This book wasn't what I expected at all. I expected a dry research paper style document that I would find interesting, but dull.
It is nothing like that, in that it is interesting for both the topic and the personal history that comes along with it.
Dr Simard is very frank in her writing about her life and it makes for an entertaining read. I know nothing about bears in the Canadian forests, but feel more informed now.
I also know a lot more about the relationship between trees of same and different species. It seems the natural way, the way that Suzi describes it.
But what she had to go through to do both her research and to have her work published is appalling.
The book is extremely well written and compelling to read. The science fits in naturally as part of the dialogue in the book.
"I wanted to find another way to work in the wild. A way I hoped would give me more insight into the mysterious manners of mothers in forests. I had no idea this would require that I first learn how to poison a tree.."
I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley. I am delighted to provide a fair and honest review. NetGalley does not allow for paid reviews.
4/5 Stars
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Official description:
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'A scientific memoir as gripping as any HBO drama series' Kate Kellaway, Observer
A dazzling scientific detective story from the ecologist who first discovered the hidden language of trees
No one has done more to transform our understanding of trees than the world-renowned scientist Suzanne Simard. Now she shares the secrets of a lifetime spent uncovering startling truths about trees: their cooperation, healing capacity, memory, wisdom and sentience.
Raised in the forests of British Columbia, where her family has lived for generations, Professor Simard did not set out to be a scientist. She was working in the forest service when she first discovered how trees communicate underground through an immense web of fungi, at the centre of which lie the Mother Trees: the mysterious, powerful entities that nurture their kin and sustain the forest.
Though her ground-breaking findings were initially dismissed and even ridiculed, they are now firmly supported by the data. As her remarkable journey shows us, science is not a realm apart from ordinary life, but deeply connected with our humanity.
In Finding the Mother Tree, she reveals how the complex cycle of forest life - on which we rely for our existence - offers profound lessons about resilience and kinship, and must be preserved before it's too late.
Star Ratings - what they mean:
https://crowtreelane.blogspot.com/2019/03/five-stars-applied-carefully.html
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