The Fortune Cookie Chronicles


  • #26 on the New York Times Best Seller List
    and featured on The Colbert Report, Martha Stewart, TED.com, CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose Tomorrow, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR stations coast to coast. Also selected for Borders Original Voices and Book Sense. Follow me on Twitter! Fan me on Facebook.

  • Archive for April, 2008

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    Fortune Cookie Chronicles, a catalyst for love?

    Saturday, April 12th, 2008

    This is the most adorable fan mail a writer could have hoped to get. My girlfriend and I love you. You were actually part of the reason we ended up a couple and The Fortune Cookie Chronicles was one of the first gifts we bought each other. He promised to tell me the story another […]

    Today is the day I guess I get kicked off the NYT bestseller list

    Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

    So Wednesday afternoons, the NYT bestsellers are revealed. Today the list comes out for the the week closing Saturday, April 5, and I think after a happy three-week run, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles will fall off the extended list. After popping in at #26 during my second week of publication, the last two weeks, I […]

    Washpost: Where Lee really shines, though, is in describing the people who have cooked, served and delivered America’s favorite cuisine

    Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

    Christine Y. Chen writes a lovely review in The Washington Post (so she too is not excited about the round-the-world chapter). So now The Fortune Cookie Chronicles have been reviewed by all the major papers (+ the AP!) except The Wall Street Journal…which I doubt would review it anyway (and we haven’t heard any rumblings […]

    4.85 stars on Amazon

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    Today I got my 20th review on Amazon (it’s a really short one though), so now the book has 17 five-star and 3 four-star ratings, which computes to 4.85 (and thus rounds up to 5 stars). I feel like I’m computing some kind of GPA.

    Yay Amy Harmon and Anne Hull.

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    Two friends, both women journalists whom I have admired very much for the humanity and narrative grace in their writing, won Pulitzers today: Amy Harmon of The New York Times and Anne Hull of The Washington Post. Amy Harmon won for her series on the age of DNA in the category of explanatory reporting. Anne […]

    My first reported airplane sighting…

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    An email from a friend, Dan Rosenheck. I’ve had subway/BART/commuter transit sightings before, but this is new. Yay. I’m sitting down at JFK next to this girl who’s flying down to Buenos Aires…and she’s ripping open a copy of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles! She said she got it because she’s a fan of your work […]

    Doing an all-day radio tour…by phone

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    Today I am doing an insane tour by phone set up via Newman Communications, a PR firm that specializes in (among other things) literary radio and satellite television tours. They essentially hook you up with radio programs  (mostly live, some pre-taped) coast to coast on a very tight schedule. It has to be done over […]

    My first (and only?) review in a college paper, the Harvard Crimson

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    Denise Xu of The Harvard Crimson writes a largely flattering review of my book. (It’s my alma mater paper). Her quibbles again concern  the structure and the overwhelming amount of information. Imagine if it didn’t have the fortune cookie thread to tie it all together (Ihe original proposal did not), how much more confusing it would […]

    Projections are I will get my life back in about late June…

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    Based on my calendar. Apologies to everyone who is falling by the wayside :(.

    So you want to publish a book? Panel discussion tomorrow, April 8

    Monday, April 7th, 2008

    The New York Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association is holding a panel tomorrow, called “So you want to publish a book? A panel for your book publishing fantasies to come true.” We will cover:   ·         What do you need to get started? ·         How much research is required? ·         Common mistakes writers […]

    Is Fortune Cookie Chronicles a Borders Original Voices Choice?

    Sunday, April 6th, 2008

    Went to Chicago for a talk at Northwestern in the Chicago area for the Taiwanese students confeence, so (like a diligent little author) I went around to all these Chicago bookstores to sign stock. There were only two of eight copies left at the Evanston Barnes and Noble. And then I discovered something surprising. Apparently, The Fortune Cookie […]

    Lessons from TV

    Saturday, April 5th, 2008

    This is what I have learned over the last few weeks re television/video appearances. You do not dress for television the way you would dress in real life (or at least I don’t). For women, wear bright (but not too bright) solid colored tops: Royal blue, wine, maroon, emerald green. Pastels can be good (but […]

    Asian American Heritage Month is in May!

    Saturday, April 5th, 2008

    So May is coming up, which is Asian American Heritage Month (these “heritage months “are a funny American thing). This happens to be good timing because I’ve been asked to speak about my book at a bunch of Asian American events, some in companies where there are not that many Asian Americans running about — […]

    Unfortunate Cookies (the rejects)

    Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

    Tsue Chong company (which makes rose-brand fortune cookies) in Seattle sells bags of rejected fortune cookies for like $7.25 a pop. These are the fortune cookies that go by too quickly to be folded (think Lucy and Ethel in the candy factory)  I was brought there by the MSG150 crew after lunch. I thought the […]

    OC Register: confronted by a wall of me-ness

    Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

    Richard Chang brought me physical copies of the paper where his Q&A with me ran. I have to say, I was kind of overwhelmed with the amount of me that was on that page. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of myself that large before.

    Elle Magazine Readers’ Book of the Month for April

    Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

      Yay. Elle Magazine’s April book of the month as determined by readers. Good news. “Elle Lettres” (not Letters, as it is a play on Belles Lettres, notes my friend Michael Grynbaum). They have one pro review, and one negative review, always. I thought the criticism was interesting — on structure and juxtaposition.

    Asia Society Event in NYC, April 16, with Fucshia Dunlop

    Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

    More excuses to eat! $15 for members/students and $30 for non-members, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., 725 Park Avenue at East 70th Street.

    Home on the red eye! Back to NYC.

    Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

    Caught a red eye after my Elliott Bay event in Seattle (yay Jetblue) straight to JFK and showed up for work on Tuesday morning to blog. One neat convenience of being little is that I can sleep pretty well on planes. What I do: I tuck my feet into the pocket where all the in-flight […]

    The Underground Onepot Dinner in Seattle with Fold-Pak menus!

    Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

    The underground dinner in Seattle via Onepot.org was held in this discrete loft entertainment space in a semi-industrial area in Seattle. Yay Michael Hebberoy for organizing and Jerry Traunfeld + Xuan Che for cooking, and Jerry’s partner, Steven (sp?), for designing the adorable menus with the Fold-Pak motif!

    It was snowing in Seattle…in March

    Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

    My plane to Seattle from Los Angeles was delayed because of snow (?!). Talk about climate shock.

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