'World of Wonders' by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

You may not know Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s name, but you should. She has a wonderful collection of essays about the natural world — published, by the way, by Minnesota’s own Milkweed Editions.  

Open to the first essay to find an elegant illustration of a catalpa flower by Fumi Mini Nakamura and a delicious first sentence: “A catalpa can give two brown girls in western Kansas a green umbrella from the sun.”
 Notice how much that lovely sentence reveals to us: The contrast of the green canopy over the sun-parched southern plains; the “brown girls” — sisters — feeling out of place in rural Kansas but holding each other close.

Nezhukumatathil shares something that I cherish about poet and essayist Helen Macdonald’s writing on the natural world: a contrast of textures, a shimmering attention to detail and a sly humor where I least expect it.
Listen to this sentence she slipped into the middle of a passage about huge squids: “I wished I was a vampire squid the most when I was the new girl in high school.”

By the way, Nakamura’s drawing of the vampire squid is both sinister and charming.

The essays are autobiographical, observational and just marvelous. Nezhukumatathil told NPR over the summer: “I’m hoping to open up more of a conversation about whose outdoor experiences get to be told. And I’m hoping that it increases the sense of wonderment when you see that you don’t have to be a scientist to appreciate the outdoors.”

Slip this lovely book into someone’s stocking this Christmas and watch the “wonderment” bloom.

My “2020 Can’t-Miss” book this week is Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s “World of Wonders.”

Next time? Three steamy romance novels I’ll bet you missed.

—  Kerri Miller | MPR News