Forest Euphoria, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Forest Euphoria, Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
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Forest Euphoria
The Abounding Queerness of Nature

Author: Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

Narrator: Aven Shore

Unabridged: 6 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/27/2025

Synopsis

A thrilling book about the abounding queerness of the natural world that challenges our expectations of what is normal, beautiful, and possible. Growing up, Patricia Kaishian felt most at home in the swamps and culverts near her house in the Hudson Valley. A child who frequently felt out of place, too much of one thing or not enough of another, she found acceptance in these settings, among other amphibious beings. In snakes, snails, and, above all, fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her—and in them, too, she found a personal path to a life of science. In Forest Euphoria, Kaishian shows us this making of a scientist and introduces readers to the queerness, literal and otherwise, of all the life around us. Fungi, we learn, commonly have more than two biological sexes—and some as many as twenty-three thousand. Some intersex slugs mutually fire calcium carbonate “love darts” at each other during courtship. Glass eels are sexually undetermined until their last year of life, which stumped scientists once dubbed “the eel question.” Nature, Kaishian shows us, is filled with the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized—and they have lessons for us all. Wide-ranging, richly observant, and full of surprise, Forest Euphoria will open your eyes and change how you look at the world around you. “An antidote to the loneliness of our species.”—ROBIN WALL KIMMERER “A master class in how to love the world.”—MARGARET RENKL

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lizzie on March 18, 2025

This was such a lovely read. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is a mycologist with a way of connecting with the natural world reminiscent of Robin Wall Kimmerer. I am a MAJOR fan of fungus and of queerness, and this book had a lot of both. I loved the reflections on the multiple ways sex and gender exist i......more

Goodreads review by Alisan on January 08, 2025

*Thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for an ARC of this book* This book is exceptionally unique and blends memoir with interesting stories and nature and its queerness. It truly does illustrate how we are all interconnected beings. The last third of the book went a bit slowly for me, but the writi......more

Goodreads review by Karina on February 10, 2025

This book gifted me words for feelings that have remained vague and unnamed in my life. The practice of a “sit spot”, for example, and the experience of being “queer to a place.” The book also explored concepts that I crave reading about, like the joy of finding companionship with creatures that are......more

Goodreads review by Emrys on February 09, 2025

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this book. Absolutely adored the exploration of queer natures here, from eel reproduction to miniature fungi to the questions brought up by the author. Will be recommending this book to anyone interested in the intersection of nature and culture, a......more

Goodreads review by Janalyn, the blind reviewer on April 28, 2025

Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian, thanks to the summary I was led to believe this book was about homosexual and multi gendered species in nature but what we got instead is a biography of a queer scientist who grew up in New York State. her love for nature started at a young age even snak......more

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