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The Way Through the Woods
The Way Through the Woods: On Mushrooms and Mourning | Litt Woon Long
16 posts | 5 read | 20 to read
A grieving widow discovers a most unexpected form of healinghunting for mushrooms. Long Litt Woon met Eiolf a month after arriving in Norway from Malaysia as an exchange student. They fell in love, married, and settled into domestic bliss. Then Eiolfs unexpected death at fifty-four left Woon struggling to imagine a life without the man who had been her partner and anchor for thirty-two years. Adrift in grief, she signed up for a beginners course on mushroominga course the two of them had planned to take togetherand found, to her surprise, that the pursuit of mushrooms rekindled her zest for life. The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushroomsresilient, adaptable, and essential to natures cycle of death and rebirth. From idyllic Norwegian forests and urban flower beds to the sandy beaches of Corsica and New Yorks Central Park, Woon uncovers an abundance of surprises often hidden in plain sight: salmon-pink Bloody Milk Caps, which ooze red liquid when cut; delectable morels, prized for their earthy yet delicate flavor; and bioluminescent mushrooms that light up the forest at night. Along the way, she discovers the warm fellowship of other mushroom obsessives, and finds that giving her full attention to the natural world transforms her, opening a way for her to survive Eiolfs death, to see herself anew, and to reengage with life. Advance praise for The Way Through The Woods In her search for new meaning in life after the death of her husband, Long Litt Woon undertook the study of mushrooms. What she found in the woods, and expresses with such tender joy in this heartfelt memoir, was nothing less than salvation.Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia and Microbia
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AllDebooks
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#Naturalitsy #Midsummersolace

I'm just going to leave this here for all my fellow dendrophiles x

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Fr3NcHtOaSt
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Saw this in Barnes and Noble. Skimmed through and decided this is my next read to break up monotony between books in the series I‘m reading.
“The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms—resilient, adaptable, and essential to nature‘s cycle of death and rebirth”
#TheWayThroughTheWoods #LongLittWoon #ebook #kindle #nature

Fr3NcHtOaSt @Addison_Reads here‘s another you might like 2y
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Darklunarose
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Pickpick

This is not the kind of book I would normally pick up to read, but it was on one of the cottage core book lists so I thought I would give it a go, and I‘m so glad I did.

MartinaLove Baby Yoda. 3y
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Darklunarose
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Yesterday the two big kids went riding in the hills and I got to see the wild rabbits for the first time. Yea I know they are feral animals but look at that cute bunny butt

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Darklunarose
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Morning rainbow to greet me getting out of bed…storms back on its way in❤️

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Darklunarose
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The sun is up and so am I. Morning all.

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Darklunarose
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To start tomorrow:)

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Flaneurette
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Reading about mushrooms at the beach

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Lindy
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Pickpick

I‘ve read several memoirs by women who‘ve discovered that learning about birds was their pathway out of grief. Here, it‘s fungi. Long Litt Woon emigrated to Norway from Malaysia to marry. When her husband died suddenly, she needed something new that would connect her to her adopted country. Enter the nerdy mushroom enthusiasts. Litt Woon‘s inner journey takes a backstage to her discovery of the world of fungi. #translation by Barbara Haveland.

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Lindy
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As a general rule, all mushrooms, including those from the supermarket, should be properly cooked. There are those who might protest & point to all the store-bought mushrooms they‘ve eaten raw in salads since the 70s & 80s, but the fact is that even store-bought varieties contain phenylhydrazine derivatives, which are potentially carcinogenic, but the carcinogens are destroyed when subjected to heat.

Lindy Note: I did some research after reading this and learned that the amount of carcinogenic substance in raw button mushrooms is unlikely to have any effect on our health. 4y
Vanessa How interesting! 4y
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Lindy
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In France it used to be possible to take one‘s mushrooms to the pharmacy, because training in the identification & uses of fungi was part of a pharmacist‘s education. Sadly this is no longer the case. Nowadays, when Frenchmen take their finds to the pharmacy, they are advised to throw them all away.

JamieArc When I taught in France, I lived with a woman who foraged mushrooms and would lay them all out on her dining room table. It was so interesting! She made delicious meals. 4y
Lindy @JamieArc There‘s a lot more variety in flavour and texture with wild mushrooms, compared to store-bought; it‘s a gourmet opportunity for knowledgeable foragers. 😁 4y
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Lindy
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Even Carl von Linné (1707-78)—known as the father of modern taxonomy—struggled with fungi. In the Linnaean system they ended up in a subcategory of the animal kingdom entitled “Chaos.” It was as if the usual laws of nature did not apply to them. Since then, however, it has been established that fungi belong to neither the plant kingdom nor the animal kingdom: they form their own kingdom. The fungi kingdom.

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GlassAsDiamonds
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I‘m finding myself doing a lot of re-Reading but miss Litsy truth be told so even though it‘s a ramble... I‘m trying to read this. I‘m still Scandinavian obsessed with a Norwegian bent, broken arm notwithstanding so i was hoping to like this memoir / forest mushroom field guide but I‘m finding the narrator annoying and either her style or the translation, stilted (she‘s a Malaysian writing in Norwegian translated to English though so?). Ah well!

CarolynM Hi👋Nice to see you. Hope you're doing ok in this strange new world😘 5y
GlassAsDiamonds @CarolynM manic re-Reading, grouchy arm, one week into a lock down.... (fine really. Trying to put my expating skills to good use managing this odd but also oddly familiar time - was apartment bound for huge swathes of time in both India and China so prodding myself to do the stuff I know I should! 🤞🏻🤞🏻 It will work 😊). How are you & hows Melbourne these days? 5y
CarolynM I'm sorry your arm is still giving you trouble. Is there any relief on the horizon? I can't complain too much. I enjoy spending time at home, it is just the thought that I may have no alternative for many months that is disheartening. Melbourne seems to be fine, but very quiet these days😂 Take care of yourself and enjoy re-reading😘 5y
GlassAsDiamonds @CarolynM seriously 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ Apparently if I‘m going to do something, apparently I do it... to extremes 🤦🏻‍♀️. Relief I suspect only once the plate comes back out so 🤞🏻Singapore gets the worker dormitory situation under control because apparently it‘ll count as elective surgery. Could be worse, at least I‘m not at risk to loose range of movement though! 😊 Managed a whole new book the other day, quite chuffed! 😊😊😊 5y
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TheBookstorePodcast
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Taking a departure from my normal reading fare for this weekend. After the unexpected death of her husband, Long Litt Woon found solace and meaning in her life through mushroom hunting. Mushrooms are absolutely fascinating and I‘m enjoying reading about the very passionate world of mycologists.
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What are you reading this weekend?

TheLibrarian Just started 5y
Laughterhp More than halfway through 5y
Jeg Hoping to read this. I heard her on the radio recently. 5y
30 likes3 comments