The Light Eaters

 The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger, 304 pages.

Journalist Zoë Schlanger dives into the rapidly emerging, and highly controversial, field of plant intelligence. She focuses especially on plant communication and problem solving, both topics notable for how poorly they are understood, and for how quickly new information is being added. She also focuses on the scientists making these breakthroughs, the biologists who risk academic exile for researching things that seem to go against the way we understand plants. 

This was a fascinating book! Although it felt at times like it focused more on academic politics than I may have preferred, I still left with a plethora of astounding plant facts, in addition to a broader understanding of the field of research. This is definitely the kind of nature writing that leaves the reader with a lot of big questions to think on, which I always find impressive. I would recommend this book broadly to anyone with an interest in plants, but especially for fans of Ed Yong's An Immense World.