Author: Rosemary Gong
# of Pages: 288 (paperback)
Genre: Nonfiction, China, Cooking
Rating: ★★★★☆
Synopsis: Good Luck Life is the first book to explain the meanings of Chinese rituals and to offer advice on when and how to plan for Chinese holidays and special occasions such as Chinese weddings, the Red Egg and Ginger party to welcome a new baby, significant birthdays, and the inevitable funeral. Packed with practical information, Good Luck Life contains an abundance of facts, legends, foods, old-village recipes, and quick planning guides for Chinese New Year, Clear Brightness, Dragon Boat, Mid-Autumn, and many other festivals.
Review: This book is better suited to be used as a reference text rather than read straight through. Since the text is exactly how I imagined it would be, I'm giving it four stars (it wasn't the most joyous read, but it was short!).
Gong covers a lot of topics that people less familiar with Chinese American culture may wonder about. She is casual and puts all the information in an easily digestible format; a story of the Chinese lore behind the tradition here, a recipe associated with the holiday there, etc. Overall, pretty insightful, but it would be best to pick and choose the sections that are relevant for the time period/situation. Also a little outdated as the book is a bit old; there's a list of "upcoming years" and their associated animal (i.e. year of the rat), and the last one on the list is for 2020. However, aside from this trivial information, all the other information seems fine!
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