This is the perfect read for all the science nerds out there who have a short attention span but want to read ALL THE THINGS about ALL THE THINGS. Covering an exceptionally wide range of topics, How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi has a little something for everyone from medical science to careers in science and everything in between.

What I loved about this book is that the information for each topic was not only clearly given by experts in the field but were extremely informative in just a few pages per topic. This made it perfect for a quick read while waiting in line at the grocery store or during ads on a streaming channel, because honestly I'd rather read about microbiomes than watch another pharmaceutical ad for a disease that last time I checked, I did not have. The quirky humor that I share made the individual articles all the more entertaining. Some of the chapters were a bit more technical and boring than others, but that is personal preference and also probably based on the fact that I was an English major who made the mistake of marrying a math nerd and then birthed two math nerd babies so the Math is Fun chapter was decidedly not fun for me.

This book is the perfect gift for yourself or your fellow nerdy friend or lover. If you are a huge fan of Mary Roach or Nerd Nite, I highly recommend you don't miss out on this. I read many of the articles out loud to my husband before bed and neither of us had heard of Nerd Nite before. It has now been added to our bucket list the next time they are performing in town and we can't wait for any future books to be published from Nerd Nites across the country.

Thank you to NetGalley, Dr. Chris Balakrishnan, Matt Wasowski, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi is a fun, engaging, and yes, nerdy collection of trivia curated and collected by Dr. Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski. Released 20th Feb 2024 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's imprint, it's 296 pages and is 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.

Nerd nite is an informal collection of fun/funny/engaging mini talks, sort of TED-lite, or Baker Street Irregulars with more self-awareness. It's illustrated throughout with catchy simple line drawings by Kristen Orr.

The entries are arranged somewhat thematically: zoology and natural science, neurobiology, bodily fluids (yep), sex and attraction, health (lots of really cool info about gut microbiomes and other squishy stuff in this chapter), pathogens, death, space, tech, math, and jobs in STEM and related fields.

Four stars. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, home use, gift giving, and reference. It's not set up like most trivia catalogs and will have limited applicability for trivia teams. It's just a collection of cool, widely varying, STEM info with a lot of humor which is layman accessible.

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

Thank you to the authors Dr. Christopher Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski, publishers St. Martin's Press, for an advance hardback copy of HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE FUNGI. Thank you also to NetGalley for a widget. All views are mine.

Opening Quote: Please let us get this out of the way. The contributions in this chapter are not about zombies. We’re sorry. Loc.454

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. I adore that the endeavor, Nerd Nite, seeks out professionals who are still earning their bona-fides, so that the careers of these professionals are served while the audience is being entertained and educated.

2. This collection of essays starts with two of my favorite animals-- first spiders (or in this case, a spider myth-mimic, the camel spider, which is even more amazing) and then cephalopods. Yes I'm aware that word describes a class and not a single animal. I'm kind of in love with this book.

3. Very useful topics covered: Misophonia (the experience of finding certain sounds heating on the nerves or emotions); synesthesia (tasting colors or feeling songs); wildlife preservation;

4. The section introductions are hilarious! From one of them, I was reminded of the terrible and titillating diarrhea ditty of my childhood, which was both a joy and a gross out 💩😆

5. The chapter on worms is wonderfully disgusting!

6. I love that Dr. Ali Mattu, in the essay "How Not to Destroy Ourselves," reminds me that [there] was a treaty signed by the entire world to fix the hole in our ozone. And... it worked! Loc.2364 I was in elementary school when this happened, but I remember the sense of urgency gripping everyone. That was before the environment became a politicized issue. But it gives me hope that people not only can come together on the issue of the environment, but they can accomplish great things when they do.

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. I disagree that microdosing is the best option science has given us to treat psychiatric illness.

2. This book is unquestionably liberal in tone. Regardless of my personal politics, I'm not a fan of this sort of didactics, especially when couched in popular science. "If you care about teens, don't ever vote for a Republican." Loc.1636

3. These essays are very short. Which can be good. But a page or two about a scientific topic is nothing and often I wished the author's had given me just a little bit more.

