As a botanist, I am always excited to find new books on mushrooms. They're plainly fascinating.
This book, however, did not do them justice. Lots and lots of facts, but delivered a bit too dry, in my opinion. Reading it felt more like a chore than a joy. I'm sure it's very interesting information, but I wasn't interested enough to keep reading after about 25%.

This book was amazing. I have no biology background, but I easily followed the complex discussions of fungal networks and symbiosis. Fungus is among us--far more than I ever knew!

SYNOPSIS

Entangled Life abounds with astounding facts about fungi. Sheldrake’s seminal work is densely packed with a plethora of scientific research, amazing facts and humor. Sheldrake has created a revolutionary narrative and is a must read for all ages.

Through Sheldrake’s eyes you will discover how mycelium networks manage to have such a superior ability to communicate over great distances at incredible speeds. Sheldrake describes how the communication methods include not just mushrooms or fungi, but insects, animals, plants and codependencies that are so eco-dependent that they become life and death. You will learn how mycelium computers could be in our foreseeable future.

The author explains how the very ground we stand on only exists because of fungi dating back into ancient history. Your forest walk will be forever changed when Sheldrake explains how ubiquitous the vast mycelium network is below ground. You will learn how fungi can assist urban rail architects in designing the most efficient routes.

Sheldrake provides the historic context of fungi across eons of time. He explains how, from an experts perspective; the interconnectedness of mycelium has literally been central to earths evolution. In addition, he covers a myriad of practical applications and uses for mushrooms. Entangled Life covers every aspect of the importance of fungi from scientific advances in research that include the development of mycelium based neural computers. Then there are the revelations of fungi based medical advances that may provide improved treatments for depression and anxiety. The examples don’t end there; Entangled Life also contains detailed information relating to the complexity and quotidian nature of mycelium networks and structures. There isn’t a forest on the planet that doesn’t hum with activity of mycelium in epic underground networks across endless spaces of our global arboretum.

Sheldrake further discusses the Wood Wide Web Labyrinth – AKA Mycorrhizal Relationships (the original WWW – Fungi, plants, bacteria, and trees). He details how fungi use chemicals to control or alter behaviors in plants, animals and insects. Zombie Ants are prime examples of how Ophiocordyceps, the zombie fungus, became totally dependent upon the Carpenter Ant. Even more exciting, is the possible environmental impact of fungi. Sheldrake reveals how in a process of mycoremediation, fungi are being used to decontaminate the environment.

Perhaps the most gratifying section of the book is the discussion on how mycelium networks manage complex communications in the absence of a central nervous system. Including the possibility of fungi based complex computer networks in the future.

If you are currently watching the latest Star Trek show then you know the Starship Discovery has a Spore drive. It allows the starship to instantly transport to any place along the mycelium network. A theory taken from some of the research described in Sheldrake’s book.

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake, is always informative and often fascinating look at the (mostly) hidden world of fungi. There’s a lot more to them than those shitakes you’re adding to your stir-fry and Sheldrake makes for an enthusiastic tour guide to all that lies beyond the edible mushroom (though he touches on those too).

Sheldrake begins with truffles (he goes on a truffle hunt with a couple of dogs and their trainer) and uses this early part to introduce us to the basic of fungal life and their development on Earth. Like the entirety of the book, this section is filled with choice details (a 2 to 8000-yr-old fungus in Oregon taking up ten square kilometers and weighing in at hundreds of tons, the fungi growing on the remains at Chernobyl, the amount of fungal spores in the air, etc.). You’re bound to find something that astonishes or fascinates or simply surprises you (like the connection to Star Trek), every few pages but Sheldrake doesn’t simply offer up nuggets of neat trivia. He moves from these fine details into bigger concepts, much as the fungi form networks of mycelia. Everything is connected is perhaps the biggest theme, and Sheldrake does a masterful job of painstakingly illustrating that concept.

