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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
Amazing book about the Redwoods & some of the quirky characters who are so passionate about researching and saving these trees.
I loved this book! It is interesting to see the negative reviews. Now that I read them I get what they are saying. It is true that the parts I really enjoyed the most were the descriptions of the magical trees and their hidden worlds. But I knew going in that it was a story about people so I guess I wasn’t disappointed. I
found the stories of the people fascinating and I was surprised to find out later in the book that they were friends of the author. The only one he really painted in a nice light was Marie Antoine.
This book got me even more interested in trees and redwoods even though I lived and hiked among them for many years! It got me researching golden salamanders and trying to see photos of the secret treetop gardens. So yeah, I thought this book was inspiring.
The audio book version was excellent!
found the stories of the people fascinating and I was surprised to find out later in the book that they were friends of the author. The only one he really painted in a nice light was Marie Antoine.
This book got me even more interested in trees and redwoods even though I lived and hiked among them for many years! It got me researching golden salamanders and trying to see photos of the secret treetop gardens. So yeah, I thought this book was inspiring.
The audio book version was excellent!
I really enjoyed this book until the end of it where the narrative kind of fell apart and the author inserted himself into the story. Nonetheless, it's still totally worth a read.
I didn't know why Richard Preston, who usually focuses on gory diseases, would write a book about something as serene as trees. Then I went to hear him talk about it, and it turns out he really was interested in all the death-defying tree climbing scientists who study the redwood canopy ecosystems. Interesting science, but most of the book is about the scientists themselves, who divorced who, yadda yadda, and people obsessed with finding the one tallest redwood, even if that tree is only a few feet taller than another. I think it might be an interesting read for high schoolers - good mix of science, adventure, etc.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This debut novel follows a group of young botanists, amateur naturalists, and adventurers who have turned tree climbing into an art. In the rain forest of Northern California is a hidden ecosystem location guarded zealously by those who study its life. The Sequoia sempervivens, the coast redwoods, are over a thousand years old, topping out at ~375 feet (more than 35 stories high), and are the survivors of a vast redwood forest. The few individuals in this unique cohort of adventurers have found a way to climb these giants to determine what the world of the redwoods is like at those altitudes. They have found an entire ecosystem living in the tops of these trees. They have entwined their branches, sprouted trunks that act as separate trees and have accumulated a soil system that fosters lichens, ferns, flowering plants, fungi and animals who never touch the ground. By creating architectural structures more in keeping with a cathedral than a plant, they have a created a interlinked group of hanging gardens that are thriving.
The author has given us a portrait of this group of individuals who have found a way to study these ecosystems close up. Using some of the climbing techniques and strategies of mountain climbers and deep sea divers modified to work when they are swinging at 300 feet up in the air. Every swing or jump can be a fall to your death. This group of adventurers are truly pioneers. I loved this book for the descriptions of the trees and for the relationship between the climbers and the trees. When Preston focused on the trees and the researchers, the book was mesmerizing. When the focus shifted to the interpersonal relationships of the researchers, I skimmed or speed read those parts. Highly recommend to readers who enjoy nature, adventures, travel, science, history, and the environment.
this book really inspired me, and also made me feel a little homesick, but in a good way.
I was so surprised by this book. I expected a dry science tome filled with interesting facts. Instead, it is a riveting book about the people who have made it their life's work to study and protect the largest trees in the world. The book also explains the hidden ecosystems these trees hold and how it truly is one of the last unexplored frontiers left on our planet. I could not put this book down!
5 stars for the trees and the science, negative 6 stars for the creepy narration of the personal lives of the scientists lives. He’s moralizing and critical of one woman and cringingly leeringly creepily adoring of the other. It’s gross. It’s been a decade since I read the book and I still remember having to read this ogling aqualungs account of what should have been a great read. Barf
Having just visited the redwoods last summer, and given my forays into the world of forestry, I found this fascinating. Although it is non-fiction, the narrative is suspenseful, so it's a bit of a page-turner. A quick read, and well worth it if you're at all a nature/science geek or an explorer at heart.
As my father said of it, I wish this book had more science and less people stuff. Preston gives quite a bit of backstory to the characters involved in this book - which is nice, sometimes - when really what I wanted to read about was the nifty shiznit that happens in the canopies of tall forests. Instead, there were occasional teasing tidbits about unfamiliar organisms, buried amongst the rambling stories of strange folks obsessed with trees. To each his own, I suppose.