JUNE 2020 - AudioFile
Author Merlin Sheldrake delivers his love letter to fungi in a smooth British-accented voice. He clearly admires the problem-solving behavior of slime mold and other life-forms without a central brain. Sheldrake explains how the study of fungal networks has applications for transportation systems and the World Wide Web. When he tells how Easter Islanders compared lichen to leprosy when cleaning the famed statues, his emphasis brings home his defense of tiny life forms. Sheldrake also takes a deep dive into his subject, participating in a scientific test of LSD, the famous fungal hallucinogen. At times, his descriptions of life in the "fungal fast lane" can be slow, losing his work’s scientific points in the resulting haze. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
The New York Times - Jennifer Szalai
…[an] ebullient and ambitious exploration of a subject that surrounds us yet too few of us think about…Sheldrake's book is full of striking examples…prying open our cramped perspectives…[Entangled Life] may not be a psychedelic…but reading it left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do.
Publishers Weekly
03/09/2020
Scientist Sheldrake debuts with a revelatory look at fungi that proves their relevance to humans goes far beyond their uses in cooking. While fungi lack brains, they can process and share complicated information about food and the habitability of environments quickly and over great distances, influencing the “speed and direction of growth,” in ways not yet understood, prompting Sheldrake to ask, “Can we think of their behavior as intelligent?” By discussing how fungi come together with algae to form lichens, Sheldrake touches on another question, that of “where one organism stops and another begins” in symbiotic relationships. Elsewhere, he explains how fungi were essential for the original colonization of land by plants, as they effectively served as roots for the first rootless arrivals. Meanwhile, anthropologists have postulated that, via the fermentation process, fungi may have sparked one of humankind’s key transitions: “from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists.” Looking to the future, Sheldrake discusses developing uses of fungi in shipping, construction, and environmental remediation materials. In bringing all these diverse threads together, Sheldrake delivers a thoroughly enjoyable paean to a wholly different kingdom of life. Agent: Jessica Woollard, David Higham Assoc. (May)
From the Publisher
[An] ebullient and ambitious exploration . . . Reading [Entangled Life] left me not just moved but altered, eager to disseminate its message of what fungi can do.”—The New York Times
“A gorgeous book of literary nature writing, ripe with insight and erudition. . . . Food for the soul.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Nearly every page of this book contained either an observation so interesting or a turn of phrase so lovely that I was moved to slow down, stop, and re-read. . . . [Entangled Life] reminded me that fungi are, like the Universe, sublime.”—Science
“An exuberant introduction to the biology, ecology, climatology, and psychopharmacology of the earth’s ‘metabolic wizards.’”—Harpers Magazine
“A poetic, mind-bending tour of the fungal world.”—Scientific American
“Wondrous . . . Humans should consider fungi among the greatest of earth’s marvels.”—Time (Books of the Year)
“An astonishing book.”—The Observer
“Completely mind-blowing.”—The Sunday Times
“Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of An Immense World
“I fell in love with this book. Merlin Sheldrake is a scientist with the imagination of a poet and a beautiful writer.”—Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind (Bay Area Book Festival, 2020)
“A magical journey deep into the roots of Nature by an expert storyteller . . . a must-read.”—Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running
“Reading this book, I felt surrounded by a web of wonder. The natural world is more fantastic than any fantasy, so long as you have the means to perceive it. This book provides the means.”—Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget
“Urgent, astounding, and necessary.”—Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk
“Dazzling, vibrant, vision changing.”—Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland
“Gorgeous.”—Margaret Atwood, author of The Testaments
Library Journal
05/01/2020
Biologist Sheldrake's first book is a fascinating account of how fungi have been an integral component of human existence. From penicillin to truffles to the fermentation process that gives us alcoholic beverages, fungi are ubiquitous. Sheldrake takes readers on journey drawn from his research as a biologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute studying the plant voyria, which uses fungal relationships to produce energy. Through chapters on truffle hunting, psychedelics, and the necessary symbiosis between 90 percent of plant species and mycorrhizal fungi, readers will learn how entangled our lives are with fungi. Many now know of the Wood Wide Web, the network of underground mycorrhizal fungi that allow trees to share nutrients and pass information, and Sheldrake devotes a chapter to this amazing discovery as well. While fungi are not all good (think athlete's foot and the fungal disease affecting around 90 species of amphibians), Sheldrake shows us just how vital they are to humankind. VERDICT Sheldrake makes biology both fun and accessible. Fans of Mary Roach and Bill Bryson will appreciate this enthusiastic treatment of the fungi around us.—Diana Hartle, Univ. of Georgia Science Lib., Athens
JUNE 2020 - AudioFile
Author Merlin Sheldrake delivers his love letter to fungi in a smooth British-accented voice. He clearly admires the problem-solving behavior of slime mold and other life-forms without a central brain. Sheldrake explains how the study of fungal networks has applications for transportation systems and the World Wide Web. When he tells how Easter Islanders compared lichen to leprosy when cleaning the famed statues, his emphasis brings home his defense of tiny life forms. Sheldrake also takes a deep dive into his subject, participating in a scientific test of LSD, the famous fungal hallucinogen. At times, his descriptions of life in the "fungal fast lane" can be slow, losing his work’s scientific points in the resulting haze. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2020-03-02
A deep-running mycological inquiry from fungal biologist Sheldrake.
“Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways that we think, feel, and behave,” writes the author in this delightfully granular debut book. “Yet they live their lives largely hidden from view, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.” Fungi are busy everywhere, from the bottom of the sea to the recesses of your nostrils, ranging in size from the microscopic to sprawling networks that are among the largest organisms on Earth. Sheldrake does an excellent job conveying just how essential fungi are to the processes of life—“as regenerators, recyclers, and networkers that stitch worlds together”—despite the fact that so little of their operations is fully understood. Sheldrake shows how fungal lives have made him rethink what he thought he knew about evolution, ecosystems, intelligence, and life. The author engagingly instructs on the symbiotic relationship between fungi and the roots of seed plants. “Today,” he writes, “more than ninety percent of all plant species depend on mycorrhizal fungi,” creating an “intimate partnership…complete with cooperation, conflict, and competition.” Sheldrake also explores the curious lives of truffles and lichen (“A portion of the minerals in your body is likely to have passed through a lichen at some point”), the evolutionary advantages of ingesting psilocybin mushrooms, and the idea that algae made it out of water and onto dry land only with the help of fungi. Certainly one of the most vital and fascinating aspects of fungi has to do with environmental remediation. “Human waste streams are being reimagined in terms of fungal appetites,” writes the author, who notes how mycological solutions have been deployed in the service of corralling oil spills, combating honeybees’ colony collapse disorder, and creating building materials, from sustainable, biodegradable furniture to entire buildings.
From bread to booze to the very fiber of life, the world turns on fungi, and Sheldrake provides a top-notch portrait. (b/w illustrations)