April 2021 Converge Book Club World of Wonders Aimee Nezhukumatathil
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April 2021
Converge Book Club
World of Wonders
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB 2021 1CONTENTS
Hello dear reader,
Welcome to the Converge Book Club!
World of Wonders redefined the pandemic for us. After we read the book we spent our days looking
for wonder in our neighborhood, wonder within reach. We spent our days learning the name of ever
tree in a three mile radius of our house. There was something about naming that made us feel more
connected, more in love with the world.
In March our little team interviewed Aimee Nezhukumatathil. If you are interested in hearing the
whole interview click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxBtmEyDvqI
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Quick insights into the author
A Brief Book Summary
World of Wonders
A Bit of Background
Helpful Terms and Ideas
Reading Guide
Week to week guide for getting through the book
Reflection Activities
Reading, writing, and activity prompts intermittently dispersed
Additional Reading
Bonus materials
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 2ABOUT
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Aimee Nezhukumatathil was born in Chicago to a Filipina mother and a South Indian father. She lived a
rambling childhood in several states throughout the US (you’ll find that her writing is deeply influenced
by a sense of the places where she grew up). She attended Ohio State University and received a BA in
English, and later an MFA in poetry and creative nonfiction. She is the author of four works of poetry,
as well as a chapbook co-written with Ross Gay entitled Lace and Pyrite. World of Wonders is her first
nonfiction collection. Aimee is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of
Mississippi, is the mother of two young sons, and is a lover of the ocean, roller skates, and glitter.
ABOUT THE BOOK
World of Wonders is a collection of 28
essays about the natural world and the
lessons it holds for its human inhabitants.
Aimee blends nature writing with memoir,
moving back and forth from descriptions of
the beautiful, the heartbreaking, and the
downright bizarre creatures she loves to the
reminders each holds for her own life. The
book is an invitation to look deeply into the
details of the natural world, and then to
bring that same directness of gaze into the
way we look at ourselves.
World of Wonders is a book dominated by
whimsy, yet it deals with themes of fitting
in and feeling displaced; of the ways that
race and gender impact daily existence; of
environmental grief and building a
sustainable future. The book engages with
these themes with optimism and a call to
readers’ best selves, inspiring us to consider
what the world can become if we take the
time to truly see it.
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 3READING PLAN
DATE DAY THE READING
JANUARY 25 01 Chapter I o
JANUARY 26 02 Chapter II o
JANUARY 27 03 Chapter III o
JANUARY 28 04 Chapter IV o
JANUARY 29 05 Chapter V o
o
FEBRUARY 1 06 Chapter VI
FEBRUARY 2 07 Chapter VII o
FEBRUARY 3 08 Chapter VIII o
FEBRUARY 4 09 Chapter IX o
FEBRUARY 5 10 Chapter X o
o
FEBRUARY 8 11 Chapter XI o
FEBRUARY 9 12 Chapter XII
FEBRUARY 10 13 Chapter XIII o
FEBRUARY 11 14 Chapter XIV o
FEBRUARY 12 15 Chapter XV o
FEBRUARY 15 16 Chapter XVI o
FEBRUARY 16 17 Chapter XVII o
FINAL REFLECTION
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB 2021 4DAY 1
THE READING:
“Catalpa Tree”
Pages 1-6
LINES WE LOVED:
“Catalpa trees can help you record the wind as it claps their giant heart-shaped leaves
together - leaves with spit curls, not unlike a naughty boy from a fifties movie, whose
first drag race ends in defeat and spilled milkshakes. But these leaves can make a right
riot of applause on a particularly breezy day.”
“As I pass the enormous tree, I make note of which leaves could cover my face entire if I
ever needed them again.”
REFLECTION ACTIVITY I: Think about a time when you found shelter
in an unexpected place. Write a note of gratitude to the person,
place, or thing that helped you find security.
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB 2021 5DAY 2
THE READING:
“Firefly”
Pages 9-14
LINES WE LOVE:
“Perhaps I can keep those summer nights with my family inside an empty jam jar, with
holes poked in the lid, a twig and a few strands of grass tucked inside.”
