The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate—Discoveries from a Secret World / Peter Wohlleben

Peter Wohlleben may well change how you regard trees. A forester in charge of a beech forest near the Belgian border in Germany, he has some unusual (at least to me) ideas about how trees exist, along with some groundbreaking ideas about how forests should be maintained. He makes the convincing argument that forests are communities in which members have intricate interdependencies and amazing defensive strategies.  In fact, trees may be more sentient and beneficial to each other (and to us) than anyone previously may have imagined.  He is a scientist, but is definitely thinking outside the box.

This book created a bit of a publishing sensation when it came out in Germany, and it has since been translated into many languages and received well-deserved international attention.