Catching Up . . . Book Reviews

Hello today!!

The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee-- As recently discussed with visiting family members, I haven't read a book so boring since high school/college text books. I wish the author had stuck to her quest of finding the origins of "Chinese" food in America. Instead, she addressed historical, political and social challenges facing Chinese people in America, interspersed with interesting tidbits about chinese food. Such as fortune cookies are Japanese, General Tso's chicken was never eaten by Genereal Tso, as most of the Chinese food Americans think of isn't really food eaten by Chinese people. My favorite line in the book came from her chapter about how Chinese restaurants began in America and the sheer number of them in America, where she concludes with: Our benchmark for Americanness is apple pie. But ask yourself: How often do you eat apple pie? How often do you eat Chinese food?

The Open Road by Pico Iyer-- This book is about the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism, the challenges he faces with the modern world, etc. What do I say about it? Hmmm, a Hindu Indian man, writing about his friend the Dalai Lama, leader of Tibetan Buddhism, being read by an American, Utah Mormon girl. Let's just say there was plenty "lost in translation." I won't even begin to attempt to think about how I'd review this book.

A Treasury of Great American Scandals: Tantalizing True Tales of Historic Misbehavior by the Founding Father and Others Who Let Freedom Swing by Michael Farquhar-- This is the second book I've read by Farquhar (A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans--see Book Reviews) and it is much more entertaining than the first one. Actually, at times I felt like I was reading the National Enquirer because some of these scandals are so far-fetched. The difference would be that these stories are actually true. One favorite part was when the author declares what many of us have probably been thinking about the girls who started the Salem Witch Hunt in 1692, by stating they were probably "just plain bored." Another part is about Richard Nixon in the author's "American Hall of Shame" where he shares the president's tirades as captured on recording equipment in the oval office. Nixon and his bugs, right? Anywho-- I'll share a quote from the book: "On His Vietnam Policy: 'I'd rather use the nuclear bomb.'"

Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi-- The kids and I love this book!! We've been listening to it in the car and it is wonderful. Disney totally messes up when they don't use more of the original stories. Kids would love a fairy with blue hair that is a little girl who becomes Pinocchio's sister, then an older woman who becomes Pinocchio's mother, then a blue goat who gives her cabin to the Talking Cricket, and finally the fairy who turns Pinocchio to a little boy. A blue goat? What is not to love about it!! We are listening to it again.

Picture Book: Marsupial Sue Presents The Runaway Pancake with audio CD, written and read-aloud by John Lithgow-- Think of the gingerbread man (can't catch me, etc.) but much more entertaining. "No, no. No, no, no. I'm too fast, you're too slow. Pan, pan, patty-cake pan . . . I can get away from you, I can." On the CD Lithgow is reading to a live audience of kids, which makes it much more fun.