A little over a year ago, I found this book called the Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8. Lee. I guess I want to say that I liked the book, but I didn’t really. Ms. Lee is a newspaper writer and so her style is very specific to that (at least in my opinion). In other words, most times, the narrative just didn’t seem quite right. Now, some of the chapters are great, with “The Soy Sauce Trade Dispute” and “Waizhou, U.S.A.” being my favorite. I think I like them the best because I feel like the chapters use her investigative journalist skills to the fullest extent, informing and shaping the reader’s mind, while still giving you some yummy words to chew on. I began reading the book right when I got it, and just couldn’t seem to find time for it, so while trying to finish another book, I sort of slipped it in, a chapter at a time, and while I enjoyed it at the time, I was please when it was over.
The best information from the book involve the business of Chinese restaurants, immigrants, and the history of the food. When Lee begins talking about her involvement in the learning of the information, I guess I began to feel like the material lost me a little bit – I simply was more interested in reading about the food than I was reading about her. It’s interesting because I always thought I was more of a social reader when it came to history, but here I am wishing it was more, well, more dry. Weird.
At any rate, I think that this book is worth a B- or a C+ for now. I am working on a rubric (teacher skillz, yo) so that I can rate all the books I am reading/reviewing equally, but until it’s done, this will have to suffice.
Final word: an interesting read, though you might not like the book either.
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