Books - Kate Degelau-Pierce

Beauty and Art and Death

What’s it about?
The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about its three main characters: Renee, the concierge of an apartment building in Paris; Paloma, the super-smart 12-year-old who is already tired of life; and Ozu, the new Japanese tenant. Renee is also an autodidact who hides her intelligence, afraid that everyone else will discover her; Paloma is frustrated by her family; and Ozu is the magical person who brings out the best in both of them.

Why should you read it?
I should state up front that the Elegance of the Hedgehog is French. It takes place in Paris, it is largely about death and philosophy, and has a very particular voice. It was for me, but it is not for everyone.

I found it to be a beautiful character sketch with all kinds of philosophical asides about art and death. (Did I mention it has a very French outlook?) Do I agree with its ideas about Death and Beauty and Art? I do agree that we are, in the end, all worm food, and I also agree with the idea that there are people who are more authentically elegant than others. The author seems in particular to damn people who want cultural power without appreciating the culture. Like the people who raise money for causes because it means they get to dress up and go to the party where they are seen and see others; not because they care for the cause. She holds a lot of contempt for those folks. They still do good things, of course, but for suspicious motives.

I enjoyed it, particularly because I had been reading a book I didn’t much care for right before it. This one made my world better.

Horrible people

What’s it about?
Fates & Furies is about a married couple – Lotto and Mathilde. We meet Lotto (somehow a better nickname for Lancelot than Lance?) and his parents: his very tall and mostly absent father, his overly religious mother, and his aunt Sallie, who seems to do most of the actual parenting. His father dies, Lotto gets in trouble, and gets sent away to boarding school where Terrible Things Happen ™. These Terrible Things ™ turn him into a sex maniac who gets through college and then proposes marriage to Mathilde the first time he sees her. She, for some reason accepts. They and their largely terrible group of friends go on from there.

Why should you read it?
Apparently this book has made it onto all kids of awards shortlists. I used my 50 page rule* to bail on this book as early as possible.

I have read this type of book before and would like a different type of story. Perhaps one that doesn’t idealize horrible people just because they have money, or one that is about the actual, real working artists (almost always from a poor background, they’re never from Money) who are working their butts off to make a living and are generally optimistic and maybe a little weird, but wonderful people.

This was not my kind of book. Maybe it’s yours – and that’s fine. Maybe you want to explore why these are horrible people. I get that impulse. My latest idea for a NaNoWriMo book is about someone who is horrible, because I’m curious why she would be that way and how she got there and why she doesn’t think she’s horrible.

But these people were horrible without being interesting to me.

* I have to read the first 50 pages. If I still don’t like it, I can put it down.

Be the best you can be

What’s it about?
Kamala Khan is like any other girl in the Marvel Universe – interested in the Avengers, but really just trying to live her life. She’s muslim, and trying to please her family and do well in school. Then something happens and she becomes the new Ms Marvel. She tries to imitate the old Ms Marvel – blonde Carol Danvers – and fails miserably. It’s only when she uses her super-powers to become a better version of herself that she succeeds.

Why should you read it?
I’m not a comic book person. But I’d heard good things about Ms Marvel v1, and I enjoyed it. I like empowered women, and thus empowered girls. It’s a good adventure *and* the story is all about the more you you are, the more powerful you are.

I’m going to keep going with this series, I suspect.

Part of a bigger world

What’s it about?
Do you listen to Welcome to Night Vale? If you like slightly weird things, you should. It’s a touch on the horror side of things (there’s a faceless old woman who secretly lives in your house), and it’s deeply entertaining.

If you’ve heard the podcast, you know that sometimes there’s a man in a tan jacket who no one remembers after they’re done talking to him. This book? This book is his story.

Why should you read it?
You should read Welcome to Night Vale if you’re a fan of the podcast. There’s obviously less Cecil (the voice of WtNV) as there’s no talking, but there are interludes of Night Vale Community Radio. I wouldn’t read it if you’re not a fan of the podcast already – there’s a fair bit it presumes you already know.

But it is an entertaining entry in the world of Night Vale, and explains a bit more about the rules of Night Vale, things that the radio show only hints at.

Strong Women and Magical Realism

What’s it about?
State of Wonder is about a not-young-anymore doctor/pharmaceutical researcher, Dr Marina Singh, whose colleague (Dr Anders Eckman) has gone to the Amazonian rain forest and then died. He’d gone to the Amazon in search of yet another colleague researching a new fertility drug, Dr Anneck Swenson. Dr Swenson’s letter home informing them of his death was on the terse side. Dr Singh has many adventures in her quest to find out what, exactly, happened.