DAY 3
THE READING:
“Peacock”
Pages 15-19
LINES WE LOVE:
“This is the story of how, for years, I pretended I hated the color blue. But what the
peacock can do is remind you of a home you will run away from and run back to all your
life: My favorite color is peacock blue.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB 2021 6REFLECTION ACTIVITY II: Is there a part of yourself that you grew up
denying? Use the space below to draw a picture or write a message
honoring that part of yourself now.
DAY 4
THE READING:
“Comb Jelly”
Pages 20-22
LINES WE LOVE:
“Some of the planet’s most vibrant light shows come not from the land or air, but from
the ocean. With the pulse and undulation of the comb jelly, hundreds of thousands of
cilia flash mini-rainbows even in the darkest polar and tropical ocean zones.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 7DAY 5
THE READING:
“Touch-Me-Nots”
Pages 25-27
LINES WE LOVE:
“Well, I still coo over its delightful pinnation, the double-leaf pattern feathering outward
then inward from both sides of a single stem, and its spherical lavender-pink flowers,
which bloom only in summer, and look as if someone crossed a My Little Pony doll with
a tiny firework.”
DAY 6
THE READING:
“Cactus Wren”
Pages 28-33
LINES WE LOVE:
“What I remember of suburban Phoenix in the eighties: in the Fry’s Food and Drug
parking lot on Bell Road, an abandoned white roller skate, its neon pink bootlace frayed.
I imagine the lace yanked and tugged by a cactus wren, who zooms away with it in her
beak - over swimming pool after metallic swimming pool, shimmery as silverfish and
headlight - and into her saguaro nest, already decked out with milk caps, tumbleweed,
and bits of mossy bramble.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 8DAY 7
THE READING:
“Narwhal”
Pages 35-40
LINES WE LOVE:
“There were good kids here. Kids who, no matter what they learned from television or
their own parents, would still reach out for my hand, for a hug, who would miss me on
the playground, the way I loved to hang upside down from the monkey bars with my
knees and yelp at the clouds at my feet.”
DAY 8
THE READING:
“Axolotl”
Pages 43-47
LINES WE LOVE:
“It’s hard to remember axolotls are endangered when you see their bodies regenerate
parts so quickly, when they ‘smile’ at you in aquariums, their pink gills waving as they
study you and your own fixed mouth.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 9REFLECTION ACTIVITY III: Aimee advocates for a kind of tenacious
kindness in this essay, one that continues to engage with
compassion even in the face of hostility. What is your response to
her message?
DAY 9
THE READING:
“Dancing Frog”
Pages 49-51
LINES WE LOVE:
“He is then free to find another wet rock on which to shimmy and kick the evening
away, accompanied by the gurgle of freshwater - a xylophone of accompaniment for this
performance.”
“Frogs are the great bioindicators of this planet - meaning the health of dancing frogs is
indicative of the health of the biosphere itself.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 10REFLECTION ACTIVITY IV: What is something (or someone) whose
sheer existence makes you smile? Write a short piece celebrating
its presence in your life.
DAY 10
THE READING:
“Vampire Squid”
Pages 53-57
LINES WE LOVE:
“This was my cephalopod year, the closest I ever came to wanting to disappear or sneak
away into the deep sea.”
“If not for that year where no one talked to me on the school bus, where I had no
Valentines, no dates, I wouldn’t know what to say to my student with the greasy
backpack, who sits in the corner by herself and doesn’t make eye contact. Who never
talks in her other classes and never spoke in my class unless called upon. I wouldn’t
know how to tell if her solitude is voluntary or if it covers up a hunger to be seen, to
glow with friendship like I had every other year.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 11REFELECTION ACTIVITY V: Is there a creature from the natural
world that brings you a better understanding of other people?
Draw a picture in the space below.
