... ebullient and ambitious.

While fungi are easy sources of wonder, getting to the wonder means understanding the basics, which can be arcane in the case of fungi. Sheldrake carefully explains the details in clever, affable prose. His book has a host of other strengths as well. It emphasizes the openness and indeterminacy of mycology, a vastly understudied field, through honest depictions of scientists in the lab and field trying to puzzle out fungi’s unexplained behavior. Sheldrake also shows how culture shapes scientific knowledge.

More than anything else, Entangled Life is an ode to other ways of being.

...[a] rich and colorful portrait of fungi ...Mr. Sheldrake manages the immense subject of mycology by taking a literary approach. He looks at fungi through a variety of themes and analogies, and in the process is able to disclose so much more about these enigmatic organisms.

Sheldrake is in his early thirties, a biologist who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. But his evangelical zeal for the fungal world makes it plain that he’s drawn to the weirdness of it all.

Sheldrake carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision.

...an exuberant introduction to the biology, ecology, climatology, and psychopharmacology of the earth’s 'metabolic wizards.'.

As a relative beginner, a post-doctoral researcher, [Sheldrake] has to depend on other people’s findings most of the time. That does not make them any less wondrous.

With Entangled Life, Sheldrake proves himself to not only be an excellent inheritor of such a broad range of tutelage, but also a welcome translator of its remarkable implications. He has a talent for threading such broad perspectives into a highly lucid prose, and one gets the feeling that his own interest in the fungiverse is indivisible from his interest in the resonant properties of life itself, which, as he makes plainly clear.

... fits in a growing family of work that expands our conception of the living world. Compared with writers who specialise in mammals, birds, bees, octopuses and even trees, Sheldrake faces an uphill struggle in developing a connection with his subject. His efforts to overcome fungi’s otherness are valiant but not always convincing.

It is the mind-bogglingly interconnected nature of such networks that inspires the book’s title, Entangled Life , with its deliberate hint of mystery drawn from the idea of entanglement in quantum physics, where two fundamental particles can share a deep connection even when very far apart. It’s tempting, as Sheldrake points out, to see fungi as the biological model for a better world, where everything is enmeshed in a dance of mutual aid.

Entangled Life is both expertly explained and easy to read. In fact, this is a gorgeous, intelligent, utterly absorbing account of fungi.

What sets this book apart from previous celebrations of the fungi, of which there have been several, is that the author really tries to imagine what it is like to be a fungus. His rich text evokes an understanding of what it would actually be like to be a filamentous microbe, forming interwoven networks that permeate, invade and feed upon the substrates that surround them. Sheldrake works hard to shake off the anthropomorphic viewpoint and see things from a microbial perspective.

... passionately and convincingly argued.

As a love letter to this undervalued form of life, Sheldrake’s book is deeply engaging and constantly surprising.

The lives of fungi alone are fascinating, but the questions and wider implications that Sheldrake teases out from them are often truly astounding.

... an eye-opening exploration of this mysterious taxonomic kingdom.

Entangled Life is a captivating trip into the weird and wonderful mycorrhizal world around us — and inside us. It's full of startling revelations, detailed science and just enough eccentric humour to make it digestible..

In this masterful work about mycology, biologist Sheldrake describes fungi as 'regenerators, recyclers, and networkers that stitch worlds together.' The introduction, 'What Is It Like to Be a Fungus?', brilliantly sets forth just how amazing and mostly out of sight fungi are.

Biologist Sheldrake's first books is a fascinating account of how fungi have been an integral component of human existence.

A deep-running mycological inquiry from fungal biologist Sheldrake.

... a revelatory look at fungi that proves their relevance to humans goes far beyond their uses in cooking.