Field Guide to Field Guides: Mushrooms & Fungi

Front

Find your Guide

If you want to…	In the Field	At Home
Identify What You Found	All That the Rain Promises, and More David Arora The one. Pocket-sized, funny, authoritative.	Mushrooms Demystified David Arora The full 1,000-page encyclopedia.
Forage PNW Species	Common Mushrooms of the Pacific NW Kirsten McKnight Ward Waterproof, ultra-portable visual ID.	Mushrooms of the PNW, Revised Steve Trudell & Joe Ammirati The photo-forward regional benchmark.
Eat What You Find	Fruits of the Forest Daniel Winkler Photographic take-along for PNW edibles.	How to Forage Without Dying Frank Hyman Common-sense checklists for safe foraging.
Go Deeper	Mushrooms of Cascadia Michael Beug The master-level regional key.	Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake The book that mainstreamed mycology.

If You Can Only Pick One

All That the Rain Promises, and More cover

★ Staff Pick

All That the Rain Promises, and More · David Arora

Arora identifies mushrooms the way you actually meet them: by what's in front of you, not by shifting laboratory taxonomy. Intuitive visual groupings and real wit make the identification stick. It's the rare field guide people read cover to cover, small enough to never leave your pocket and charming enough to turn a casual walker into a lifelong enthusiast.

First Forage Starter Pack

All That the Rain Promises+How to Forage Without Dying

One to identify, one to keep you alive. Fits in a daypack with room for your harvest bag.

Fungal Rabbit Hole Starter Pack

Entangled Life+Mycelium Running

Sheldrake rewires how you think about fungi. Stamets tells you what to do about it. You'll never see a forest floor the same way.

Back

More Field Guides

Pocket Guide to Wild Mushrooms
PocketHolmberg · For pickers: edibles and harvest tips

Mushrooms of the Northwest
PocketMarrone · The simplest first-ID guide, Northwest species

Audubon Mushrooms of N. America
2023 edition · the encyclopedic photo reference

Peterson FG to Mushrooms, 2nd
IllustratedMcKnight · Covers all of North America

Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom
Plischke · Edible vs. toxic, side by side

Mushrooming Without Fear
Schwab · The cautious beginner's guide

Edible Mushrooms of the PNW
FoldingWinkler · The region's edibles, at a glance

Mushroom Color Atlas
Beeler · Dyes and pigments from fungi

Mushroom Logbook
Mountaineers · Field journal for foragers

Mushroom Spotter's Deck
CardsKott · Illustrated quick-reference

Beyond the Field Guide

Fungi & Big Ideas

Entangled Life
Sheldrake — Fungi as ecology's operating system. Our #2 seller.

Mycelium Running
Stamets — Mycoremediation and the mushrooms-can-save-the-world argument.

Mushroom at the End of the World
Tsing — Matsutake, capitalism, and ecology. Not for everyone; irreplaceable.

Fungipedia
Millman — Brief compendium of mushroom lore. Charming gift book.

Mushroom Lit & Memoir

The Mushroom Hunters
Cook — Commercial foragers in the PNW. Local story, national stakes.

Mycophilia
Bone — A food writer falls for the mushroom world. Accessible, personal.

Field Notes from a Fungi Forager
Rodriguez — Recipes meet field notes. Bridges foraging and cooking.

Fat of the Land
Cook — Broader PNW foraging memoir. Mushrooms, clams, nettles.

Medicinal & Wellness

Fungal Pharmacy
Rogers — The therapeutic reference. Medicinal mushrooms & lichens.

Medicinal Mushrooms of Western N.A.
Rogers — Regional focus. PNW species specifically.

How to Change Your Mind
Pollan — The psychedelic renaissance book.

Healing Mushrooms
Isokauppila — Practical culinary guide to mushrooms for health.

Growing Your Own

Growing Gourmet & Medicinal Mushrooms
Stamets — The cultivation bible, down to the lab work.

DIY Mushroom Cultivation
Arevalo — Home-scale, food & medicine & soil focus.

Mycocultural Revolution
McCoy — From the author of Radical Mycology. Community-scale growing.

Cooking with Mushrooms

Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook
Bone — Companion cookbook to the documentary.

Deerholme Mushroom Cookbook
Jones — Vancouver Island foraging-to-table. PNW species.

Cooking with Mushrooms
Gentl — A fungi lover's guide to versatile recipes.

For Young & New Explorers

Mushroom Fan Club
Gravel — Illustrated, funny, zero jargon. Ages 6–10.

Fungi Grow
Gianferrari — Picture book about the hidden world underfoot.

Humongous Fungus
DK — Big photos, wild facts. The gateway for curious kids.

Mushroom books are popping up everywhere. These are the ones we reach for most often. Psychedelic science, cultivation manuals, something more specialized — just ask. That's what we're here for.

A Field Guide to Field Guides · No. 5

Built by Steven Pate for Port Book and News · rev. 2026-10-01