A review by mstewa02
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard

5.0

Just as seeds take decades to become fully matured trees, humans also take decades of life experience and perspective to understand their purpose and impact—that is the picture Simard paints throughout this book. She blends scientific research and memoir together to drive home the main findings of her life’s work—that the world around us is less a puzzle of data and more of a network of life, eerily similar to what exists inside of us. And as we grow and understand ourselves, we will find that same growth and understanding mimicked back to us amongst the trees. We start with her experimenting with seedlings in her early twenties, unsure of what her path forward will look like. And we end with her as a highly regarded scientist, who changed the world’s understanding of tree networks; and as a mother who has battled all that life has thrown her. Her storytelling, especially in the second half of the book, had such a deep impact on me and made me feel even more connected to the Earth. This was a beautiful and inspiring read.