So, we get the connections between fungi and trees, cutely but not inaccurately labeled the “Wood Wide Web.” The ways fungi manipulate other creatures, such as zombie suicide ants—the things of nightmares and horror films (and if you think we’re immune, think of how our love of altered experiences has gotten us to make more fermenting yeasts or “magic mushrooms”). The way fungi scorn our categorizing minds’ attempts to label everything and neatly put things in their place by blurring the idea of boundaries, between sexes, between species, between organisms. As Sheldrake muses as one point:

Can we think about a plant without also thinking about the mycorrhizal networks that lace outward — extravagantly — from its roots into the soil. If we follow the tangled sprawl of mycelium that emanates from its roots, then where do we stop? . . . Do we think about the neighboring fungal networks that fuse with those of our plant? … The other plants whose roots share the very same fungal network?

Sheldrake also offers up some more grounded, pragmatic explorations. The use of fungi in health care for instance (a history dating back thousands of years). Or on a larger scale, its use in healing the world of the scars we have inflicted on it by using fungi’s unmatched ability to filter and/or break things down, such as pesticides or toxic metals and chemicals (“mycofiltration”). Or the new field of “mycofabrication” which uses the properties of mycelium to replace other materials, such as Styrofoam packaging or even brick and concrete. Mycelium, after all, is “lightweight, flame resistant, fire retardant, stronger than concrete when subjected to bending forces . . . better insulating than polystyrene and can be grown in a matter of days into an unlimited number of forms.” But don’t just take Sheldrake’s word for it. Nasa is looking into “Mycotecture” as a means of building moon structures and DARPA has funded a company called Ecovative to look into “growing” temporary housing for soldiers or natural disaster victims. And in a nice touch of putting one’s money where one’s mouth is with regards to fungi’s practical uses, the illustrations in the book are drawn with the ink of the coprinus mushroom.

Despite his enthusiasm for all the above, Sheldrake is meticulous about adding any necessary caveats, always a bit marker for me when evaluating the quality of a non-fiction work. In discussing the “network” concept of the Wood Wide Web, for instance, he also quotes those who dismiss the concept as a bit of scientific hyperbole and he offers the same counterpoints to the claim that plants warn other plants of distress, say from attacking insects. While detailing the many possible uses of fungi in the medical, agricultural, or industrial worlds, he doesn’t shy away from the huge difficulties in scaling up lab results to real world application. It would have been in his enthusiasm to omit or downplay these points of view, but Sheldrake always plays fair with the reader.

Besides the willingness to fully and respectfully share various viewpoints, another test for me of a good non-fiction book is if I read the notes sections and if I do, how fully. I read all of them. And then used some of their references to keep reading. And if making the reader want to learn more about a topic isn’t the mark of a good non-fiction work, I don’t know what is. Sheldrake does that and everything else right here. Fascinating, engaging, surprising, engrossing, thought-provoking. An excellent example of showing us how the hidden and/or mundane is never truly either.

A fascinating look at how fungi support life all around us. Yes, we all know mushrooms, but do we? So many different fungi....including mushrooms....that we never see or realize their functions. As I read this book, I started poking around on my nature walks and definitely was amazed at these organisms that have been around me forever. It's true, you are never too old to learn.

Science books should be fascinating, right? They should bring you new insights on every page. Too often, however, they bog down in the familiar pattern of laying out ecology and ending with a chapter on how human beings are destroying everything (important to note, but repetition strips the impact a bit). I am happy to report for everyone needing a new science read that Merlin Sheldrake jettisons the boring and replaces it with fascinating insights - some grounded in fact and some presented as speculation and wonder. In chapters that cover the "brain-like" decision-making of fungi, the sometimes dangerous world of truffles, and the pervasiveness of lichen, Sheldrake reveals how little we actually know about fungi and how much we still have to learn (for instance, "ninety percent of their species remains undocumented"). Presenting possibilities for slime molds (rerouting traffic) and showing how "entangled" we really are with these little known "metabolic wizards," Sheldrake informs and entertains at once. I felt like I was listening to a great lecture and was sad for the work to end.

