Rating: 
Summary: Handy in-field guide to common fungi
Review: A handy guide that easily fits in a fanny pack or raincoat
pocket. Chock full of colorful pictures and interesting
anecdotes along with David's easy to use identification
key. For the beginning explorer to the veteran who doesn't
want to lug the tome Mushrooms Demystified in the field,
this book is a great buy.
Rating:
Summary: Handy in-field guide to common fungi
Review: A handy guide that easily fits in a fanny pack or raincoatpocket. Chock full of colorful pictures and interestinganecdotes along with David's easy to use identification key. For the beginning explorer to the veteran who doesn't want to lug the tome Mushrooms Demystified in the field, this book is a great buy.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Field Guide
Review: Absolutely the best pocket-sized reference around. I lost my copy (or it was stolen!) and am reordering another. Contains identification keys that are usable in the field (less dependence on spore prints and microscopic exams than some of the others). Great photos make field ID easy. It seems I nearly always find what I'm looking for in this little book. Don't leave home without it!
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Field Guide
Review: Absolutely the best pocket-sized reference around. I lost my copy (or it was stolen!) and am reordering another. Contains identification keys that are usable in the field (less dependence on spore prints and microscopic exams than some of the others). Great photos make field ID easy. It seems I nearly always find what I'm looking for in this little book. Don't leave home without it!
Rating: 
Summary: The Publisher, Ten Speed Press
Review: An engaging and informative introduction to wild mushrooms and mushroom hunting. This is an ideal field guide for the novice with no prior knowledge of mushrooms or mushroom terminology. Experienced mushroom hunters will also welcome it as a pocket-sized adjunct to Arora's acclaimed comprehensive North American guide, MUSHROOMS DEMYSTIFIED.Two hundred distinctive western mushrooms are portrayed in full-color natural habitat photographs, accompanied on the same page by concise, easy-to-read lists of their key identifying features, and where to find them. In addition to hard facts, the text is laced with unique recipes (including mushroom cookies) and cooking tips, information on mushroom dyes and toxins, and numerous stories and anecdotes as the author celebrates the fun in fungi.
Rating:
Summary: Stellar book
Review: Great on the coffee table, great in the field. This book is a whole lot more than the description suggests. Try and find Yellow Feet (a prolific edible in the west) in any other book.
Rating:
Summary: Love of Mushrooms
Review: I always appreciate reading something by a person who loves what they are writing about. It seems like all too often a book is written by someone who seems to know what they are talking about, but don't LOVE what they are talking about.
David Arora LOVES mushrooms! Not only that, he knows a LOT about them. This book is more than any other field guide I've owned. It allows for quick and easy identification of common mushrooms, which is important. However, it shows us the human side of the fungal world. Delicious recipes, stories of friends and funny anecdotes are sprinkled among hard facts. Colorful photos abound of both the mushrooms themselves, but also their happy finders. Old japanese men, young girls, cheerful bearded men and even a few happy dogs are all shown with glee at their find. Mushrooming is not something people do as a chore, its what they do as a passion.
The pleasure of finding something secret, something mysterious on the forest floor, something to fill you with earthen smells and primitive tastes. This pleasure practically drips from "All the Rain Promises and More..."
If you like mushrooms, or if you think maybe you WOULD like mushrooms, if you just got the right introduction, then this book is for you. If you already love mushrooms, then this book is a great pocket guide (nice pocket size, I carry mine all over), with clear photos, decisive identification criteria, and plenty of facts and interesting tidbits to make you nod knowingly, pleased at what you'll find after the fall rains.
Rating: 
Summary: Gettin' My Own Copy
Review: I borrowed the book from a co-worker and have found it to be an invaluable and extremely handy and easy to use field reference guide. The information is excellent and the photos are just as helpful. The Quick Key in the front and back of the book help the Identification process go quicker. I am hooked and have to get my own copy now!! Great for beginners like me!
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT Guide! (Even if you don't live in the West.)
Review: I eagerly waited for this book to arrive to me because of all the rave reviews I read about it. Then when I found out it was a guide for WESTERN mushrooms (extending to Colorado; I live in the Midwest) I thought, Crap, I'm gonna half to return it. But the more I kept browsing through it, the more I wasn't going to return it. I LOVE this book! This is a good read even if you don't live in the area it covers. Some of a species described in the book I have actually found in my area.
The photography is excellent, and many times show different angles of the 'shroom. The descriptions are very clear and easy to understand and extra comments, stories and some cooking suggestions are included. However, this guide doesn't include all of the species; it's only made to be an easy-to-carry field guide. I would suggest a more in-depth guide as a compliment to this one. I've heard good things about Mushrooms Demystified (same author), and I am so impressed with this book that I am going to buy it as well.
Rating:
Summary: An EXCELLENT Guide! (Even if you don't live in the West.)
Review: I eagerly waited for this book to arrive to me because of all the rave reviews I read about it. Then when I found out it was a guide for WESTERN mushrooms (extending to Colorado; I live in the Midwest) I thought, Crap, I'm gonna half to return it. But the more I kept browsing through it, the more I wasn't going to return it. I LOVE this book! This is a good read even if you don't live in the area it covers. Some of a species described in the book I have actually found in my area.
The photography is excellent, and many times show different angles of the 'shroom. The descriptions are very clear and easy to understand and extra comments, stories and some cooking suggestions are included. However, this guide doesn't include all of the species; it's only made to be an easy-to-carry field guide. I would suggest a more in-depth guide as a compliment to this one. I've heard good things about Mushrooms Demystified (same author), and I am so impressed with this book that I am going to buy it as well.
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