The Hidden Life of Trees

This book is so flipping charming! It is suffused throughout with the obvious admiration and affection Wohlleben feels for the trees (and all other living creatures) in the German woodland he manages. My husband is an arborist, and I still learned a great deal from the book, from what we don't know (e.g., we don't actually have any idea how large trees manage to move the huge quantities of water they do every day) to the remarkable stuff we do (e.g., trees can communicate to each other via scent). Wohlleben's “agenda” is clear, but it's such a good one that it's hard to fault him for it: he thinks we should all be more in awe of trees than we are, and more willing to find ways to serve trees and the ecosystems they create, versus expecting them to serve us. My one complaint is translation-related; it felt a little uneven. At times, passages were beautifully and fluidly written; at others, word choices distracted me from the content. A small quibble.