My mother (a huge Tolkein nerd) used to say that I must have been part Hobbit because of my love of all things mushrooms. At the time of that pronouncMy mother (a huge Tolkein nerd) used to say that I must have been part Hobbit because of my love of all things mushrooms. At the time of that pronouncement, my interest in them was purely culinary, but over time, this interest has turned to their medicinal usage, and eventually into a curiosity about mushroom hunting – hence this book! I got my hands on a copy to prepare for a visit to my in-laws, who live near a rural region of Western New York state filled with nature reserves and national parks: I have glimpsed really cool fungi there on occasion, but I decided to add the purposeful hunting of these little beauties to my planned visit this year.
This book is written to be simple and approachable, and its target audience is the absolute beginner when it comes to mushroom foraging. It begins with short and clear chapters on the history of mushrooms and their place in human culture, what foraging and cultivating mushrooms can do for us in the face of climate change and global food insecurity. He then spends some time explaining what exactly is a mushrooms, and describing their anatomy and structure, before jumping into identifying them in nature.
Barrett’s go-to advice is simply to leave anything you cannot identify with 100% certainty alone, and focus on the stuff that you recognize confidently. He splits the identification sections into comestible mushrooms, poisonous ones, medicinal fungi and, of course, hallucinogenic mushrooms. My paperback copy doesn’t have colored photos, but it does come with a free download that includes them, so I can have them on my phone or on a tablet when I’ll go foraging (which is for the best really, as the paperback is fairly large sized and wouldn’t be practical to carry around in the woods!). The final section is about safe foraging practices and how to get ready for it.
My intent with mushroom hunting is not really for collect edible ones to cook: I am more interested in simply learning to identify them and take pictures for the moment- but this book is a great place to start getting familiar with North American fungi! I just wish the paperback was a more portable size....more
I have a life-long love for and fascination with mushrooms. Partially because they are delicious, but I also remember finding them almost magical whenI have a life-long love for and fascination with mushrooms. Partially because they are delicious, but I also remember finding them almost magical when I was a kid: they could appear overnight, had the strangest shapes, colors and textures. In my mind, they were almost like alien plants. Later, I learned a little bit about their complex interconnectedness, their adaptability and strange reproduction method – and that only made them more fascinating!
Merlin Sheldrake’s book is an engrossing, entertaining and very informative read on all things fungi. Take note, Jeff VanderMeer fans: reading this will only freak you out more about the Grey Caps and the Ambergris mythology!
I knew a few things about the so-called wood wide web, that fungi is closer to animal than to vegetal, and that the mushrooms we see are only the metaphorical tip of a very large and complex fungi iceberg, but “Entangled Life” took me much deeper – mushrooms, as it turns out, are even more fascinating than I had thought!
While this book is certainly a wonderfully accessible work on the science of fungi, Sheldrake goes an extra step to also be thought-provoking. He wants the readers to question certain things, like the definition of intelligence, see if they can shift their perspective on the world and its structure – all that by looking at how fungi grow, feed, mate and communicate.
From problem-solving intelligence and hijacking insect bodies to get to the ideal fruiting location, to healing human illness or just giving us really weird hallucinations, mycology shows that fungus are a varied and complex class of organisms, and that without the delicate symbiotic balance between fungus and vegetation, life on the planet would not have been possible. Sheldrake explores all these topics, putting concepts like evolution, collaboration and even consciousness in a different and very interesting perspective. Studying mushrooms could potentially help us understand how to adapt more effectively to our environment, grow healthier and stronger crops, and maybe one day find effective ways of managing pollution and replacing plastic and other wasteful matter with mycelium.
I was very struck by the passage on how organic agriculture respects the mycelial relationship between the fungus in the ground and the crops, and Sheldrake’s thoughts on how hallucinogenic mushrooms might actually be showing us how mushrooms themselves perceive the world – as interconnected.
Sheldrake’s prose is very readable, and he explains complex scientific processes in simple and accessible language, which makes the whole book fun to read and easy to process. He is also clearly passionate about his topic, verging on the mythical fascination. A lot of science books have an extremely grounded tone, and his (ironically, considering he studies stuff that’s literally in the ground) is almost spiritual, which is surprising, but not unpleasant.
Overall, a great book on an absolutely fascinating subject. Thank you Camelia Rose, for putting this wonderful book on my radar!
If you are curious to understand exactly what your body is doing when you practice yoga, a book like this one is an invaluable reference. Most yoga boIf you are curious to understand exactly what your body is doing when you practice yoga, a book like this one is an invaluable reference. Most yoga books include a brief descriptions of the effect of various asanas on the body, but rarely do they do in great details; “Yoga Anatomy” focuses specifically on the effects of yoga on breathing and spinal health, but they also give detailed information on all the musculoskeletal actions, as well as plenty of notes on how to get into the poses and work on them safely.
It must be said that the first 70 or so pages of the book are extremely technical: if you aren’t familiar with anatomical terms, it can quickly get overwhelming. While reading that part of the book, I often probed my back or flexed my arms and legs in order to identify the vertebrae or movement described so I could understand the explanations a little bit better. I also thought the image of “an accordion on top of a water balloon” to understand how the thoracic and abdominal cavities work when you are breathing to be really helpful to keep in mind during practice. But once you are over that section, the fun begins!
Asanas are organized by “base” (standing, sitting, kneeling, etc.), and each pose has a detailed illustration (or a few, to show you what the body is doing from different angles) showing you which group of muscles and joints are working and how. I found the accompanying notes and breathing technique recommendations very useful to get a more complete understanding of what exactly it is that I am doing when I am working on crow pose.
Of course, they had to choose which asanas to explore, so the ones featured in this book are the basics and the classics – but the information can help anyone make educated and informed guesses about what the body is doing when working on funky variations. And as mentioned, the information is limited to the muscles, joints and skeletal actions, so there isn’t a lot of details about the effects each asana has on inner organs.
Nevertheless, serious yoga students should definitely take a look at this book if they wants a more thorough understanding of the physical effects of their practice....more
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