Aliya Whiteley’s The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries from a Hidden World is an enlightening and engaging exploration of the fascinating world of fungi. Whiteley’s writing is both accessible and informative, making complex biological concepts easily understandable for readers of all backgrounds. The book delves into the incredible diversity and hidden roles of fungi in ecosystems, offering intriguing insights into their impact on the environment and their often-overlooked contributions to life on Earth.

Whiteley’s enthusiasm for her subject shines through, capturing the reader's imagination with stories of fungi's remarkable abilities and their interconnectedness with other life forms. The book is filled with captivating anecdotes and vivid descriptions that bring the secret life of fungi to light. It’s a celebration of the often-unseen world beneath our feet, revealing how these organisms influence everything from nutrient cycling to human health.

Overall, The Secret Life of Fungi is a compelling read for anyone interested in nature, science, or simply discovering the wonders of the natural world. Whiteley’s ability to make scientific exploration both engaging and approachable makes this book a standout in popular science literature.

A wonderfully written book that makes fungi fascinating. I read it in one sitting and kept interrupting our quiet living room with fungi facts I couldn't help but share.

This compact volume is split into short chapters, each exploring a different type of fungi, or way that fungi behave. We are taken to space, the Artic and the Sahara. We learn about buildings made of bricks of fungi, decomposition, creation and destruction.

I picked up this book with little knowledge of this strange kingdom and finished it feeling better informed and all the more intrigued. Whitely’s passion comes across in all she writes, and she often links fungi to bigger philosophical thoughts.

I’d buy this book for anyone interested in the natural world and the connections between all living things. A delight to either dip into or devour in one go.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A nice quick introductory read on mushrooms and fungi in general. This book is very basic in the sense of the science and information contained about fungi, and really just barely scratches the surface. Having read books like "Radical Mycology" this book was a little basic for myself. If you are just getting into mycology though, this is a great introduction to spur on the imagination and potential possibilities of fungi and their uses.

I did enjoy some of the authors perspectives on fungi, and some of her analogies, but again it was a little basic. Great for beginners who are just dipping there toes into the mycelium thriving dirt, but if you are a bit more knowledgeable about mycology and the study of various fungi and molds, then this may not be quite what you are looking for.

This is a lovely book about a fascinating topic - mushrooms! The chapters focus on different aspect of mushrooms - in nature, in science, in literature, and explore their fascinating properties - how mushrooms can grow in disaster zones, can take over huge forests and decimate thousands of trees, how they feed on dead bodies, how they can poison you (but also cure you!)... It was fascinating. I regret that the chapters are so short - at times it lacked depth or details - but it is a lovely book to keep on a coffee table.

It’s safe to say that I’m a massive fan of fungi and mycology. After reading Entangled Life earlier this year and loving it, I was excited to see which direction Aliya would take in her book.

It’s clear that she is a writer and novelist rather than a mycologist. Her book takes more of a lyrical and folkloric view of fungi. She’s full of enthusiasm, thinner on the facts. Despite this, I loved it! Just as diversity is essential in nature, I think diversity in writing about nature is important too!

Normally when I read a nature book I’m inspired to search the internet for images, news stories, more facts... This was different! This was full of inspiration for stories! Science fiction, fantasy, gothic horror, folklore, myths, legends and fairy tales could all bring fungi into the limelight, pages where mushrooms have starring roles.

This is a perfect book for someone who is starting to develop an interest in mushrooms, enough facts to whet an appetite for further reading.

The Secret Life of Fungi is a personal and passionate journey, a fun and accessible study of one of the most fascinating life forms on our planet.

Thanks to @elliotandthompson for my #gifted ebook via @netgalley.

What a lovely little ode to all the fantastic fungi we share our lives and deaths with 🤍🍄🤍

I found this book to be such a wonderfully unique, quirky, quick read. It’s sort of like a love letter from the author to her mushroom friends. A sweet book packed with information and enchanting personal stories that make it very readable and keep the reader engaged. Some of the facts about fungi were new to me and super surprising and exciting.

There is a recipe in the book which I really wish had been plant-based and vegan friendly. I’ll be veganizing it because anything you can eat, I can eat vegan.

Enter this book expecting part encyclopedia, part memoir and you’ll fall in love with fungi just like I did. Full disclosure - I already loved fungi before reading but I love them even more now!

Thank you to Aliya Whiteley, Elliott and Thompson, and #NetGallery an ecopy of #SecretLifeFungi for an honest review. Review will be posted on NetGallery, Goodreads, Facebook, and Instagram.

If you are expecting a comprehensive guide to fungi, this is not the book for you. However, what this book is is a very charming almost memoir of the author's experiences with and enthusiasm for fungi. I went in hoping for a heavier scientific angle, but I was not disappointed by what the book actually was! I found the author's voice to be occasionally scattered, but always enthusiastic.

Whitely’s life long fascination and love of the world of fungi is infectious in this thought provoking look into an overlooked corner of our ecosystem. From exploring the multi million dollar enterprise of truffles and mushrooms to their role in breaking down old organic material to make way for new, readers will be astounded to learn what goes on in the world under their feet

I really enjoyed this short novel. I was expecting it to be more about fungi and less about the writers interest in it, and so I certainly enjoyed the parts about the properties more fascinating than the parts about walking etc. It makes me want to check out Whiteley's fiction next!

