When I went up to Drumlin to give my mushroom walk and talk yesterday (which cost each participant about the same as a membership to the
Boston Mycological Club) I stopped by the Audubon Shop, and discovered a new mushroom book! It's called
Fascinating Fungi of New England. There are two things great about that: first, it's specific to New England, and so limits itself to species found here (although anyone east of the Rockies can make perfect use of it); and second, it's not "Edible and Poisonous Fungi of New England," no, the adjective is
FASCINATING. Now that's an approach to natural history I can get behind. Nothing against the wild food foragers, but that ain't why I go outside, and I mostly stick to the raspberries anyway.
I've only flipped through it a bit, but I can honestly say that it feels like a book I would have liked to have written. The text covers the natural history of each species, focusing on what makes the mushroom in question interesting, beyond whether it can kill you or if it's nice in an omelette.
Gotta love seeing the urban mushroom species, the winecap, on the cover!As it turns out, the author is going to be at Drumlin Farm on October first (that's this Saturday) to do a book signing and
mushroom walk! For the cost of my field walk, or the BMC membership, you could buy the book and attend the walk--you get a few bucks off if you are a Mass Audubon member, which you should be.
Fine print: I don't get anything from publicizing this event, I just figured some of you would be into it. Also I genuinely like the book, and it's very reasonably priced![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
