In Search of Mycotopia

February 1, 2021

In this debut, journalist Bierend covers a lot of ground meeting many on mycology's leading edge: growers, entrepreneurs, amateur and professional scientists, and enthusiasts. The author travels from the National History Museum of Utah to London's Kew Gardens and beyond in order to meet people who are drawn to fungi. His reporting also takes him from small mushroom-growing operations (often begun in home kitchens or basements) to mycological fairs and annual gatherings. Readers may be disappointed to find no illustrations inside; even so, the author's sharp ear for dialogue imbues his word portraits with vivid detail. Bierend looks ahead, but also behind, as he traces the long history of mycology's reliance on contributions from citizen scientists. Along the way, readers will learn about some fantastic fungi, find out how they are cultivated, and witness some of the innovative applications under development. Interestingly, Bierend concludes that the "most promising power of fungi lies in their apparent power to bring people together." VERDICT Mushrooms are having a moment. In Search of Mycotopia could be a natural sequel for the many readers who enjoyed Merlin Sheldrake's Entangled Life.--Robert Eagan, Windsor P.L., Ont.

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February 1, 2021
In describing terrestrial habitats, biologists typically catalog flora and fauna, but a growing number of researchers have realized the importance of a third category: funga. People have consumed mushrooms and truffles for millennia, but these are mysterious fruits, thriving on rotted wood, coffee grounds, brewers' spent grain, sawdust, and straw. In addition to their culinary uses, fungi have medicinal and psychotropic uses. Bierend traveled from Oregon to London to Brooklyn to meet up with a remarkably diverse group of dedicated people who are probing fungi as an ecologically sustainable and even profitable resource in a changing environment. Beyond Pennsylvania's mushroom farms, Bierend finds enthusiasts and academics organizing into groups such as the Spore Liberation Front and the Radical Mycology Convergence. While some of these groups tend toward pointless internet arguing, others produce genuine advances in science that may prove critically important. As well as gaining new respect for fungi, readers will master new vocabulary on the order of frass, saprophytic, and microrrhizal. It sounds perhaps bizarre now, but humanity's future may depend on slime molds.

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December 14, 2020
Journalist Bierend introduces readers to a worldwide community that revolves around fungi in this comprehensive and enthusiastic debut. “If I am any kind of -ist at all,” Bierend writes, “it is a generalist” when it comes to fungi, and here he aims to prove that one does need to be an “expert” to “do beautiful things with and about fungi.” Readers join the author on an eye-opening tromp through the woods in search of mushrooms of all shapes, sizes, and colors, and follow him on trips to mushroom festivals (among them, the Telluride Mushroom Festival, held since 1980). Bierend peers into the dark side of fungi (such as poisonous “death caps”) and explains “microdosing” on psychedelic mushrooms, a practice he suggests is de rigueur in the technology industry. Though at times technical, Bierend’s survey offers glimpses into mushroom-centric communities across the globe: He visits the POC Fungi Community at an event in the Adirondacks and writes of a group in Ecuador attempting to use fungi to treat cancer. Beyond merely being edible, Bierend writes, mushrooms’ “most promising power” is their ability to “bring people together, and to shift perspectives.” This fascinating, informative look into a unique subculture and the fungi at its center is a real treat.