Book Log 2018 #27: The Secret Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben

We most often think of trees as solitary plants, living mutely among its fellow plants. Wohlleben, who spent 20 years working in Germany's forestry service, makes the case that this is far from the truth. Using recent scientific discoveries and his personal experience, he makes the case that trees are social and communal life forms, providing assistance to neighbors, communicating potential dangers, and helping to raise younger plants.

In some ways this book reminded me of Charles Mann's 1491, in the way it uses new information to dispel traditional - and often uninformed - ways of thinking about the given society (pre-Columbian in that book, arboreal in this one). I do find that this book drifts a little bit into more philosophical (some may say fanciful) notions of the interconnectedness of trees to other life forms - human included - but that doesn't take away from the more engrossing notions of how trees live. Where most people - myself included - don't really think about trees beyond having to rake leaves, this book challenges you to open up your thinking, which is never a bad thing.