Forest Euphoria

The Abounding Queerness of Nature

By: Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian

Narrated by: Aven Shore

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * TIME 100 MUST-READ BOOKS OF 2025

“An antidote to the loneliness of our species.”—ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

“A master class in how to love the world.”—MARGARET RENKL

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 Ononiwu 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 listeners to the queerness of all the life around us. Fungal species, we learn, commonly encompass 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, a mystery that 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 surprises, Forest Euphoria will open your eyes and change how you look at the world.

©2025 Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (P)2025 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify Audiobooks

interesting

Well researched and thoughtful. The performance was a little cringe. I appreciate the author's queer perspectives on ecology.

Sustenance for Soul

Insightful, emotional, tender and inspirational. This book truly helped me process some of my own life & experiences. It reinforced my connection to nature, and brought me back to my child-like wonder.

Thoughtful personal narrative thread that weaves lots of information about the forests and natural world.

I loved the combination of personal narrative, human history and colonialism and natural sciences and how they are all interconnected.

Eye opening and heart warming

What an interesting way to learn about the world and yourself all at once. I feel at ease knowing i am connected to the world in ways I never knew

Is this my perfect book?

A loving description of the Badlands? Common and scientific names side by side? A cyanotype printing scene in a swamp? Trillium flowers? An Octavia Butler “God is Change” reference? Is this the perfect book?

I needed something to bring some peace and grounding and hope and this was that. Queer scientists are a light in the world. Everyone should read this book.