Alibi Bookshop Memoir Book Club June: "Everything I Learned I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant"

Happy Pride! June's Memoir Book Club is the “vivid, moving, funny, and heartfelt” (Lisa Ko) "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" by Curtis Chin on Thursday, June 12th at 7pm.

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 spiraling misfortunes; and where—between helpings of almond boneless chicken, sweet-and-sour pork, and some of his own, less-savory culinary concoctions—he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family, and to himself.

Served up by the cofounder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and structured around the very menu that graced the tables of Chung’s, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant 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.

An American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book—Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award
A 2024 Michigan Notable Book
Best Nonfiction Books of the Year—Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of the Year—Apple Books

TIME’s Most Anticipated Books of Fall 2023 • San Francisco Chronicle’s Highly Anticipated Books to Put on Your Radar This Fall 2023 • Washington Post’s Books to Read This Fall 2023 • Eater’s Best Food Books to Read 2023 • Lambda Literary Review’s October’s Most Anticipated LGBTQIA+ Literature

You may also like the following events from Alibi Bookshop - Vallejo, CA:

• Next Saturday, 7th June, 09:00 am, Alibi Bookshop Six Year Anniversary! in Vallejo
• This month, 11th June, 05:30 pm, LGBTQ June Book Club: "Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl" by Andrea Lawlor Wed June 11th 5:30 pm in Vallejo
• This month, 26th June, 07:00 pm, Alibi June Book Club: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters Thursday, June 26th 7pm in Vallejo

Also check out other Arts events in Vallejo, Literary Art events in Vallejo, Workshops in Vallejo.