This book opens with a poingnant story:
…she asked us to look around and make a mental list of all the blue things in the room. There were quite a few of them, and I quickly jotted them down in my brain. Then we closed our eyes, and one by one, the convener asked us an unexpected question. Name one of the yellow things in the room! As I recall, no one — and certainly not I — could remember anything yellow because we were all so intently focused on blue.

This highlighting of the selectivity of perception is a theme throughout the book. Furthermore, the author makes a good case that the metaphors used by our modern culture and science to portray nature need considerable improvement.

These points were important tools the author used to make the case for an ecosystem perspective. She points out essential interactions between the assorted pieces of nature are not just more numerous and complex than we typically think, but the tiny microbes which we barely know are a fundamental piece of this puzzle.

And what do we do with the knowledge we gain by figuring out how nature works?

Help humans change our behavior so that we can roll back the damage we’ve already done and avoid further damage.

Those are just some summary insights into this book, but the book isn’t just catch-phrases and brief insights. It is a compelling journey through nature and discoveries within nature, told through stories of people who were helping to bring these observations to light.