Plenty of Breathless Enthusiasm but lacking in depth and detail of information

I so hoped I was going to love this book, which should have worked well for me. I am always captivated by individual passion and enthusiasm for a subject, which will prevent the merely dry accumulation of fact. So I started with this huge enthusiasm, Whiteley captivated me by her personal style of expression and her charmingly Tiggerish personality and bounce about the subject.

Unfortunately this was mainly what I got. Time and again she bounced excitedly around the subject of a chapter, threatening (I hoped) to deliver some amazingly fascinating, thought provoking information, bounding up to a finishing line which seemed to cycle between ‘We don’t really know everything, or anything about fungi’ and ‘The human world and the fungi world are different’

She did, for a moment, move and entrance me and give me the ‘I want more to think about’ moment in a beautiful chapter juxtaposition between what might be one of the ‘kindest’ (human perspective, human needs agenda) of fungi, the psilocybin in magic mushrooms, and others, their effects as a person is near death, and the terror of personal ceasing to be and and what seems the most terrible, the most savage, the cruellest – a Cordyceps. I already knew about that particular Cordyceps and the creature it so cruelly affects, but the combination of the two chapters was a stunning one.

Identifying what is missing, for me, in this book, though has led me to search out other writings, more satisfying to my needs, so I’m grateful to the good writing style and the joyous excitement in Whiteley, for taking me to the gate of the field, even if she couldn’t take me both to wider horizons, or to particular focus.

I expected this to be somewhat closer to what a natural world writer like Peter Wohlleben or Sharman Apt Russell gives, where the engaging personality of the writer is firmly anchored to deeper information

In this illuminating book, Aliya Whiteley delves into everything from cellular makeup to the fascinating ways fungi interact with their surroundings and other species, as well as the many varied roles they've played in our own civilization. The vast potential of these understudied organisms is still untapped; though long used as a source of food and medicine, they could also hold the key to a variety of scientific advances, from agriculture to environmental innovations. The Secret Life of Fungi is a glimpse into their incredible, surprising and dark world: a lyrical tour through the eruption, growth and decay under our feet, overhead, and even inside us.

A memoir of Whiteley’s love of the fascinating world of fungi, this is a lively and passionate exploration of an organism fundamental to sustaining life on earth which is often either neglected, misunderstood or both. Her enthusiasm for her topic and the accessible, conversational prose makes this a joyful read and she points out exactly how her interest in fungi has grown deeper over the years. Whereas Merlin Sheldrake’s recent book Entangled Life focused on how fungi supports life and was all-encompassing, this book, in contrast, focuses on how Whiteley’s life has been enriched by the many different types of fungi and their stories and is much more layperson friendly. Many thanks to Elliott & Thompson for an ARC.

Never take a mushroom for granted.

Drawing on history, ecology, taxonomy, etymology, biology, literature and ‘rocket science’, The Secret Life of Fungi is well-informed and convivial, full of anecdotes and interesting facts. At times, the reader might question where Whiteley is going with her thread, but she manages to weave a bewitching narrative, while demonstrating an eagerness to understand and share the quintessence of her subject.

Whiteley’s skills as a fiction writer and her evident love of language engage the reader.

Don’t expect an all-you-need-to-know manual of mushrooms, but rather a commentary and memoir oozing with wonder for this kingdom of life about which much remains to be discovered.

Comes complete with the special bonus of a reading list of fungal fiction.

My thanks to NetGalley and to Elliott & Thompson for the ARC.

Entertaining.

I loved this short nonfiction book. The author is enamoured of her subject and ranges widely in the world of mushrooms, mildew lichen and the rest. This isn't a guide to fungi, instead it looks at everything to do with them like food, folklore, ecological science, sour dough, popular culture, archaeology. She mixes her own experiences into the book. I found it really immersive and fascinating. I got this ebook from Netgalley.

I chose this book because I am interested in Biology in general, and I wanted to learn more about fungi. I should perhaps have realised that a book written by an author who mostly writes fictional works would not be a fact-heavy, scientific one! I unfortunately didn’t learn anything new from this book.

However, although not to my personal taste, this book was not without interest. It is rather like a love story between the author and fungi. It provides a good overview of all the many places and situations fungi turn up in, and conveys the author’s wonder at the vast variety that populate our world.

I personally found it irritating that so much of the book was taken up with stories, personal anecdotes, and imaginings. Some of it seemed tedious and a little repetitive. I felt like I was constantly on the edge of reading something really interesting, but it never quite materialised. Hence, I have given it only two stars, representing my personal enjoyment. However, I think it could be really enjoyable for other readers. It could well serve as a magical and entertaining introduction to the mysterious world of fungi.

I was given a free copy of this book, my opinions are my own.

A superb, petite meditation on one of nature's most fascinating forms of life. Aliya guides us through several interesting thoughts, facts and reflections on mycology. I'd gladly read this again, and would recommend reading it to anyone out on a foray for fungi!