I found it more interesting and approachable on audiobook. It was something I liked best about it, despite not enjoying the narration or writing much.

Much respect to Simard, her work, her life, and her story. 

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bibliomania_express's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny informative inspiring reflective

5.0


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aisabel's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5


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