The Fortune Cookie Chronicles
February 17, 2009
I had high hopes for Jennifer 8 Lee’s The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Unfortunately it didn’t come anywhere close to meeting them.
There were tidbits of interesting information in Fortune Cookie Chronicles but overall I felt that the book was choppy. It didn’t flow well. It was a bit more impersonal than I had expected (hoped?). There were a few amusing anecdotes and there are parts of the book that I thought had potential. For example the around the world search for the world’s best Chinese food. Now that could have been a book in and of itself instead of a long chapter. And it probably would have been much better if that had been the case. Or if it had looked more deeply at people who owned and worked in Chinese food restaurants than touching on it in just a few spots.
I felt like the author had pitched and started writing a book about the history of fortune cookies and then later discovered that they couldn’t get an entire book out of it so they threw in other stuff as filler.The author is a talented writer but I felt like the book needed more focus on a single topic.
I was really hoping to like it. I wish I had. Maybe I’ve just read too much (g00d) food-lit. Or maybe I’m just cranky and picky because the reviewers as Amazon.com overwhelmingly liked it a lot more than I did. sigh
February 17th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Interesting. This book is on my amazon wish list for emergency purchases of $25 or more. (Yes, thats how I rationalize my book splurges.) But now I’m rather hesitant about buying it. Maybe we should just do a book trade. I’ve a copy of Julie & Julia (J. Powell).
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February 17th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
this has happened to me when everyone else seems to like the book and it did nothing for me! What can you do, can’t please everyone. You gave a honest review!!
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Tena’s last blog post..My 100th Post Giveaway!!
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February 17th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I’m so happy to see this review so that I can take this off my “to read” list. Life’s too short for bad books:)
And I just noticed that you are reading “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant”. Oh how I love that book. I hope you enjoy it as well! And I highly recommend reading some of the full works that the essays are excerpted from…especially Amanda Hesser’s (or is it Hessler?? I can never recall.) book “Cooking for Mr. Latte”.
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February 18th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
lol Melissa. I do the same thing. Alas this was a library book so it doesn’t work for tradesies (and I own J&J).
Tena – there were some great tidbits in the book that I found interesting but overall, it just didn’t work for me.
Jess – so far I’m enjoying it. I’m just reading an essay here and there. I’m such a total food-lit addict that I’ll probably end up adding all the full works to my wishlist.
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February 18th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I read this one last year and had pretty much the same reaction as you. It had the potential to be a really great book, but too disjointed and meandering to really keep my interest for long.
Lesley’s last blog post..Short and Sweet
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February 20th, 2009 at 11:38 am
It is always disappointing to look forward to a book and then have it fail to live up to expectations.
I always wonder about the Amazon reviews. Seldom do my opinions fall in line. I can find a book trite and see reviews that praise it, and I can love a book that the reviews criticize.
jenclair’s last blog post..In Progress & In the Stacks
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February 22nd, 2009 at 9:15 am
Lesley – disjointed, exactly.
Jen – it is. I suppose I can be happy that I didn’t buy it. lol I’m generally wary of Amazon reviews but sometimes like to go check them when I haven’t liked a book to see if I’m the only one.
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