“Zoe Schlanger delights and fascinates with this deep, yet relatable dive into the plant world, bringing home not only how plants truly run the planetary show, but giving us compelling reasons to care.” — New Canaan Library, 2025
“It was wonderful to have Zoë at the Guilford Free Library. Her presentation was very informative and engaging. Our audience really enjoyed the event.” — Guilford Free Library, 2025
“Zoë’s knowledge and insight into the plant world is incredible. It is very clear she spent hours upon hours researching her materials and has presented them in a well written book. Zoe is also an engaging speaker and takes her audience on a journey into the plant world, leaving her listeners in awe and inspired!” — Rooted In Bexley, 2025
“Zoë Schlanger’s virtual event on The Light Eaters was truly an extraordinary program. She brought a captivating blend of deep scientific insight, engaging storytelling, and thought-provoking ideas that left our audience engaged and inspired. Her ability to make complex plant science accessible and enthralling sparked curiosity and meaningful conversation throughout the event and on after. Zoë doesn’t just share knowledge—she invites us to see the living world in an entirely new way. This was more than a talk; it was a reawakening to the brilliance and agency of plants. A truly unforgettable experience.” — The Aldo Leopold Foundation, 2025
“The contemporary world of botany is divided over the matter of how plants sense the world and whether they can be said to communicate. But research in recent decades has prompted the question that animates Schlanger’s book: Are plants intelligent? Schlanger writes about scientists who are studying how plants change their shape and respond to sound, how they use electricity to convey information, how they send one another chemical signals. Along the way, she becomes a sort of anthropologist of botanists. The book’s focus on the researchers themselves overcomes a challenge inherent to science writing: where to find drama. The Light Eaters is a special piece of science writing for the way it solves the genre’s bind; it doesn’t force people or their findings into narrative engines. Instead, the field of botany itself functions like a character, one undergoing a potentially radical change, with all the excitement, discomfort, and uncertainty that transformation brings. The book’s power comes from showing a field in flux and reminding us that ideas have their own life cycles: from crackpot theory to utter embarrassment to real possibility to the stuff of textbooks.” — The New Yorker
“The Light Eaters is a masterpiece of science writing. Burning with open-minded curiosity, this exploration of the emerging revolution in plant science will challenge what you think you know and ignite a new way of seeing the plant world. Part detective story, part field trip and part philosophy, this brilliant book stretches the mind, toward a profound new understanding of the sophistication of under-appreciated plants. I feel it as an antidote to arrogance, as it engenders humility, respect and awe for the light eaters who make the world.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
“To read The Light Eaters is to be astounded by the complex behaviors of these ostensibly lower life-forms. Ms. Schlanger’s prose is precise yet loving. . . . There are lots of gee-whiz moments here. . . . Fertilize your brain with The Light Eaters and you’ll never look at your favorite, or least favorite, plants the same.” — Wall Street Journal
“Schlanger’s captivating exploration renders a rich world of plants: weird fern sex, sagebrush chemical communication, scientific debates on flora intelligence, and more.” — Vanity Fair
“The vegetable kingdom is full of wonders and mysteries, as Schlanger lavishly demonstrates in The Light Eaters . . . These are the unsung miracles that surround us daily . . . The Light Eaters ushers those marvels onto center stage.” — Slate
“Schlanger’s well-crafted descriptions provide a rare and welcome glimpse into the humanity and dedication of botanists . . . The Light Eaters overflows with the author’s infectious enthusiasm. Plant lovers will find much of interest in Schlanger’s inspiring tale of where her curious mind has led her.” — Nature
“The Light Eaters is riveting and revolutionary and I’m devouring it in small bites to digest how it’s reorganizing my universe.” — Rebecca Solnit, author of A Field Guide to Getting Lost and Men Explain Things to Me
“I’ll never look at plants—or the natural world—in the same way again, after reading Zoë Schlanger’s stunning book. Instead of trying to ram the square peg of botanical life into the round holes of human biology and metaphors, Schlanger instead considers plants on their own terms, as they actually are. The result is mesmerizing, world-expanding, and achingly beautiful.” — Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes
