Aimee Nezhukumatathil

A collection of lovely essays about plants and animals encountered by the author through the years and places she has lived. As a poet, she brings a soft, sensory aspect to her memories and reflections. Some of my favorites are about the potoo bird (the call of which I googled because of this essay), Cara Cara oranges (the best of all oranges), Monarch butterflies, the Bird of Paradise and the cassowary. One of my favorite quotes comes from the essay on the dragon fruit, in which she describes a cocktail made with the fruit and vodka: On those weeks in Mississippi when the air outside is like a napping dragon's exhalations, there's no sweeter cocktail to lull us out of a sleepy, slow summer evening. I bought this book at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN, which staged an exhibition of the book's illustrations.… (lisätietoja)

The author is a poet and the book is a prose memoir, which is fine but I find its connection to the animals and plants it talks about tenuous, at best. Gorgeous illustrations though.

Good, but not what I was expecting.
The format of it is kind of:
- Some facts about an organism (e.g. Axolotls are blind),
- Here's a story about my childhood,
- Vague callback to the organism (e.g. In that story I was blind just like an axolotl),
- Repeat

All the connections to plants and animals are very metaphorical, which makes sense for a poet.… (lisätietoja)