Rating: 🧲⚗️🔬🧬 / 5 nerdy essays
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: Feb 20 '24
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
🪳 stories about insects
🐕 stories about animals
🗿 stories about history
📃 very short essays

If you're like me and love knowing little tidbits about many different things and find STEM topics fascinating but can't wrap your mind around a career in STEM, this is the book for you.
There are tons of quick little essays that delve just deep enough into a wide variety of topics to help you understand just how amazing the topic discussed is. Some do go a little too hard into the complicated points, but if there's one thing that I most enjoyed about this book, it is that the authors are perfectly willing to chime in and recognize when things get too complex for the average Joe.
As is the case with most anthologies and essay collections, there are some that I wish were a lot longer and some that come off as rambly. I feel that this is pretty much mandatory with collections as not everything will be for everyone, yet it's the one thing that kept this from being a full five-star read.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the educational read!

I had never heard of Nerd Nite before but I bet it's fun. Like any book with a selection of authors, there is a selection of skills. Some of these are funny, most interesting, and I have to admit that I didn't get some of them. Worth your time. I'm positive it's better with beer :).

I think Nerd Nites are probably a lot of fun and I would definitely be interested in checking one out with friends. Unfortunately it didn’t translate to the written page for me and I ultimately decided to DNF. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free book to review.

I’m a nerd. I love science. I love finding the strange in the real world. How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi is such fun for someone like me to read. I am not familiar with Nerd Nite, yet. If everything they do is so informative and entertaining then I will be soon.

From the founders of Nerd Nite, which has been putting on live shows in 100+ cities since 2003, comes an epic collection of short essays from experts in their fields about a wide variety of bizarre and fascinating STEM topics - like The Science of the Hangover, Mass Extinction, Zombies Are Real and You Might Be One, Cut It Off!:A Civil War Amputation, What Does Google See?, Artificial Gravity in Science Fiction, and What I Learned About Dating Apps (Generally) After I Spent Five F**king Years Studying Them for a PhD.

This book is so fun to read - I’ve been picking it up and reading a few essays at a time - and it would make a great gift for any nerd in your life (I’m passing along my copy to my dad when I’m done). The essays are all quick reads and serve as a great starting point to find a topic that sparks your interest. Love it!

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi Is a compilation of various nerd night presentations given around the world by nerds to nerds. Want to read about interesting sea creatures? Sex? Health? Death? Tech? Math? They are all here…plus much much more.

Each chapter is a short 5-10 minute read. The topics remind me of those in an intelligent bathroom reader. The chapters quickly get repetitive when read in order all at once. So, they are best read in small doses.

I am the embodiment of this book’s core audience. I’m a Business Systems Analyst but also a CPA. I’m a card-carrying member of Mensa, who loves logic puzzles and taking college courses just for fun. Still, some of these topics were boring. Perhaps 30 percent of the chapters were totally forgettable. I quickly learned to skim quickly to the end of those topics. An equal number of chapters were so great I was describing them to my husband at dinner. So, a fairly good mix.

If you are curious and like to know unusual facts (that honestly you will never need for anything other than Jeopardy or perhaps a British pub quiz), pick up a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

This is such a fun collection. Its funny, entertaining, and informative. Nothing felt too hard to understand and all of it will facilitate really fun conversations at parties. The best part of this collection was that it reignited my curiousity and love for science and math. I will definitely be checking out Nerd Nite in my city as well as buying a copy of this for all my friends becuase it was so fun.


Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for a copy of this book. How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi is out Feburary 20th!

I had never heard of Nerd Nite before, but I enjoy learning more about STEM related topics. This book was basically a compilation of Nerd Nite presentations, many of which I found very engaging and interesting. The problem for me was that many of the sections were very minimal, and some of the sections were very superficial and seemed to mostly contain common knowledge.

