Mushrooms for the People

My new book The Mushroom Hunters has been on the shelves for nearly two weeks and I couldn't be happier with the reception so far. If it inspires a few curious readers to get outside and interact with their natural environment, all the better.

The Wall Street Journal calls the book a "rollicking narrative...delivering vivid and cinematic scenes on every page," and The Seattle Times, comparing the book to Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief, Michael Pollan, and Hunter Thompson, says it both "instructs and delights" while "connect[ing] the dots between natural history, socioeconomics and cooking." Callers jammed the lines at both my Diane Rehm Show appearance and on Wisconsin Public Radio.

But equally important to me are the testaments from readers outside the professional media outlets. Ronald Holden at the Cornichon blog writes, "As always, it's Cook's story-telling skill that keeps you reading," and here's a post from a reader from Portland that recently circulated on Facebook:

I just finished reading The Mushroom Hunters by Langdon Cook... It's beautifully written and has a powerful, interwoven story. He really knocked this one out of the park! More than just a book about harvesting and selling mushrooms, he takes on so many important issues such as wealth/class structures, ecology and human interaction, small business challenges, immigration, and asks profound questions about happiness and satisfaction in life.

I feel lucky to have readers like these.

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In my next post I manage to sneak away from my desk to see why recreational mushroom hunters in the Pacific Northwest are calling this a banner year...