Enjoyable. Often I have trouble keeping focused on the narrative when listening to an audiobook, easily distracted by what I'm seeing around me or prone to dozing if I close my eyes, and this was unfortunately the case with this book. As enjoyable as I found the audiobook, the regular book form would have fitted me better. ( )

I followed up The Overstory with The Forest Unseen by David George Haskell. Haskell, a biologist, adopts a meter-wide area of western Tennessee forest to examine over the course of a year. His observations of this world, from the tops of the trees to the leaf mulch and below, lead to detailed and engaging explorations of the natural world. Haskell covered some of the topics the Powers did and lamented man's impact on nature although his book is a bit more joyful. I have added his others books--Sounds Wild and Broken and The Songs of Trees to my TBR list. ( )

Observing a small piece of ground over the course of a year in an old growth forest, the author takes us through the seasons observing from tiny microbes to the air above the canopy. He describes animal and plant life beautifully in quote-worthy descriotions. 5+++ ( )

Very nice diary of essays by a biologist who visits a spot in the Tennessee old-growth woods during the course of a year. All kinds of insights about how all the life is entwined. Some very interesting looks at how things like fungus and trees help each other, and some interesting life-histories of things like fireflies, salamanders, and mushrooms. A tiny bit on the somber side though. ( )

This is the best book about a guy staring at the same spot on the ground for a year that you could possibly imagine.

That's honestly not an inaccurate description. The author picked out a small patch of ground in an old-growth forest in Tennessee -- he refers to it as "the mandala" by analogy with Buddhist sandpaintings meant to represent the cosmos in miniature -- and returned to it regularly over the course of a year, examining it closely and musing on what he found there. And those musings are fantastic, a thoughtful, poetic blending of science, philosophy, and human emotion that illuminates the natural world and reflects on our place in it in a way that feels to me utterly and profoundly right. It's also full of lots and lots and lots of insights and facts about various plants, animals, and fungi that leave me repeatedly exclaiming "How did I never know this before?!"

Rating: 5/5. I think that's actually the first book this year that I've given the full 5 out of 5 to, so that should tell you something about just how highly I think of it. ( )