I think this book would be good for people who don't have much knowledge in STEM subjects and want to learn more. Many of the topics are quite interesting and could urge people to explore the topics more in depth. As someone who works in STEM and enjoys learning unique related facts, this book mostly told me about a lot of things I already knew about. I imagine it would be a lot more fun to attend a Nerd Nite Presentation and have a beer while contemplating sex changes in clown fish. I'll definitely keep an eye out for the next one in my area!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a diversion from my usual novel reading, and I admit it to be a good one. If you've ever enjoyed the miraculous and strange in the physical or natural world, this book will amaze you in the same way as sideshows and circuses and Ripley's Believe it or not.
Taken from episodes in over 21 years of "Nerd Nite" across the country, the essays in this book cover oddities in science, history, math, the arts, pop culture, and just about any rabbit hole you can go down on the internet or otherwise, the book gives new perspective on what is "nerdy" or "weird." Concluding with conversations on careers most of us wouldn't have had with our guidance counselors.
As such, it makes a great gift book, both to the scientists and others who are interested in just about everything, and to that high school grad who doesn't quite seem to fit in. Full of fascinating facts and puns, it is easy "hard" reading (and I don't pretend to understand it all.)
How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi (thing "fun guy") will be released on February 20, 2024. Thanks To St. Martin's and NetGalley for expanding horizons!

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for access to this arc.


I'd never heard of Nerd Nites before (and sadly there are none near me) but this sounded like a great offbeat and interesting book. It's composed of short essays on STEM subjects that have been presented at said Nerd Nites around the world where experts tell a little bit about interesting subjects to an audience drinking alcoholic beverages. I think the idea is to be both fun and informative. 

In a group of subjects as large as contained here, there will obviously be some of interest and some that just won't float your boat no matter how well done. With that in mind, I will admit to skipping about 5-7 of the essays but that still left a lot that I read. Some I found to be great - informative, long enough to cover the subject, and well explained. Others were okay but perhaps ended too quickly before really getting going. A few made me think "Huh, what was the point of that?" I wish that a few of the presenters would have stayed on the subject and left their politics out of it and when I say this, keep in mind that I don't want anyone's politics regardless of their side. As Sgt Joe Friday never said, "Just the facts, ma'am." 

Interesting subjects and information I learned: someone actually studied dating apps for their PhD, octopi are as fascinating as I thought they were (their suckers taste things!), "Finding Nemo" got about everything regarding clownfish wrong, I wish the essay on misophonia had been more detailed and less "cutesy" but it did make me go look it up to learn more, phonemes and phonemic constraints for different languages are fascinating, NASA's "waste" management is fascinating and a potential source of rocket fuel, reading about maggot wound debridement is simultaneously fascinating and revolting, microbiomes might be a source of neuropsychiatric disorders, GMO's are nothing to fear, bacteria are just waiting to be our friends but we must treat them well, Sam Kean does a great job describing what drove the interest of the guy who helped formulate standard was to design scientific experiments as well as explain why some people like their milk first then tea or vice versa, if your dog gets into your underwear/knickers drawer and swallows them it's better for the dog if you wear thongs, and flames - I never thought what they actually are either.

I speed read this but it's the style of book that you can do that or dip a leisurely toe in when you've got a minute or five. Delve into what interests you or skip what doesn't. And check to see if there's a Nerd Nite near you. B/B-

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi by Chris Balakrishnan and Matt Wasowski is a collection of STEM topics culled from various Nerd Night presentations held around the world. It is recommended for those interested in STEM topics (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The collection is illustrated by Kristen Orr.

Chris and Matt are the co-founders of the global science organization Nerd Nite, which was founded in 2003. The presentations cover a wide variety of topics from the monthly events held in over 100 cities where the presenters give a 20 minute informative and fun presentation. Those presenting are scientists, doctoral or masters students, or experts on a specific topic. The articles are short enough to read quickly, the range of topics is quirky and vast, and many are geared toward adult readers. It might help your enjoyment to stretch out reading the collection over a week or two rather than reading them back to back at one time.