DAY 11
THE READING:
“Monsoon”
Pages 58-67
LINES WE LOVE:
“You can tell a monsoon is near when you hear a sound in the distance like someone
shaking a packet of seeds, then a pause, and then the roar. You know it’s coming when
the butterflies - fiery skippers and bluebottles - fly in abundance over the cinnamon
plants and suddenly vanish. A whole family of peacocks will gather up in a banyan tree,
so still, as if posing for a portrait. Then the shaking sound begins.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 12DAY 12
THE READING:
“Corpse Flower”
Pages 69-73
LINES WE LOVE:
“The spathe, or the skirt of the corpse flower, is the richest red and maroon. From a
distance, its frills look like a plush velvet, an extravagant upside-down winter ball gown.”
“Laughing eyes - my mom once observed after she first met him - to describe how his
eyes shine at everything, how this man has a knack for making everyone around him
feel pretty darn magnificent. You know, it’s very good for a man to have laughing eyes.”
DAY 13
THE READING:
“Bonnet Macaque”
Pages 74-78
LINES WE LOVE:
“Bonnet macaques reminded me how good it felt to laugh, to keep laughing in love. To
make my love laugh. To let my laughter be from a place of love.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 13DAY 14
THE READING:
“Calendars Poetica”
Pages 79-83
LINES WE LOVE:
“You place grain on each segment, then take down what words are
spelled out when the hen eats the grain. On my worst writing days,
that’s what writing a poem feels like. Only I am not the hen. I am the
grain.”
DAY 15
THE READING:
“Whale Shark”
Pages 85-91
LINES WE LOVE:
“Looking back at the one and only time I’ve gone swimming with a whale shark, I realize
I was simply unprepared to submit myself so completely to nature. Or rather, humans’
interpretation and preservation of nature, by adding 1.8 million pounds of sea salt to a
giant tank of water so all these creatures could live and swim together. For science. For
entertainment. For spectacle. Perhaps for a little of all three.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 14REFLECTION ACTIVITY VI: This essay talks about expecting
something to be tame and then being unexpectedly awed by its
wildness. It also raises questions of the place humans hold in the
world. After reading the essay, what are your thoughts on these
two ideas and how they relate to each other?
DAY 16
THE READING:
“Potoo”
Pages 93-97
LINES WE LOVE:
For a bird famous for its stoic stillness, the potoo’s call would sound comical if it didn’t
sound so scary; if your eyes were closed, you’d never imagine it came from such an
austere-looking creature. The call is what you’d get if you combined a tiger roar with a
frog croak - if both animals were in severe gastrointestinal distress.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 15DAY 17
THE READING:
“Cara Cara Orange”
Pages 98-101
LINES WE LOVE:
“When I got married, I knew she loved my husband, and I also knew she adored my in-
laws because she would gift them these oranges, the most precious offerings of her and
my father’s gardens. After my kids could finally eat solid foods, one of her greatest
pleasures was hand-feeding them slices of fresh citrus - all the white threads lovingly
pulled off for a sweet bite.”
DAY 18
THE READING:
“Octopus”
Pages 103-107
LINES WE LOVE:
“The octopus pupil stays parallel, steady as a raft in calm waters - even if it cartwheels
away in a dance - never becoming vertical like a cat’s.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 16REFLECTION ACTIVITY VII: In a book of celebrations, this essay is a
moment of lament that deals with the uncomfortable subject of
guilt. Aimee reckons with her own complicity in causing another
creature’s death and invites us into the tension of considering our
own role in damaging the world. What can we learn from Aimee’s
openness in confronting this incident in her life?
DAY 19
THE READING:
“Grey Cockatiel”
Pages 108-111
LINES WE LOVE:
“Chico knew none of those things, but he did know part of an old folk song in
Malayalam: Tha tha mme poocha poocha! Tha tha mme poocha poocha! This roughly
translates to: Watch out for that cat! My parents do not have a cat.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 17DAY 20
THE READING:
“Dragon Fruit”
Pages 113-115
LINES WE LOVE:
“The flowers bloom in full for just one evening. That means they have one precious
night to be pollinated by a bat or bee, and turn the flower into a dragon fruit.
Otherwise, the six-inch, greenish-white bloom wilts by sunrise - a whisper of heat and
bat wing rattling the crumpled, pale blossom.”
