It’s title may lead you to believe it’s the next hot romantasy, but Born of Fire and Rain by M.L. Herring is actually a non-fiction book about the ecology of the beautiful temperate rainforests of the PNW coastal region, stretching from Northern California up into British Columbia.
Let me tell you something: I frickin’ love the forests up here. I love that there are numerous parks a few minutes drive from my house where I can walk through trails amongst tall moss-draped trees. I love the mushrooms. And yeah, I even love the banana slugs. As mentioned in my review of Homewaters, the Puget Sound is beautiful and I am thrilled whenever I see it, but even more than that, I adore spending time surrounded by trees.
M.L. Herring gets it. She’s been here since the 1970s. She’s a professor emerita of science communication, with an ecology background. She studied salmon, she keeps sketchbook nature journals, and she’s been part of the modern day environmental movement practically from when it started. She’s the ideal person to write a book about the forest, its origins, how it has changed, and what its future might be.
Herring takes the reader on a journey through the Douglas-fir forests of the Pacific Northwest, talking about the volcanic origins of the region, the plate tectonics, the weather, the trees, the fungus, the wildlife, the streams… everything that works together to create this unique ecosystem. Each chapter begins almost like a guided meditation, using second-person narration to describe to the reader what they’re experiencing next on the trip through the woods.
As both a scientific researcher and an artist, Herring is able to a combination of both hard facts and emotional context for the forest. She shares her memories of doing research, of building a home in the forest and raising kids there, but she also shares information from many other scientists from a variety of disciplines, to provide a very well-rounded image of the landscape.
I’ve made no secret of the fact that this year’s fiction reading has been off to a rough start, but danged if non-fiction isn’t knocking it out of the park. Like Do I Know You?, this feels like an early front runner for one of my best reads of 2025. What’s more, it’s a book that I think I’ll find very useful, as my next fiction project is going to have a PNW conservation theme, so Born of Fire and Rain will serve as a good reference, or springboard for deeper research, as the book is full of references to more specific books and papers.
Like Homewaters, this book will probably be most interesting if you either live in or frequently visit the PNW, although I think it might make good reading for anyone who likes forests in general or is curious about some of the history of conservation. The whole spotted owl “war” happened here, after all, and that was a real landmark case.
TWs and CWs: Discussions of natural disasters and climate change.
Source and Format: I purchased a hardback copy at Brick & Mortar Books.
Reading Challenge Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): Loving Mother Earth (or Our Impending Doom). Honestly, this is a bit of both. Yes, it’s about loving the forest, but in addition to the usual climate change impending doom, there’s an extra element of the specific impending doom of “the big one” that is overdue to hit the PNW, and the fact that we have several volcanoes looming over our heads. No big deal. (I really need to work on my disaster preparedness)
Book Riot: Staff pick from an indie bookstore. This was a staff pick from Brick & Mortar Books. See below.
Brick & Mortar: Bookseller-Approved. I picked this book up due to bookseller Rachel’s shelf-talker. I was not disappointed!
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 5 of 25, no bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 6 of 25, no bingos.
Book Riot: 7 of 25.
Physical TBR: 1 of 12.
Brick & Mortar: 17 of 25, 2 bingos*.
*I’ve completed several of the non-reading prompts, hence the mismatch with the number of reviews!
World of Whimm: 8 of 24, no bingos.