World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction--a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor; the open skies and tall mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Indian father; and the chillier climes of western New York and Ohio. But no matter where she was transplanted--no matter how awkward the fit or forbidding the landscape--she was able to turn to our world's fierce and funny creatures for guidance. more
165 pages, Hardcover
First published Milkweed Editions
4.07
Rating
18959
Ratings
2860
Reviews
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
26 books 742 followers
author of WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, AND OTHER ASTONISHMENTS (Milkweed 2020), and four collections of poetry, most recently, OCEANIC (Copper Canyon, 2018). Professor of English and Glitter, University of Mississippi.Community reviews
This is a love letter to the natural world and family woven with memoir. I actually first published parts of this series in The Butter (RIP) and I am so happy to see what the project has blossomed into. The writing is intimate and so much care is taken. I actually wanted more but I love what is here, the depth of knowledge, the well-chosen details she shares from both her childhood and her adult years. A truly refreshing read. more
An ambitious and lovely project, to interweave personal essay and nature writing, but too clumsily done for me to enjoy. Each essay is named after a natural phenomenon (plant, animal, typhoon) and makes a facile connection from that to a time in the author's life. The associations are bizarre and contrived. Moving to a new school made the author want to be like a vampire squid because she too wanted to hide. Flamingos have long legs, like the author's, and she spent nights out dancing in college on those long legs, and currently worries for the safety of young girls. more
I discovered this book while doing some book shopping on Barnes and Noble’s website. It was advertised as the book of the year. Because I’m a nature lover, it was one I had to try. I was pleasantly enlightened from the first pages. The essays in this book connect nature to parts of the author’s life from childhood to adulthood and now as a married woman and mother. more
UPDATE: $1. 99 kindle US today 4/11/224. 5 Stars ⭐️ I loved the majority of this book. Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾. more
From its gorgeous cover, to the wonderful excerpts within, this book was a delight. What a unique way to tell parts of one's life while enlightening the reader to so many unique parts of nature. The dancing frog, I can just imagine this tiny frog dancing on a rock to attract a mate, to the hardy cactus wren, the largest wren at seven inches. Cara cara oranges, with pink insides, the giving of citrus a token of love. Glass jangling bracelets and the cute axolotl. more
This is truly an 11 out of 10. With the world spinning in the wrong direction, the time had been doing me and I had not been able to do the time. Then this book, which I’ve been anxiously awaiting for MONTHS, smacked me in the face. It wasn’t what I expected, starting with it’s small format, and was so much more than I expected (I’ll confess I got a recent sneak peek when she was interviewed by the eloquent Kiese Laymon). His quote. more
I downloaded this from Hoopla and read a couple of short essays every morning. Gorgeous writing about the natural world of insects, fish and birds, combined with vignettes from her personal life. It was a great way to start the day. more
This is the kind of gentle and lyrical ecotone I've always wished I could write, and am thrilled for everyone on planet Earth to read. Through ancestry, travel, academic study, and her childhood, motherhood, and career experiences as a woman of color, Nezhukumatathil illuminates a brief yet moving display of life through nature. The essays on fireflies and the Southern Cassowary were my personal favorites, but each animal and anecdote left me with a new creature factoid; a deep nostalgia for my own outdoor upbringing; an urge to observe and protect the natural world. Without a doubt, I will be returning to this collection again and again, for the humor and hope elicited by Nezhukumatathil's words, as well as Fumi Nakamura's original art (which adds an extra, gripping detail to the collection that I want to have printed on my walls). more
I feel awful for giving this collection one-star, but I just couldn’t finish it. I’m sure Nezhukumatathil is a great poet and I wouldn’t object to trying out her poetry, but this wasn’t it. The binding and design of the book itself is gorgeous, but sadly its contents don’t even come close to its physical beauty. These essays were flat and generic. Essay after essay felt like a half-hearted first draft. more
The author’s love of the natural world is apparent in this collection of short essays. Unfortunately, her attempt to connect her understanding of the natural world with events in her life often seemed like she was really reaching. more
I was absolutely blown away by World of Wonders. Because it is a collection of essays, I did not expect to become so emotionally involved with Aimee's story. silly, now that I think of it: Length does not always measure emotional capacity. This book dives deep into Aimee's observations of various plants and animals and the lessons we can learn from them. It's an exploration of Aimee's childhood growing up with a Filipiina mother and an Indian father. more
There’s a nice selection of subjects here, but I really couldn’t get one with this style of writing - almost painful. . more
'The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. ' Rabindranath TagoreI enjoyed a virtual author event with Aimee Nezhukumatahil on March 11, 2021, presented by St Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN. Afterwards I was so excited to read and savor her beautiful essays. One can enjoy this collection of essays on so many different levels. First for the author's lovely and poetic writing. more
I don't usually write negative reviews but this book really just pushed me. Two thirds in, I decided to stop because the writing style is very grating. I usually love when writers lean onto nature to describe themselves, but here the comparisons that are drawn lack subtlety. Each chapter, a living creature or natural phenomenon is described, and then the author quickly draws a line to their own experiences/feelings etc. Instead of having something that weaves nature and self, it sounds almost forced. more
