Reader Reviews from Amazon.com:
Excellent Book, an easy and interesting read! 
This book is an excellent initial book on the history of mysterious mushrooms and myschievious molds. I actually spent some time with the author of this book, and must say, the book does a great job of conveying his narrative voice and deep insight into the subject. It is an excellent leisure book because it is insightful, entertaining, and broken up into discrete chapters on different subjects. All around, I recommend everyone with an interest in biology, science, and trivia should read this book and keep it on their shelf.
This book is great!
This book is easy to read, humor keeps it upbeat and interesting.
There's Fungus Among Us!
This book is a great beginning reader about Fungi. It covers mushrooms, molds, and yeasts and gives an overview of what is a fungus, fungus biology, and fungus reproduction. Then he starts telling fascinating stories about fungus that illuminate their nature: the story of penicillin, how yeasts are used to make beer and wine and bread, how ergot (a fungus that grows on rye) probably resulted in periodic "witch" episodes in Europe and then in America, psychedelic mushrooms, fungus compounds, and on and on. I should add even if you think you know the penicillin story, he gives many fascinating details that you may not be familiar with. This book fascinated me and was engrossing. It is written in a way that is very accessible and geared to the novice. I think anyone with a rudimentary interest in biology or science will like it.
You'll feel like a kid again reading this...
I was inspired to pick up this book when I first heard about slime molds; although it only just touches on the topic of slime molds, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! True to it's name, this book really takes you into the bizarre world of mycology, integrating historical, religious, counterculture, and scientific themes into one well-woven tapestry. This book will make you want to become a mycologist; I felt like I was a kid again, discovering an entirely new and exciting world. I very much recommend this book-- it will renew your sense of wonder in the world, and lead you to poke at old leftovers with a sick sense of delight!
solid introduction to mycology 
The fungi are enormously important organisms in nearly every ecosystem, but their importance is rarely fully appreciated. Besides that, they are a fascinating life form, as mind bending as any creature from science fiction.
This book is a very brief introduction to fungi. The topic itself is fascinating, so it is no problem that the writing is only a tad better than typical academic writing.
Hudler covers:
* the structure of fungi and their classification
* their life-cycles and reproduction, spore travel including exploding cups
* the Armillaria bulbosa, the world's largest living organism and one of its oldest
* the fungus that caused the Irish potato famine
* the possibility that Joseph's famine in Exodus was caused by rust
* the origin of ginger snaps
* Dutch Elm disease and other tree diseases
* Ergot, which probably caused the hallucinations of the Salem witch trials, and maybe the experience of the Eleusinian mysteries in ancient Greece, and from which we make LSD
* fungus and problems of food storage
* athlete's foot, ringworm, yeast infections and thrush
* penicillin (the details of its discovery and the growing resistance of microbes), shiitake and other mushrooms from Asian medicine; and of course Beano
* yeasts in baking and brewing
* brief look at edible mushrooms and poisonous ones
* magic mushrooms
* wood decay
* symbiosis with insects (leaf-cutter ants, termites and ambrosia beetles); and fungi that prey on insects, including houseflies and the gypsy moth
* symbiosis with plants, especially mychorrhizae
* lichens, which are generally symbiosis between fungi and algae (plants), but in some cases the fungi are evidently parasites (and this was interesting news to me!); the possibility that the Biblical manna from heaven was a lichen; and lichens that store and concentrate radioactive caesium, which are eaten by reindeer, which are eaten by humans, leading to radiation poisoning; and lichens as sources for oils, dyes and perfumes
Other reviewers are obviously raving about this book, but it has much too little detail for my taste. It's target audience is everyone, so the author backed away from scientific information which would have made the book much, much more fascinating. However, as an introduction to fungi for people with little or no scientific background, this book is perfect.
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