This volume comprises selected papers from the IAL 6 Symposium at Asilomar, California in 2008. It is a miscellany of 26 papers from about 80 contributors. The title gives an idea of the breadth of topics covered. In more detail these include life histories of lichen symbionts and lichen culture (2 papers), lichenicolous fungal taxonomy (2), ‘cyber applications’ or computer and internet networks applied to lichens (4), air pollution and public health (7), lichen community structure and dynamics (4), lichen fossils and history of symbiosis (2), soil crust lichens (2), systematics of Mexican Parmeliaceae (2) and photobiont selectivity (1).

The book deals with the biology of lichens in a fairly wide sense. It gives a fair idea of the subject areas which occupy most attention by researchers today. It also includes some topics that are rarely dealt with. For example, study of the life-histories of lichen symbionts seems to be a fairly novel area. Of modern preoccupations, taxonomy and systematics are given rather short thrift, but these topics are very well-covered in most issues of the periodicals that lichenologists subscribe to, and in many previous volumes of Bibliotheca Lichenologica. It is very difficult to single out particular chapters as within the book's covers there will be something to interest practically every lichenologist. Points that struck me are in the air pollution chapter, which gives recent information on lichens that indicate atmospheric ammonia concentrations, heavy metals and rare earth concentrations, and the effects of ozone fumigation. The community structure chapter includes much on community modelling, especially on a large scale, applicable to continents rather than the local area studies that have dominated ecology in the past. The chapters on lichens as fossils are fascinating as they deal not with actual fossils but with simulating the fossilisation process. Several papers are experimental involving culturing of symbionts.

The book is beautifully produced and edited. Figures and photographs are large and clear, limited only by the particular difficulties of photographing some materials, such as micro-sections of lichen thalli. It will be of principal interest to teachers and researchers who wish to keep up-to-date with a subject that is adapting to recent methodologies used in other areas of science and society. The final page is a list of Bibliotheca Lichenologica volumes 94-104. Well-done, editorial board; please continue the good work.