Order the book through your local bookstore, online, or check your local library for digital and physical loans.
Contextual Links
We recommend perusing these links to get additional context about the book, the author, and the themes of the book. Spoilers ahead, though!
A Book About Nature That Is So Much More (NYT)
'World Of Wonders' Urges Us To Take A Breath And Look Around (NPR)
World of Wonders: An Interview With Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Poets & Writers)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil discusses 'World of Wonders,' Asian American representation in environmental writing (OSU.edu)
On Empathy, Complexity, And Whimsy: Talking With Aimee Nezhukumatathil (The Rumpus)
Write Like a Mother: Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Fiction Advocate)
Discussion Questions
These reading questions are adapted from Bookclubs.com and Indiana Humanities
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is a poet, and World of Wonders her first work of nonfiction. What ways do you see poetic elements intertwine with memoir in this book?
Nezhukumatathil writes about her identity as an Asian American woman—often seen as an outsider by those around her. In what ways does she come to terms with feeling the pull to ‘blend’ in with her white classmates and friends?
World of Wonders speaks to the beauty and surprise of the natural world, along with the responsibility we hold toward it; Nezhukumatathil emphasizes the dangers facing nature as she wrestles with humanity’s impact on it. Where does her concern stem from? In what ways do you connect with her message?
How does artificial environments impacts various creatures in the essays? How do they impact you?
Do you have a relationship with the earth or nature? What does it look like? How does it relate to Nezhukumatathil's introspections?