This seemed like it had the potential to be really fascinating, but, unfortunately, in reading this, I was left with the sensation of being cornered at a party by someone explaining to me the minutia of their field of study after a simple question like, "what's tree ring science?" Trouet has a tendency to explain absolutely everything when a more succinct set of facts will do and it made some of the more interesting information she had to convey watered down by the fact overload.