By Elio Schaechter. In this engaging book, Tufts Univeristy Professor Emeritus of Molecular Biology Elio Schaechter describes and elaborates upon his enduring obsession with mushrooms. In a style at once learned and quirky, personal and commanding, the author imparts the fascinating minutiae and the weighty implications of his subject—a primarily microscopic life form that nonetheless accounts for up to two tons of matter for every human on the planet. He shows us how fungi, the great decomposers, recycle most of the world's vegetable matter—from a blade of grass to a strapping tree—and thus prevent us from sinking under ever-accumulating masses of decaying matter. Part biology text, part naturalist's journal, part socio-cultural reflection, In The Company of Mushrooms is an entertaining and thoughtful book that reveals the power of fungi to enchant and instruct, to nourish and support the ecosystem. 296 pages, softcover.