In the Company of Mushrooms: A Biologist's Tale

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, Informative, Readable
Review: "In the Company of Mushrooms" is one of those quirky, informative, and eminently readable natural history books that inhabits the same sub-genre as "The Infinite River", "Near Horizons", and "Rats, Lice, and History". Even though I'm not a mushroom hunter myself, I enjoyed reading Schaechter's tale of mushrooms that can wreck trains, emit toxic fumes that have been used for rocket fuel, and send otherwise ordinary humans into gastronmical ecstasies (or gastrointestinal agonies, depending on the species). The author points out that you can eat any mushroom once, and then goes on to quote, "There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters."

If you enjoy the thrill of a morel hunt and its tasty aftermath, or are an armchair naturalist who would like to read a well-written investigation into the secret life of fungi, "In the Company of Mushrooms" will both nourish and instruct you. Just remember that there are two tons of fungi for every human on the planet!

Rating:
Summary: Quirky, Informative, Readable
Review: "In the Company of Mushrooms" is one of those quirky, informative, and eminently readable natural history books that inhabits the same sub-genre as "The Infinite River", "Near Horizons", and "Rats, Lice, and History". Even though I'm not a mushroom hunter myself, I enjoyed reading Schaechter's tale of mushrooms that can wreck trains, emit toxic fumes that have been used for rocket fuel, and send otherwise ordinary humans into gastronmical ecstasies (or gastrointestinal agonies, depending on the species). The author points out that you can eat any mushroom once, and then goes on to quote, "There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters."

If you enjoy the thrill of a morel hunt and its tasty aftermath, or are an armchair naturalist who would like to read a well-written investigation into the secret life of fungi, "In the Company of Mushrooms" will both nourish and instruct you. Just remember that there are two tons of fungi for every human on the planet!

Rating:
Summary: A terrific read
Review: A terrific read not only for mushroom lovers but also for all nature lovers and for just the plain curious. Highly recommended for all public libraries.

Gretchen Falk, Reference Librarian, Park Forest Public Library

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC !!!
Review: As a 'shroomer' of some years, I have collected more than my share of mushroom field guides, but have alway wanted to know more than simply how to identify mushrooms. This is the perfect book for that purpose. Professor Scaechter covers everything and more, from history to language to cooking to biology to chemistry to toxins, and then onward to all kinds of interesting facts and insights that I wouldn't even have thought of asking about.

Buy the field guides, of course, but buy this book if you love mushrooms and mushrooming.

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC !!!
Review: As a 'shroomer' of some years, I have collected more than my share of mushroom field guides, but have alway wanted to know more than simply how to identify mushrooms. This is the perfect book for that purpose. Professor Scaechter covers everything and more, from history to language to cooking to biology to chemistry to toxins, and then onward to all kinds of interesting facts and insights that I wouldn't even have thought of asking about.

Buy the field guides, of course, but buy this book if you love mushrooms and mushrooming.

Rating:
Summary: An unusual enthusiasm,wonderfully shared.
Review: The author is one of those rare souls who can take an unpromising topic and, through some alchemy of affection and skill, render it not only palatable but positively fascinating.
Professor Schaechter is a lover of mushrooms. In his hands these seemingly ignoble denizens of rotting tree trunks and forest floors, neither plants nor animals, become not only interesting, but beautiful as well. He considers the biology and history of the mushroom, the uses and dangers; the entire interrelationship of human and fungus in fact, in a warm and engaging narrative style which brings the reader along for a most enjoyable biology lesson. Every branch of learning should have an Elio Schaechter.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)