
The Songs of Trees
Stories from Nature's Great Connectors
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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David George Haskell
The 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. 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, exploring the trees' connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plants. An Amazonian ceibo tree reveals the rich ecological turmoil of the tropical forest, along with threats from expanding oil fields. Thousands of miles away, the roots of a balsam fir in Canada survive in poor soil only with the help of fungal partners. These links are nearly two billion years old: the fir's roots cling to rocks containing fossils of the first networked cells.
By unearthing charcoal left by Ice Age humans and petrified redwoods in the Rocky Mountains, Haskell shows how the Earth's climate has emerged from exchanges among trees, soil communities, and the atmosphere. Now humans have transformed these networks, powering our societies with wood, tending some forests, but destroying others. Haskell also attends to trees in places where humans seem to have subdued "nature" - a pear tree on a Manhattan sidewalk, an olive tree in Jerusalem, a Japanese bonsai - demonstrating that wildness permeates every location.
Every living being is not only sustained by biological connections, but is made from these relationships. Haskell shows that this networked view of life enriches our understanding of biology, human nature, and ethics. When we listen to trees, nature's great connectors, we learn how to inhabit the relationships that give life its source, substance, and beauty.
Read by Cassandra Campbell, with the preface and two interludes read by the author.
©2017 David George Haskell (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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fantastic!
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Profoundly moving!
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One of the most fascinating books I've ever read
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Poetry and science collide
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History, biology, environment all wrapped up in a cellulose bow.
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If anyone is triggered by the exploitation of nature, erasure of indigenous power & the lack of autonomy of minorities... this book does touch on these topics a fair amount. I will admit for me this caused feelings of alienation & isolation from nature. So not very restful.
I think the author redeems these topics ultimately by weaving them into the narrative of civilization as a reflection of nature.
Enjoyable aspects:
A second narrator at some chapter ends
The unique profiles of trees (& bacteria) around the world
The use of longitude & latitude (fun!)
& The first person narrative that is very personal & knowledgeable
So many facts
An Interwoven Story
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title is misleading
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One of my favorite books of all time. Hands down.
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terrific insights into to the world of trees
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wow!
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