What an odd little book this is. It is interesting to imagine how such a project was pitched at the publisher. Ultimately I am left pondering at who the market is is for such a book?To sum up the book consists of a lot of very short vignettes connected in some way to fungi grouped loosely around three themes - erupt, spread and decay.On the one hand Aliya has a delightfully accessible style which, I wanted to believe, underplays just how much she knows. On the other she says things that are cont...

I really enjoyed this book and I've spent all day looking for mushrooms. I am now officially obsessed, please excuse me while I spend the rest of my life hunting for mushrooms.

I loved this book. It’s a quick, engrossing read that’s so beautifully written. It’s filled with passion and heart and the author clearly loves the subject matter so much, it just shines through. I really didn’t want it to end and I’m sure I’ll be coming back to read certain chapters over and over :)

My mushroom loving, soft, eco friendly inclined, hippy heart was as happy as fungi on a rotting corpse reading this. Look, fungi are cool. You know that, I know that, Aliya Whiteley really knows that. A wonderful balance of educational information and profound statements delivered with humour and whimsy. Made me want to eat more mushrooms.

Very interesting.At times it is almost magical.My only reproach is that it is too short. I wish it contained more information but it is good to start with the topic.

As if there weren’t enough to worry about, it turns out there is a whole other class of beings on Earth – fungi. They are not plants, they are not animals. They are not viruses. But they are involved with all those things. Aliya Whitely is a big, if hesitant fan of fungi. Her book, The Secret Life of Fungi is a fun read, which means it is fast moving, top line only, wide-ranging, but informative. From science to childhood reminiscences and history (mostly plagues and death), she skims the fungi

4.5 starsI adore nature, from birds to insects, flowers to fungi, I find it all incredibly inspiring and interesting. Fungi aren't something I have known much about. I have a mushroom field guide and always stop to look at the strange and beautiful wild mushrooms but I am not well educated about them. The Secret Life of Fungi surprised and amazed me and it is one of the best nature books I have ever read. The book is filled with funny anecdotes, interesting facts and a bucket load of science. I

As there a number of photos in this review check it out on my blog: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2020...

Plenty of Breathless Enthusiasm but lacking in depth and detail of informationI so hoped I was going to love this book, which should have worked well for me. I am always captivated by individual passion and enthusiasm for a subject, which will prevent the merely dry accumulation of fact. So I started with this huge enthusiasm, Whiteley captivated me by her personal style of expression and her charmingly Tiggerish personality and bounce about the subject.Unfortunately this was mainly what I got.

The biggest single living thing on earth is not a blue whale or a redwood tree, rather it is a simple fungus. I say simple, this particular specimen of honey fungus is huge, mind-boggling huge. It is the Malheur National Forest in the state of Oregon. It was found because it was killing trees in this forest and when the DNA was taken from trees around 2.4 miles apart, it was found to have the same DNA. Overall it was calculated to be 3.7 square miles and the guesses at its age vary between 1,900...

I chose this book as I'm fascinated by the complex nature of Fungi, though I'd consider myself a novice. This book was full of interesting anecdotal tales of Fungi.I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, but after reading, I felt I wanted more in some areas, but overall it was an enjoyable read. It was well presented in neat sections with interesting information about habitats, types of Fungi etc and it would be a good addition to the bookshelf for anyone interested in Fungi.With than...

2.5- some super interesting parts but other parts were more flights of fancy than information about fungi.

In this illuminating book, Aliya Whiteley delves into everything from cellular makeup to the fascinating ways fungi interact with their surroundings and other species, as well as the many varied roles they've played in our own civilization. The vast potential of these understudied organisms is still untapped; though long used as a source of food and medicine, they could also hold the key to a variety of scientific advances, from agriculture to environmental innovations. The Secret Life of Fungi

This compact volume is split into short chapters, each exploring a different type of fungi, or way that fungi behave. We are taken to space, the Artic and the Sahara. We learn about buildings made of bricks of fungi, decomposition, creation and destruction. I picked up this book with little knowledge of this strange kingdom and finished it feeling better informed and all the more intrigued. Whitely’s passion comes across in all she writes, and she often links fungi to bigger philosophical though...

This is really a rating for 4.5. I loved learning about all the funky things that mushrooms and other fungi can do and how they are not quite animal, nor plant. I look forward to looking at them under a microscope like Whiteley suggested. I was very excited about numerous parts of the book and read them aloud to Mike and friends. I think it's probably common sense to know just a bit about mushrooms, this did that and went far beyond. It occurred to me while reading this, that we don't really nee...

Not weighed down by a lot of scientific facts or data this little book gave me an insight into the curious world of fungi.

I chose this book because I am interested in Biology in general, and I wanted to learn more about fungi. I should perhaps have realised that a book written by an author who mostly writes fictional works would not be a fact-heavy, scientific one! I unfortunately didn’t learn anything new from this book.However, although not to my personal taste, this book was not without interest. It is rather like a love story between the author and fungi. It provides a good overview of all the many places and s...

Author Aliya Whiteley has been fascinated by fungi since her childhood spent in North Devon; indeed, science-fiction-like mushrooms bloom in much of her fiction. She is, she writes, 'inspired by their surreal and alien beauty'. The Secret Life of Fungi: Discoveries from a Hidden World is Whiteley's non-fiction foray into the world of fungi great and small.Whiteley provides 'a glimpse into their incredible, surprising and dark world: a lyrical romp through the eruption, growth and decay under our...

If you love mushrooms this is a must read!!

Informative, terrifying and fascinating all in one. Review on my blog here: https://hedwigsworldofbooks.home.blog...