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uscrx's review
5.0
What a great book! I love the way Richard Preston writes about non-fiction subjects. And I have, since a boy, been so interested in the California Redwood trees. I want to see these sights he wrote about, and experience the world of the Redwoods! You'll love it!
nuthatch's review
4.0
The "wild trees" are primarily the California redwoods. The bits about the trees were fascinating but there was too much detail about climbing the trees.
jeremy's review
4.0
I have been fascinated by redwood trees for years, and really enjoyed the excerpt from this book that appear in the New Yorker a year or so ago. The book is longer, with more stories and more details. The book focuses more on the characters and less on the science than I would have liked, but it's a quick and enjoyable read.
I also enjoyed Preston's American Steel, written several years ago.
I also enjoyed Preston's American Steel, written several years ago.
jdintr's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this book in advance of a road trip up the California/Oregon Coast, and I'm really glad that I did.
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading about a man who fell 96 feet out of a Douglas fir and survived, Preston's clear descriptions of skywalking among the trees.
The book filled me with respect for these magnificent trees. When I'm there next summer, I'll visit the parks with a knowledge of what's "up there" over 300 feet above my head, and a great respect for the adventurers who discovered and climbed these lofty giants.
The tops of redwood trees have been unexplored until the last twenty years, when an intrepid group of climbers and explorers sought to find the tallest trees, climb them, and record them for us.
The book centers upon the explorers and climbers, but it shares plenty of fascinating insights about redwoods along the way. Some of my favorite parts were reading about a man who fell 96 feet out of a Douglas fir and survived, Preston's clear descriptions of skywalking among the trees.
The book filled me with respect for these magnificent trees. When I'm there next summer, I'll visit the parks with a knowledge of what's "up there" over 300 feet above my head, and a great respect for the adventurers who discovered and climbed these lofty giants.
jdintr's review
5.0
This is THE BOOK to read for anyone visiting Redwoods National and State Parks on the Northern California coast. My family and I read it as we visited the Redding area and drove out to hike Redwood Creek to the Tall Trees Grove.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.
While there is much information about the redwoods, Preston's subtitle, "A Story of Passion and Daring," indicates where the book is headed. The two primary passions featured in the book are Michael Taylor's obsession with finding the tallest redwood on the coast, and Steve Sillett's obsession with climbing said trees.
Preston, for the most part, goes back and forth between the two stories, adding in details of Sillett's personal life--how his obsession with trees contributed to the end of his first marriage, and how it bonded him to his second wife, Marie.
These personal aspects of the book are very honest. Characters' flaws come out into the open. Unlike many reviewers here, I really liked this aspect. It gives the book a narrative arc that a normal nonfiction book about the tallest redwoods would miss.
Having hiked to the Tall Trees Grove after completing this book for the second time, I will share a few more observations about the book.
1. I really don't know how Taylor could have maintained his obsession with finding the tallest tree on the coast. Trees grow. Trees fall. It seems like the whole forest is dynamic. Considering all the clear-cutting that let up to the establishment of the national park, there is no way to even get an all-time figure.
2. When I tried to look from the trail into the thicket of thorns and spiked nettles, it gave me new respect for Sillett and Taylor's "Day of Discovery"! I don't know how anyone could make it more than six or seven feet off a trail without serious cutting tools. The underbrush is dense, and it looks painful. Mad respect to those two.
3. There really is a spiritual side to experiencing a redwood or a redwood grove that Marie Antoine describes in the book. I'm not sure that climbing to the very top adds to the awe one feels looking up, up, and away.
diannaobrien's review
5.0
This is a lovely book that reveals and highlight the people and hidden biology, ecology and wonders if the world’s largest trees. The tops of large trees is a new frontier people are only beginning to learn about.
That said, I would note the beginning of the book is a bit like a complex novel with many people introduced and it is at first difficult to see how they are all connected, but they are! The book introduces you to many complex, some troubled, but all amazing people who took the skills and passions they had to create a web of understanding to explore where literally no one had gone before.
If you love a mystery, science and discovery, and learning about quirky and brilliant scientists and the turns of fate behind discoveries, you will love this book as much as I do.
I just finished reading a library copy and am going to buy my own copy so I can enjoy it again, something I rarely do.
I also enjoyed getting to know the author a bit as he mentions his later interactions with the scientists and tree climbing. Such a lovely view of him and his family.
That said, I would note the beginning of the book is a bit like a complex novel with many people introduced and it is at first difficult to see how they are all connected, but they are! The book introduces you to many complex, some troubled, but all amazing people who took the skills and passions they had to create a web of understanding to explore where literally no one had gone before.
If you love a mystery, science and discovery, and learning about quirky and brilliant scientists and the turns of fate behind discoveries, you will love this book as much as I do.
I just finished reading a library copy and am going to buy my own copy so I can enjoy it again, something I rarely do.
I also enjoyed getting to know the author a bit as he mentions his later interactions with the scientists and tree climbing. Such a lovely view of him and his family.