The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature's Great Connectors

It’s a book not about hawks or snails or bacteria or coyotes, though it includes them all, but about their—and our—shared ecology.” —The Times Literary Supplement. Listen as David Haskell takes his stethoscope to the heart of nature - and discover the poetry and music contained within.”  -- Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees   "David George Haskell may be the finest literary nature writer working today. Miller aka DJ Spooky&ldquo

David Haskell’s work integrates scientific, literary, and contemplative studies of the natural world. He is a professor of biology and environmental studies at the University of the South and a Guggenheim Fellow. His 2012 book The Forest Unseen was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and th

Haskell also turns to trees in places where humans seem to have subdued “nature” – a pear tree on a Manhattan sidewalk, an olive tree in Jerusalem – demonstrating that wildness permeates every location. Listen as David Haskell takes his stethoscope to the heart of nature - and discover the poetry and music contained within.”  -- Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of TreesThe author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Forest Unseen visits with nature’s most magnificent networkers — trees David Haskell’s award-winning The Forest Unseen won acclaim for eloquent writing and deep engagement with the natural world. “Here is a book to nourish the spirit. The Songs of Trees is a powerful argument against the ways in which humankind has severed the very biological networks that give us our place in the world. Now, Haskell brings his powers of observation to the biological networks that surround all species, including humans.Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world to stop, listen, and look, exploring each tree’s connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plant

My idea of summer reading Well-written meditation on the lives of trees, from the sounds they make in the forest to the underworld communities that support and communicate with them. This lovely book offers many ideas, musings, concepts, and science to think about. It's easy to read and well-organized. You can start at the beginning and read all the way through, or skip around. The book has an extensive bibliography at the end, for those who want to . Russ Abbott said A beautiful book that is concrete, poetic, and abstract all at the same time. The book's messages is that it takes a community to do virtually anything in biology. David George Haskell conveys that message in two ways. He examines specific trees and their environments around the world, about a dozen of them. He writes like an obsessed poet. The following is from Haskell's chapter on the balsam fir.Part of a plant's intelligence exists not inside the body but in relationship with other species. Root ti. "Thought provoking" according to traveler. For those of us who sometimes stop in our tracks at the sight of a particularly interesting tree, who feel at home in a forest and have always had a relationship with 'favorite 'trees, will enjoy this book. It is much more than a book about trees, however, it is the story of life itself.