I remember becoming fascinated with sea cucumbers when I was a teenager and I can appreciate that "Aha!" moment when you encounter a species out in the wild, fall in love with it, and want to learn more about it. For Landis the species are mussels. Luckily she is married to a mussel scientist.

In this book she gathers a variety of anecdotes and facts about the bivalves. When the last page is turned her enthusiasm will have turned contagious and you realize that you care about the welfare of this mollusk and how it benefits its environment.

Who could have thought that a book about freshwater mussels could be so fascinating, but it is. Landis has done it! Did you know that mussels have no heads and therefore no brains, but they are acutely aware of their environment and react to shadows and other threats by closing their hinged shell? Mussels move from place to place by propelling themselves forward with their one leg which they reach outside the slightly open shell to move themselves. They actively seek what they need to survive. Male mussels toss their sperm into the water where female mussels filter it in along with bits of algae and other suspended particles. When the fertilized eggs mature into larval mussels, they are released into the river by the millions where the the lucky ones attach themselves to passing fish and continue maturing until they drop off to begin their adult lives ingesting and filtering water that helps to clean the rivers and streams.
Mussels can get infections; they can get cancer. A big threat to their existence is temperature change of the water and pollution of streams. Author Abbie Gascho Landis writes about the many scientists that study freshwater mussels and how they work to prevent further extinction of the different mussel species that often live side by side in the same stream. This is truly a well-written, account of a little creature that most of us don't think much about. After reading this book, I have a huge appreciation for the role that mussels play in our environment.

"Immersion" provides a fascinating and intimate look at freshwater mussels of the southern United States. In the tradition of Sy Montgomery ("The Soul of an Octopus") and even perhaps Rachel Carson, Abbie Gascho Landis brings readers in close to the subject, revealing both the beauty and wonder of the animals as well as the precarious nature of their existence as human activity threatens them with extinction. The detailed descriptions joined with an entertaining personal narrative help this title appeal to a wide audience, both with and without a science background. No prior knowledge of or interest in mussels is required to enjoy this book, but the reader will likely have developed some of both by the end of it.

The best thing about reading this sort of book, one focusing on a single type of animal, is the passion and love for that animal that comes across from the author. Abbie starts off the book with her first hunt for the "where's wally" of the animal world, the mussel. Sat at the bottom of a river bed half buried and only a couple of apertures on show, you can't blame her for her frustration at not being able to see something, even when somebody is pointing straight at it! But each time she finds a mussel and picks it up her words show how emotional she gets, especially when one starts to crawl across her hand.

My knowledge of mussels is that you can eat them...and they have a shell. Turns out this book is about the non-eating variety, fresh water mussels. There are many varieties often only to be found in certain rivers. Evolution is bonkers at times, how a mussel that has no eyes could create a lure that looks like a minnow is beyond my brain power. A huge amount of this book is dedicated to warning us to look after our rivers, mussels and rivers are dying and we are killing them off in a variety if different ways. Luckily for us there are people fighting to save them, hopefully this book will inspire a few more to join the cause.

I've enjoyed reading this and learning loads at the same time. I do have a few issues with the book, the flow can be disrupted now and then by another question being asked before the last question had been done with, there seem to be lots of tangents and a couple of the chapters abruptly end. It is still worth reading though. I'm now off to see if we get fresh water mussels in the UK.