Entangled Life is a deeply interesting and layman accessible survey course on the ubiquitous fungi surrounding us by Dr. Merlin SheldrakeDr. Merlin Sheldrake. Due out 12th May from Random House, it's 368 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

The layout is logical and easy to follow. Beginning by defining the characteristics of fungi (not just mushrooms!) the author carefully builds up to larger interconnections and the roles fungi and fungal systems carry out in their respective ecosystems. It was surprisingly easy for me (a non-mycologist) to follow, and felt at times like an engaging narrative as the very best nature/science writing does. It's richly footnoted and full of links and bibliography resources for further reading. There is also a charming amount of poetic whimsy and philosophy encapsulated in the author's prose. It's a pleasant and heady mix and I enjoyed it very much. He even includes a short list of his musical inspirations in the acknowledgements and it was a lot like looking at my own work playlists and it made me smile (in a fellow-feeling nerdish manner, as one does).

Educational and entertaining without being stodgy or tedious, I learned a lot and came away from the book with a much deeper appreciation of the finely tuned and wondrously interconnected web of life encompassing all of us. I would absolutely recommend this one to fans of science/nature writing, and especially to fans of Stephen Jay Gould and similar.

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This, simply, was one of the most beautifully written things I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

I've always been a big fan of mushrooms for eating, and a big fan of the fungal world for exploring. Fungus gets short shrift, which is sad, given that it's one of the more integral and interesting forms of life on this planet (though it stands to reason that it might seem so interesting because its been ignored and unexplored for, oh, all but the last 60 years, at least by Western standards). Because of this, every time a new book on mushrooms pops up, I try to give it a read. Whether they're psychedelic or symbiotic or just good eating, I want to learn more about their fungal friends.

For some reason, without fail, from Terrence McKenna to Michael Pollen, all of these missives smack of the poetic, but <i>Entangled Life</i> takes the cake. There were passages in this book, ostensibly non-fiction, ostensibly not just a collection of wonderfully written essays but a scientific (if pop-scientific) text that were just so beautiful I had to interrupt my partner, regardless of what he was doing, to read them out loud to him. On top of that, there were points where I had to do the same thing just to make him laugh. Sheldrake manages to be quirky and clever without being twee, and the prose luscious and lovely without compromising its ability to convey the sheer magnitude of scientific fact. I could make a metaphor here about how both of these things might actually have been enhanced by each other much in the way that algae and fungi combine to become lichen, but instead I'll pretend like I didn't just say any of that.

This was thoroughly enjoyable. I haven't made my way through all the notes at the end of the text yet, but suffice is to say that I <i>want</i> to. I really <i>want</i> to. I genuinely want more of this book. Or perhaps, as Sheldrake suggests in the epilogue, I should give it over to the earth, leave it to ferment, and drink it as a wordy beer, but then, I don't think I really need to. I'm already intoxicated with it.

I had a hard time with this one. I usually love books that really dive into one specific aspect of nature. Unfortunately, I think this would've been much more enjoyable as a long read article. It feels too repetitive from the perspective of someone with a casual interest in the subject (as opposed to fungi enthusiasts, who would probably get more more out of it)!

Interesting but lacks some clarity

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed the content and thought that the science was adequately explained. There were occasional glimpses of humor and Merlin Sheldrake puts himself into the story, something which I generally enjoy. There were two downsides. The first is that it could have explained fungal anatomy even better with more illustrations as this would provide a solid foundation for the rest of the book. The second is that the writing style was not conversational. I thought that Sheldrake was trying to be literary in his approach but all that did is obfuscate the actual information. After a while I just started skipping stuff. Nonetheless, this is a book worth reading.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

Fascinating look at the fungal world like never before. The author is not just an expert but a devotee of mushrooms and provides an endless amount of fascinating information and stories. Sorry but fascinating is the only word that will do for much of it. Few illustrations done with inky mushroom ink add to the book but it would benefit from photos and more illustrations since it's so text heavy and some of us can't read 200 pages of even fascinating mushroom information without going a little cross-eyed without more text breaks. :) Fully 1/3 of the book (over 100 pages) are references and bibliography. Truly a book for anyone interested in mushrooms and other fungi, from biologists to fermenters, it's a must-read for mushroom lovers.

(A hand injury makes me temporarily unable to type well with my right hand so my reviews will be shorter than usual for a bit. Review copy via net galley).

While I appreciate the information Sheldrake has compiled, I think more visuals are needed. The illustrations of spores is poor compared to many of texts on the market and I don't think this will be a patron favorite.