World-renowned canopy biologist Nalini Nadkarni has climbed trees on four continents with scientists, students, artists, clergymen, musicians, activists, loggers, legislators, and Inuits, gathering diverse perspectives. In Between Earth and Sky, a rich tapestry of personal stories, information, art, and photography, she becomes our captivating guide to the leafy wilderness above our heads. Through her luminous narrative, we embark on a multifaceted exploration of trees that illuminates the profound connections we have with them, the dazzling array of goods and services they provide, and the powerful lessons they hold for us. Nadkarni describes trees' intricate root systems, their highly evolved and still not completely understood canopies, their role in commerce and medicine, their existence in city centers and in extreme habitats of mountaintops and deserts, and their important place in folklore and the arts. She explains tree fundamentals and considers the symbolic role they have assumed in culture and religion. In a book that reawakens our sense of wonder at the fascinating world of trees, we ultimately find entry to the entire natural world and rediscover our own place in it.

"With a scholarly voice leavened by poetic sensibility, Nadkarni (Rainforests) explores trees from root to canopy, tracing their powerful role in shaping human commerce, spirituality, even language — a fascinating section examines the preponderance of tree-based metaphors. The author, a renowned canopy biologist, pre-sents a wealth of entertaining arboreal facts and figures, but her personal anecdotes are the book's most compelling and inimitable feature: she describes a visit to a Baptist church where the pastor spoke of 'the need to find an entity that will protect us... and hold us... when we are frightened' with 'limbs that would support us forever, never tiring... helping us find quiet and calm in our lives.' Nadkarni relates being so 'amazed and pleased that the pastor would include a description of trees and their spiritual benefit in his sermon' that she didn't realize that he was talking about Jesus. Despite an occasional pedantic tone, the author's belief that 'when humans become sufficiently aware of... a single tree, a forest fragment, or the whole biosphere, they will find ways to protect it' is inspiring and her enthusiasm, contagious. Photos." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)