DAY 21
THE READING:
“Flamingo”
Pages 116-121
LINES WE LOVE:
“There is a darkness beneath all dances of color. Everyone associates pink with a
flamingo, but a flamingo also has twelve black principle flight feathers, mostly visible
when in full flight. Such an unexpected slash under all that fun color.”
DAY 22
THE READING:
“Ribbon Eel”
Pages 123-127
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 18LINES WE LOVE:
“The wiggle of its body - the undulation to end all undulations - is like my own tongue,
excited to tell my husband all the minutiae of a day spent alone with our three-year-old
and our infant son, Jasper.”
“I had no language for poems then. I barely had language at all, but I could still exclaim,
could still show him the big and small details of this cave full of simple treasures.”
DAY 23
THE READING:
“Questions While Searching for Birds with My Half-White Sons”
Pages 128-131
LINES WE LOVE:
“Mommy, you are like a lady cardinal because you are brown.
Why do you have better camouflage than Daddy?”
DAY 24
THE READING:
“Superb Bird of Paradise”
Pages 133-137
LINES WE LOVE:
“And so, I ask: When is the last time you danced like a superb bird of paradise? I mean,
when was the last time you really cut a rug, and did you mosh, bust a move, cavort,
frisk, frolic, skip, prance, romp, gambol, jig, bound, leap, jump, spring, bob, hop, trip, or
bounce?”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 19DAY 25
THE READING:
“Red-Spotted Newt”
Pages 138-143
LINES WE LOVE:
“I’d like to think if I’d seen those orange-taillight spots, I might have been able to pacify
my increasingly restless self, might have been reminded of the promise that no matter
how cold your home pond feels, a thaw always draws near, eventually.”
DAY 26
THE READING:
“Southern Cassowary”
Pages 145-149
LINES WE LOVE:
“But I wonder if it takes a zoo or aquarium for us to feel empathy toward a creature
whose habitat is shrinking due to humans, toward a creature most of us have never
seen or heard?”
“We can’t hear cassowaries, but we can literally feel their presence, and with their
arresting looks, they are one of those ancient birds with a sage look that seem to warn
us they won’t always be around.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 20DAY 27
THE READING:
“Monarch Butterfly”
Pages 151-154
LINES WE LOVE:
“Maybe that is the loneliest kind of memory: to be forever altered by an invisible kiss, a
reminder of something long gone and crumbled, like that mountain in Lake Superior.”
“An invisible kiss is like that: the source of what you remember and what stays with you
won’t come from a single script or scene, but perhaps from a previous haunting or the
shock and surprise of remembering the first time you found purple quartz inside a
geode.”
DAY 28
THE READING:
“Firefly (Redux)”
Pages 155-160
LINES WE LOVE:
“Where does one start to take care of these living things amid the dire and daily news of
climate change, and reports of another animal or plant vanishing from the planet? How
can one even imagine us getting back to a place where we know the names of the trees
we walk by every single day? A place where ‘a bird’ navigating a dewy meadow is
transformed into something more specific, something we can hold onto by feeling its
name on our tongues: brown thrasher. Or “that big tree”: catalpa. Maybe what we can
do when we feel overwhelmed is to start small. Start with what we loved as kids and see
where that leads us.”
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 21FINAL REFLECTION
YOUR PERSONAL RATING:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
SUMMARY: Briefly describe your experience with this book.
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 22YOUR FAVORITE QUOTES/LINES:
TAKEAWAYS (What are you keeping with you?):
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 23ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
ARTICLES WE LOVE:
Poets & Writers (an interview hosted by Ross Gay!): World of Wonders: A Q&A With
Aimee Nezhukumatathil | Poets & Writers (pw.org)
New York Times: Aimee Nezhukumatathil Wants You to Get Some Fresh Air - The New
York Times (nytimes.com)
NPR: Interview: Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Author Of 'World Of Wonders' : NPR
Just for fun...an article written by Aimee on octopus intelligence: Where Does Our
Consciousness Overlap With an Octopus’s? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
CONVERGE BOOK CLUB APRIL 2021 24You can also read
