Mushrooms! We love to eat them, we love to photograph them, we love to imagine they are part of a magical world with fairies or talking caterpillars. But there is so much more to fungi! I've created a list of books that will expand your knowledge of mushrooms, or will inspire you with beautiful images or fantastical stories!
For the photography lovers:
Funga Obscura
by Alison Pouliot
This book is about fungi, and the photography of fungi. The title Funga Obscura unites the two. Beginning in elemental landscapes of ice and rock, the book traces the evolutionary path of fungi as enablers of life on land, and creators of soils and forests. Crossing continents and ecosystems, we navigate lichen-covered landscapes, crawl in the fungal undergrowth, scale glacial extremes and duck between rainforest shadows.
Alison Pouliot, ecologist and environmental photographer, captures these remarkable lifeforms in this visual love letter to fungi.
For those fascinated by fungus:
The Future Is Fungi
by Michael Lim and Yun Shu
The kingdom of fungi has survived all five major extinction events. They are the architects of the natural world, integral to all life. They sustain critical ecosystems, recycling nutrients and connecting plants across vast areas, and help to produce many staples of modern life, such as wine, chocolate, bread, detergent and penicillin. Today, in the face of urgent ecological, societal and spiritual crises, fungi are being engineered to grow meat alternatives, create new sources of medicine, produce sustainable biomaterials, remediate the environment and even expand our collective consciousness.
The Future Is Fungi is a complete introduction to this hidden kingdom. Exploring their past, present and potential future impact in four key areas – food, medicine, psychedelics and mental health, and environmental remediation – this book not only reveals how fungi have formed the foundations of modern life but how they might help shape our future.
For those who love eating mushrooms:
Project Mushroom
by Lorraine Caley, Jodie Bryan and Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Project Mushroom is the practical and beautiful guide to growing, displaying, cooking and identifying edible mushrooms. Mushrooms are good for us and for the environment: they are a sustainable, easy-to-grow food source and full of nutritional goodness. But they can also be attractive and useful additions to our homes and gardens – whether displayed in ceramic vases, on macrame or even used to make ink, paper or seed pots.
In this book, mushroom experts Lorraine and Jodie Caley (aka the Caley Brothers) provide more than 30 projects so you can grow mushrooms at home. An extensive introduction de-mystifies mushrooms and their benefits (for our health and the environment) and a mushroom-growing starter kit provides simple, easy-to-follow techniques for growing all types of mushroom.
For those who want to grow their own mushrooms:
Growing Mushrooms at Home
by Elliot Webb
Everything you need to know to start growing mushrooms at home!
Looking for something quick and easy to grow, that doesn't take up much space, and offers numerous health benefits? Then mushrooms are the perfect choice! Growing Mushrooms at Home will take you through all the basics, from key equipment and step-by-step growing guides all the way to how to turn your harvest into teas, coffees and tinctures. These guides can be used for many varieties – including shiitake, lion's mane, wine cap and oyster – and multiple different growing situations, from buckets and bags to outdoor beds and logs.
For those who love a flash card:
The Deck of Mushrooms
by Dr. Sapphire McMullan-Fisher
Fungi are eternally mysterious and truly unique. The Deck of Mushrooms is your essential introduction to some of the world's most interesting fungi.
From the delicious Shiitake and the deadly Death Cap, to mushrooms of the magical variety and bioluminescent beauties, The Deck of Mushrooms features 52 beautiful cards to guide you through this fascinating world. Learn about different fungi's appearance, where and when they grow and all of their uses as you become a budding expert in mycology.
For the artists:
Mushroom Color Atlas
by Julie Beeler
Discover the chromatic wonders of the fungi kingdom and the incredible spectrum of pigments and dyes that can be created from mushrooms. More closely related to humans than they are to plants, fungi are fascinating organisms – and they are a rich resource for color collectors.
Blending scientific detail, botanical illustrations and creative inspiration, artist and educator Julie Beeler invites you to peek into her workroom as she introduces different types of dye mushrooms – from boletes to polypores to tooth fungi – and walks you through her color-harvesting process. Offering insightful tips on foraging and color distillation, and a rainbow of color samples, Beeler peppers in down-to-earth advice on artistic experimentation and fascinating stories about the historical and personal connections between humans and nature, offering a fresh perspective on the magical world of mushrooms.
For those who want their home to smell like a field of mushrooms:
Wild Mushroom Ceramic Candle
This adorable candle smells of wild mushrooms, with notes of pepper & patchouli, to bring a touch of cosy, culinary culture to your home. Featuring beautifully hand-painted food icons, these candles are not only aromatic but also a visual delight and come packaged in delightful sliding boxes – plus, they're also food safe!
Top notes: Lemon Leaf, Lavender, Jasmine
Mid notes: Enoki Mushroom, Rosemary, Dry Earth
Base notes: Sandalwood, Tonka, Bean, Amber Essential Oils, Lavandin, Patchouli, Cedarleaf
For the fiction lovers:
The Mushroom Knight Vol. 1
by Oliver Bly
An adolescent girl searches the deep dark woods for her missing dog, entangling her destiny with a chivalrous mushroom faerie on a mystical quest to protect the biome from catastrophic ruin.
A chivalrous faerie mushroom embarks on a quest to uncover a clandestine threat that has brought calamity to his magical woodland kingdom. An adolescent girl from northwest Philadelphia desperately searches for her lost dog.
As their destinies coalesce, a whimsical friendship forms. But peril is nigh, and their respective journeys threaten to challenge the foundation of their realities … and reality itself. David the Gnome meets David Lynch in this boundary crossing ecological fantasy filled with humor, horror, depth and delight.
For the young mushroom lovers:
A Better Best Friend
by Olivier Tallec
In this comedic picture book exploring a forever childhood question about friendship, Squirrel and Mushroom explore the forest through the seasons, show each other special trees, build snow mushrooms, share the good times and bad – which become good-bad times alongside a friend.
Then spring arrives, and so does a new friend. And then another. This raises a profound question for an overthinking squirrel: should we have just one best friend?
After much drama, Squirrel doesn't find an answer – the friends keep coming – and he ends the book with at least three best friends!
For the mushroom lovers in the making:
Baby Mushroom: Finger Puppet Book
by Yu-Hsuan Huang
Bursting with color and charm, this adorable finger puppet book lets inquisitive babies and toddlers touch, feel and explore their growing world.
Newborns will love snuggling up with this adorable baby mushroom! With irresistibly cute art and sweet, simple text, this forest-themed offering from the bestselling Baby Finger Puppet series is guaranteed to delight parents and toddlers alike. Featuring a plush finger puppet that peeks into each lovingly illustrated page, Baby Mushroom offers parents and children a fun, interactive way to play and read as they build a lifelong love of books (and nature!) together.