I needed this collection right now. What the author calls "love songs to the planet," with her two young sons in mind, are a beautiful collection of personal essays linking memories of her own life with observations and wonder about the natural world. She has the eye and cadence from her experience as a poet, as well as the joy of being the mother of two curious young sons, and her meditations on the natural world and our society are just a delight to read. This collection could have been three times the length and I would be here for it. How I wish I had been able to take a writing class with her when I was younger. more
A Different Way of SeeingThe way this book was written was quite interesting. Who would have thought to write essays about animals and insects as they relate it to ones life. The author did, and I can’t duplicate anything that she has placed in this book. It makes for a difficult book to review. I will try by putting in my own life examples. more
Maybe I'm just a sucker for nature writing. What we have here is a collection of essays using nature as a a springboard. Talk of peacocks, corpse flowers and fireflies are a useful jumping off point to discuss growing up a latchkey kid, reflecting on otherness and what love means. All with the thoughtful and reverent wonder of a poet. It is a deft exploration of our connected lives and how nature, when considered more closely, can frame our experiences without devolving into cloying bromides and crunchy platitudes. more
Some essays are better than others there’s the occasional twee bullshit that’s annoyingly typical of The Toast but the feelings of love and wonder that fill the book charmed me in the end. more
This is one of the most beautiful books I have read. The illustrations are gorgeous. I didn't want it to end. "For me, what a single firefly can do is this: it can light a memory I thought was long lost in roadsides overrun with Queen Anne's Lace and goldenrod, a peach pie cooling in the window of a distant house. It might make me feel like I'm traveling again to a gathering of loved ones dining seaside on a Greek island, listening to cicada song and a light wind rustling the mimosa trees. more
I enjoy reading about nature, especially people’s interactions with nature and their thoughts about conservation. Some of the essays were thought-provoking, but at some points the writing felt naive and cliche. I liked the essays that focused on her difficulties with moving around as a child and how she found solace in nature. I didn’t like the essays that seemed. privileged for lack of a better word. more
impeccably brilliant how she manages to weave fun facts about nature into her personal experiences. as a filipino gal myself, i found a lot of her anecdotes relatable. I'll also forever be fascinated by animals & weird plants lol. the cassowary chapter had to be the most shocking for me. but i also learned a lot about narwhals, axolotls, and flamingos from this hah i'm so glad i finally picked this up as my first nonfiction of 2024. more
Summary: The structure of this book felt random, while the mash-up of memoir with nature writing and the prose were hit or miss for me. This book of nature essays blended with moments of memoir is poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil's debut work of nonfiction. It's also the first of the Kirkus Prize shortlisted books that I haven't enjoyed. Part of this may be because I picked it up only knowing the title and that the book was on the shortlist. I expected a work focused on nature writing and didn't enjoy the unexpected forays into memoir. more
1. 5i don't mean to sound like an asshole, especially since this is such a personal piece, but this was sincerely just not good. i feel like an alien reading reviews of this book because it is absolutely not good. it's all smoke and mirrors. perhaps the most gorgeous book i have ever owned in my entire life, but the contents don't come anywhere close to measuring up to the book design and illustrations. more
This book deceives by its crystalline surface. It is so easy to move into that the reader often doesn't know how far they've come, how deeply they've been changed. It is an important book at exactly the right time. Here's a review I published in "Michigan Quarterly"https://sites. lsa. more
Short, endearing illustrated volume of some twenty essays about various plants and animals - ranging from corpse flowers to axolotls - all presented with some connection to the author's life. I have to admit I was deeply cynical about this one. I was worried it would take on the affectation of being too quaint or sentimental. Instead, the deliberate earnestness of the writing grew on me. So many stories about the author's childhood or early life combined with a sense of admiration of the natural world. more
This was one of the hardest to finish books I have read. I understand that the Author was going for some poetic mesh of memoir and nature enthusiast, but it simply fell short of enjoyable. It was monotonous and repetitive. There were a few enjoyable quips here and there but those aside it was very hard to read. I have no clue how this ended up being Barnes and Nobles book of the Year. more
This book came during a “slowdown” in my reading life (teaching during a pandemic will do that. ). In a lot of ways, I think it was a perfect book for this time. I needed to be reminded of how much there is to wonder and marvel at in this world, and how slowing down isn’t always a bad thing. I also think Nezhukumatathil’s blend of personal narrative and environmental writing is appropriate for a book that reminds us of how connected we are to the natural world. more
~~~5 Stars~~~Read it, read it now. This book is such a beautiful story of feminism and perseverance. The book opens your eyes to the life of a young girl just trying to survive the racism and sexism of this world. I can't explain in words how much this book meant to me and how much everyone needs to read it. So go, read it. more
Nezhukumatathil’s other books are classified as poetry. This one is in the category of nature writing combined with memoir. The combination doesn’t particularly work for me. My favorite chapter had her monsoon experiences (mostly nature and adult experience). Throughout the book she uses unusual animals, exotic plants, endangered species and the phenomenon of the monsoon in Kerala as springboards into her personal story. more
I first saw a review for this on Kirkus. I love the cover. I love the content. I love the illustrations. I love the honesty. more