Booking Through Thursday

BTT wants me to name a favorite book that hasn't been widely heard of or read. I got stuck because I feel like my favorites will be familiar to most people, at least by name. So I booked on over to Gautami's response and read the comments. Her train of thought and recommendation of Amy Tan, one of my favorites--as an aside I was disappointed in her latest novel, Saving Fish from Drowning, but liked very much her non-fiction book on writing, The Opposite of Fate--led me to remember another Chinese American author I like very much, by the name of Gus Lee. Like Ms. Tan, the author writes of the experience of being Chinese American and how being between two cultures affects people. His novels, China Boy and its sequel Honor and Duty were a fascinating view of growing up Chinese in the U.S. and gave me insight into a culture that fascinates me. It also provided me with a partial frame of reference when working with some Chinese-American patients a number of years ago. I haven't read these two books in many years so I cannot be sure if recall rings true across the years but was pleased to see that Mr. Lee has written a couple of other novels and works of non-fiction.