Mushrooming: The Joy of the Quiet Hunt (Douglas & McIntyre) by Diane Borsato, an educator and mycophile based in Toronto, ON, is a delightful stroll through “the fascinating, the delicious, the deadly and the strange” world of fungi in North America. This large-format book is beautifully illustrated by Kelsey Oseid with colourful depictions of specimens to accompany each entry, which include notes on the mushroom, identifying features and a section on edibility; this latter part often shares anecdotes about Borsato’s own experiences with the particular fungus and whether she felt it was worth eating. The mushrooms range from the striking (the large red lobster mushroom) to the mundane (like those yellow mushrooms that sometimes grow in my houseplants) to the weird (such as the deeply unpleasant bleeding tooth fungus) to the plain gross (dog vomit slime mould, anyone?). As an artist, Borsato has led urban foraging forays into Toronto and New York’s Chinatowns to identify mushrooms on offer, and at the Met in NYC, where she attempted to find representations of fungi in the collection. These projects, along with other interesting fungi-adjacent art installations, are described in refreshing interludes between specimen entries. The book also suggests how to host your own mushroom foray in the local woods, and offers a mushroomer’s manifesto, which states that mushrooming can happen anywhere and does not necessarily involve actually finding mushrooms, an idea I found charming. This book is beautiful and offers an accessible entry point into everyday mycology. In Mushrooming, Borsato notes that while she hopes this book is inspiring and informative, it should not be relied upon to make accurate identifications of mushrooms in situ, since fungi species can vary widely in appearance and location and have deadly doppelgangers. —Kelsea O’Connor

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