Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

<p><b>An American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book-Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award</b><br><b>A 2024 Michigan Notable Book</b><br><b>Best Nonfiction Books of the Year-<i>Kirkus Reviews</i></b><br><b>Best Books of the Year-Apple Books</b><br><br><b><i>TIME</i></b><b>''s Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023 </b> <b><i>San Francisco Chronicle</i></b><b>''s Highly Anticipated Books to Put on Your Radar This Fall 2023 <i>Washington Post</i>''s Books to Read This Fall 2023 <i>Eater</i>''s Best Food Books to Read 2023 <i>Lambda Literary Review</i>''s October''s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature</b><br><br>Nineteen eighties Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung''s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone-from the city''s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples-could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city''s spiralling misfortunes; and where-between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savoury culinary concoctions-he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself.<br><br>Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers'' Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung''s,<i> Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant</i> is both a memoir and an invitation: to step inside one boy''s childhood oasis, scoot into a vinyl booth, and grow up with him-and perhaps even share something off the secret menu.</p>