Outside/Underground Book Club is a bi-monthly reading group for those who want to learn more about the fascinating world around us . O/U explores topics around science and nature through memoir, poetry, non-fiction & more. We meet every other LAST Thursday of the month.
Sign up for book clubs at Glendora Bookshop by email, call/text, or just stop in and inquire.
This month’s O/U Book Club selection is The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger. Be sure to snag your copy at Glendora Bookshop (book club members take 10% off book club reads!) and join us in January to discuss.
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
It takes tremendous biological creativity to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. In recent years, scientists have learned about their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, hear sounds, morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, store useful memories that inform their life cycle, and trick animals into behaving to their benefit—a fascinating display of plant behavior and sensory abilities, to name just a few remarkable talents.
The Light Eaters is a deep immersion into the drama of green life and the complexity of this wild and awe-inspiring world that challenges our very understanding of agency, consciousness, and intelligence. In this captivating exploration of plant intelligence, we see that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a parallel system. What is intelligent life if not a vine that grows leaves to blend into the shrub on which it climbs, a flower that shapes its bloom to fit exactly the beak of its pollinator, a pea seedling that can hear water flowing and make its way toward it? Zoë Schlanger takes us across the globe, digging into her own memories and into the soil with the scientists who have spent their waking days studying these amazing entities up close.
What can we learn about life on Earth from the living things that thrive, adapt, consume, and accommodate simultaneously? More important, what do we owe these life forms once we come to understand their rich and varied abilities? Examining the latest epiphanies in botanical research, Schlanger spotlights the intellectual struggles among the researchers conceiving a wholly new view of their subject, offering a glimpse of a field in turmoil as plant scientists debate the tenets of ongoing discoveries and how insights into plant communication influence our understanding of what a plant is.
We need plants to survive. But what do they need us for—if at all? An eye-opening and informative look at the ecosystem we live in, this book challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world, tackling the enthralling question of plant consciousness along the way.
Praised as “a masterpiece of science writing,” The Light Eaters uncovers a world of botanical wonders, including:
Plant Senses: Can a pea seedling hear running water? Does a flower know when a bee is approaching? A deep dive into the astonishing sensory abilities of the plant kingdom.
The Great Debate: Go inside the labs and heated arguments of a scientific field in turmoil as researchers grapple with the evidence for plant intelligence and what it means for the future of botany.
A New View of Life: From vines that mimic other plants to trees that recognize their own kin, discover a parallel system of life that challenges our very definition of agency and being.
Groundbreaking Botanical Science: Journey across the globe with author Zoë Schlanger as she joins the researchers uncovering the latest epiphanies about the drama, complexity, and rich social lives of the green world.