Carl Sagan said, "If you wish to make apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." Hope Jahren had to do exactly that because there didn't seem to be a place for her in the one she was born into. Along the way she meets Bill who needed a place as well and she creates one for both of them. That's what science is really about--not taking things for granted--but it's difficult feeling like a misfit because you're seen as one by those who do.

This is a book about the painful sort-of-success of the unorthodox point of view, including the unorthodox points of view of plants. It's a sort-of-success because even the plants are still struggling to survive (no thanks to humans), as is science for curiosity rather than commerce or defense.

I'd like to tell Ms. Jahren that when I was in grad school, my thesis adviser managed to convince the department of defense that they should fund projects that were less likely to be of use to them than exploring the inner life of trees. It's a different form of creative writing.