As with any collection there were hits and misses in the selections for me. The wide range of topics covered make it a given that something will be appealing to individual readers. Many of the selections are informative and very funny. They were probably highly entertaining and memorable to hear in person, and I enjoyed reading them immensely. However there were also several where my inner nerd wanted some good footnotes and supporting documentation because they were missing the mark while presenting supposition as fact. Perhaps this was due to the assumption that the supportive audience wouldn't care, but as a reader I do care. (My appreciation of supporting materials has been well documented over the years.) I do understand that a short verbal presentation does not always reference supporting studies and documentation, but is some cases it was needed. Thanks to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, X, and Amazon.

This book will appeal to readers more interested in breadth than depth. There’s a lot of interesting information, but it’s superficial, which is fine—if you want more information, you’ve got the entire internet at your fingertips. At the same time, for me, it wasn’t the sort of book I like to sit down and read through—it moved from one topic to another pretty fast. Also, some of the essays were more scholarly, some more fun and conversational, some downright juvenile, which I found off-putting. As a result, the book lost my trust as a reader and I decided not to finish it. I may go through it again later when I have time to read more judiciously.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I have FOUND MY PEOPLE! As a kid in the late 60's, I was interested in lots of things and loved grabbing the Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia my mom bought at the grocery store for a buck a book, back in the day. It was a great read...and yes...I read it front to back...more than once.

In 6th grade, decades ago, the male students decided to call each other Warthogs. I decided to read up on them (the Warthogs, not my male classmates) and give a talk about Warthogs. I had charts and photos and everything you'd ever want to know about Warthogs (as provided by Funk and Wagnall’s). My classmates were stunned that a GIRL would research something they were using as a 'put down' for other students...but my report was FUNNY and by the end of my 'stand-up routine'...everyone was laughing their heads off. I think I was just a little before my time...but I digress
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How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi was made for people like me. Knowledgeable types that know a little bit about a lot of things. Just enough to be able to add a sentence or two about lots of topics and look knowledgeable. Plus, the humor is great! I loved each of the Nerd Nite chapters by people who are really smart about their specific topic and can add humor to the science! I was taken back to my time lying on the floor of the living room with the Funk and Wagnall’s open in front of me and learning something about things I hadn’t known before.

A great book to have in your back pocket or on your tablet or phone to be able to read an essay or two while waiting in line Grab a paperback for the bathroom!. Great information with a lot of fun anecdotes. I highly recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for permission to read this work prior to its publication date. "How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi" is a collection of essays from researchers that share their awesome discoveries on "Nerd Nite" A presentation-based show that tows cities bringing STEM to people in relatable ways. That is exactly what these essays do- I really felt like the pieces were approachable and enjoyed reading them. Though I did love them and it is a great read, you might many of the essays have sexual themes, so be mindful of that if you're planning to gift this to a teen.

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi is an eclectic collection covering a wide range of STEM topics. This volume does not need to be read as a whole. While the book is divided up into multiple sections of interest, each essay can be read on their own. Each piece is individually written by a different expert. There are illustrations throughout and while they aren’t particularly necessary, they are always appreciated.

How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi provides an excellent starting point for new (or rekindling of old) interests. I marked a few of the essays for further research in the future. Overall, I found this book fascinating. I was not previously familiar with Nerd Nite but it sounds fun and educational which is always a winning combination.

Whether you have a singular STEM interest or just enjoy learning something new in a variety of academic fields, this book may be a great fit for you.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press!

Wow, there is no way for me to explain how much I adore this book! So many interesting facts to learn and in such a fun way. I love learning new things and specially if it is with a nice dose of humor. I had never heard of Nerd Nite before reading this ARC on Netgalley but now I’ve subscribed to their YouTube and will be definitely ordering a hard copy (or a few to share with friends) of the book to keep in my favorites collection.

A fun way to introduce a variety of nerdy topics, I'm impressed with the depth of knowledge for each topic.