Why should you read it?
Well, you should read it because everyone loves a good quest story. What’s Dr Singh’s stated goal? To find out what happened to Dr Eckman, and what’s going on with Dr Swenson. What’s her actual goal? To get over a traumatic birth where she was the doctor performing an emergency c-section twenty years before.

I enjoyed the relationships between the characters and the strong women and their complexity as people. The men are around, but the women are the main focus. And the city of Manaus, Brazil; it sounds both boring and complex and interesting – her descriptions of it help shape the story.

Also, be aware that this one veers into magical realism a few times. There was a point where I was waiting for the book to reveal that it was all a fever dream brought on by an antimalarial drug. It wasn’t.

I wouldn’t have read this one if it hadn’t been for book club. I’m happy I did.

Making a life for onesself

What’s it about?
Victoria is a mess. She’s grown up in the foster care system, and she’s just turned 18, which means that there’s no one responsible for her any more. And she certainly hasn’t mastered the basics of finding food and shelter, let alone having a life. But she does like flowers and what they mean. This is the story of how she pieces a life together.

Why should you read it?
You’ll need to make it past the first chapter of The Language of Flowers, which I found slightly cringe-worthy. Maybe I was supposed to – after all, she isn’t a good person at first and her life is pretty terrible. There’s not a lot to like there.

But after that, once you get into her relationships with other people, with her desire to be a florist, with her relationships with Grant and Elizabeth and the family she’s fallen into in San Francisco, it’s good. I like a story where someone turns their life around, and not into a typical life. You can be successful without being a stereotype.

Instability alone isn’t charming

What’s it about?
Z is for Zelda Fitzgerald, noted artist and wife of F Scott Fitzgerald, of Great Gatsby fame. This is her fictionalized life story, her southern childhood, her charmed life with Scott, her insanity later in life.

Why should you read it?
I don’t know. I found Zelda actually quite annoying. I had the impression she was supposed to be charming, but alas. I was not entranced by her; worse, it made me dislike F Scott Fitzgerald, emphasizing his own instability over his talent. Regardless: I put it down and was happy to never pick it up again.

Joining the bandwagon?

What’s it about?
Between the World and Me is about Ta-Nehisi Coates experience as a black man in America. It’s about stereotypes and early death and constant suspicion and intellect and how to raise a black son in that kind of environment.

Why should you read it?
Because you’re a person? Seriously, there is so much in here, and it’s such a short little book. It won the National Book Award. He got a MacArthur genius grant. He managed to get people to talk reasonably about reparations for slavery.

Coates is so clear about what it is like to always have to fight off suspicion, to have so many negative assumptions made about you because of the color of your skin. His description of Howard University being a rich place full of black people of all kinds – not stereotypes but people. And a place where he didn’t feel “other”. I have a better understanding of racism now.

Between the World and Me will be assigned to your children, either to teach them about race and racism or to talk about American culture in the early 21st century. It’s worth your time now.

High Society

What’s it about?
Did you read Crazy Rich Asians? China Rich Girlfriend is its sequel. We met Nick’s family in the first book, and this time we meet Rachel’s. She discovers her birth father (she was raised by a single mother in Cupertino – just down the street!), and it turns out that he’s one of the new Chinese billionaires. Which allows our author to explore Shanghai society in this book like he explored Singapore society in the last one.

I should note that Rachel is not the China Rich Girlfriend. She discovers she has a half-brother; his girlfriend is the titular character.

Why should you read it?
You should read it because you read and enjoyed the first book. It’s not as good, but it is still fun. Kevin Kwan – the author – was raised in Singapore and clearly has first-hand experience of a lot of that city; he researched Shanghai.

But overall China Rich Girlfriend is a relaxing beach/vacation/holiday read. (I’m not saying much, but there’s not a huge amount to say – which isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes an entertaining fun read is all you want.)

Because Judy Blume

What’s it about?
Back in the 1950s, in real life, there was a New Jersey town where three planes crashed in a calendar year. Judy Blume grew up in that town. In the Unlikely Event is the story that captures what it was like to live there and the paranoia that takes over with a series of unusual events like that.

Why should you read it?
Because Judy Blume. I’m not going to lie. That was one of my major reasons.

She uses a very not-traditionally-Judy-Blume narrative trick: she changes perspectives. A lot. There are a ton of characters in this story, both main and minor. Parts of the story are told from each other their points of view. It can be hard to keep track of, particularly at first. (I’ve had many conversations with friends about this book – we all talk about this.) As soon as I stopped trying to figure out who I needed to care about and why for every single character switch, it got a lot easier to figure out which characters were important and why. Allowing myself the ambiguity at first made for a much better reading experience. It all worked out in the end.

Is it one of her best books? Probably not. Did I care? Not really. It was still entertaining and satisfied my curiosity.