Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking

There are a vast number of Chinese cookbooks out there, but none that surpass this authentic book written by an author from China known to many as the “Chinese godmother” of cookery.

This new masterwork of Chinese cuisine showcases acclaimed chef Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's decades of culinary virtuosity. A series of lessons build skill, knowledge, and confidence as Lo guides the home cook step by step through the techniques, ingredients, and equipment that define Chinese cuisine.

With more than 100 classic recipes and technique illustrations throughout, Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking makes the glories of this ancient cuisine utterly accessible. Stunning color photography reveals the treasures of old and new China, from the zigzagging alleys of historical Guangzhou to the bustle of city centers and faraway Chinatowns, as well as wonderful ingredients and gorgeous finished dishes. Step-by-step brush drawings illustrate Chinese cooking techniques. This lavish volume takes its place as the Chinese cookbook of choice in the cook's library.

“The only thing better than having Eileen Lo cook for you is having her teach you how. She takes you on an incredible journey…carefully explaining the steps of every important Chinese cooking technique, while also communicating a profound respect for flavors. She is the Chinese godmother every chef wishes he had.” - Daniel Boulud, world-renowned chef

Note: Some Amazon reviews note that there are issues with the ebook version of this cookbook. These have all been corrected.

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Outsider in Amsterdam

“What makes this series so engaging is that the policemen are as quirky and complicated as the criminals.” - The Washington Post

“A superb storyteller.” - Chicago Tribune

”A superlative mystery writer.” - Time

”On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, a man is found hanging from the ceiling beam of his bedroom, upstairs from the new religious society he founded: a group that calls itself ‘Hindist’ and supposedly mixes elements of various Eastern traditions. Detective-Adjutant Gripstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances.

This now-classic novel introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, wise Gripstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed.”

”[Van de Wetering] is doing what Simenon might have done if Albert Camus had sublet his skull.”  - John Leonard

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Amsterdam Noir

“Every book in the Noir series serves as an introduction to a place. Besides the crime, the series and its editors have made it a point to address things like economic infrastructure, gentrification, and racial politics...Amsterdam Noir toes that line beautifully, touching on subjects like the impact of tourism, migration, and discrimination of Moroccans. In their introduction, editors Appel and Pachter say they want readers to know that bad things happen in Amsterdam, that the city 'also has its dark side, its shadowy corners.' However, what they ended up with is an anthology about a place where bad things happen not because of the psychogeography of the population, not because of corruption, gang violence, drug problems, or poverty, but because of human emotions—lunacy and jealousy. You could see that as a failure, but maybe it's not. Maybe the crime-free streets of Amsterdam are precisely what they wanted to show. Or maybe, like with most arthouse horror films, the point is that the monsters are not tied to the streets; they are always inside us.” - NPR

“Amsterdam has the amenities and, to a certain extent, the feel of a major world city, but one of its most attractive features is its relatively small size. It's easy to navigate on feet, by bike, and via its excellent public transportation network, especially with the semicircular perimeter of its famous Grachtengordel, or ring of concentric canals.

Like any other metropolis, though, Amsterdam also has its dark side, its shadowy corners—in other words, there is also an Amsterdam noir. No matter how beautiful, vital, and cheery a city might be, pure human emotions such as greed, jealousy, and the thirst for revenge will rear their ugly heads...with all their negative consequences. Amsterdam is a multidimensional city, populated by a wide assortment of social groups, and not all of those groups agree on what constitutes normal social values and mores. This results in a lively mix...and, as you will see, in problems.”

“An appealing compendium, with welcome doses of local color and atmosphere.”
- New York Journal of Books

(Group read suggestion from Ivor Watkins, book club moderator.)

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The Assault

“A beautiful and powerful work [that] takes its place among the finest European fiction of our time.” - Elizabeth Hardwick

“It is the winter of 1945, the last dark days of World War II in occupied Holland. A Nazi collaborator, infamous for his cruelty, is assassinated as he rides home on his bicycle. The Germans retaliate by burning down the home of an innocent family; only twelve-year-old Anton survives.

Based on actual events, The Assault traces the complex repercussions of this horrific incident on Anton's life. Determined to forget, he opts for a carefully normal existence: a prudent marriage, a successful career, and colorless passivity. But the past keeps breaking through, in relentless memories and in chance encounters with others who were involved in the assassination and its aftermath, until Anton finally learns what really happened that night in 1945—and why.”

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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The Dinner

“The darkly suspenseful tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives—all over the course of one meal.
 
It’s a summer’s evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
 
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act—an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children, and as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

(Group read suggestion from Ivor Watkins, book club moderator.)

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Sleepless Night

“Compact, haunting, and lovely ... it is unhurried and assured; no word is wasted ... In both its rich and unapologetic descriptions of domesticity and frank attitude toward sex ... the book is a treatise on one individual's womanhood.” - Kirkus Reviews

“The charm of Margriet de Moor's book is due to a combination of sensuality and reflection, as well as a musical language of great beauty that explores the meanderings of the human soul with rare clarity." - Le Figaro

“A woman gets up in the middle of a wintry night and starts baking a cake while her lover sleeps upstairs. When it’s time for her to take the cake out of the oven, we have read a story of romance and death.

The narrator of this novel was widowed years ago and is trying to find new passion. But the memory of her deceased husband and a shameful incident still holds her in its grasp. Why did he do it?

Margriet de Moor, the grande dame of Dutch literature, tells a gripping love story about endings and demise, rage and jealousy, knowledge and ambiguity—and the possibility of new beginnings.”

(A special thank you to book club member, Judy Tanguay for the group read suggestion.)

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The Twin

“When his twin brother dies in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to return to the small family farm. He resigns himself to taking over his brother's role and spending the rest of his days 'with his head under a cow'.

After his old, worn-out father has been transferred upstairs, Helmer sets about furnishing the rest of the house according to his own minimal preferences. 'A double bed and a duvet', advises Ada, who lives next door, with a sly look. Then Riet appears, the woman once engaged to marry his twin. Could Riet and her son live with him for a while, on the farm?

The Twin is an ode to the platteland, the flat and bleak Dutch countryside with its ditches and its cows and its endless grey skies.

Ostensibly a novel about the countryside, as seen through the eyes of a farmer, The Twin is, in the end, about the possibility or impossibility of taking life into one's own hands. It chronicles a way of life which has resisted modernity, is culturally apart, and yet riven with a kind of romantic longing.”

“Stealthy, seductive story-telling that draws you into a world of silent rage and quite unexpected relationships. Compelling and convincing from beginning to end.“ - Tim Parks

“Sombre, yet uplifiting…a novel of magnificent artistry that seems like simplicity…a tale of suppressed sexual orientation, but so delicately done.” - Michiel Heyns

(A special thank you to book club member, Elke Richelsen for the group read suggestion.)

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Facing North

“Ten intriguing tales from the Caribbean island of Barbados—an antidote to the daily farrago of celebrity lives served up by the media. This book celebrates the true 'homo ordinarius' and his response to personal, natural and man-made challenges. A well prepared potpourri lovingly served with gentle humour and a dash of nostalgia.”

“Reminiscent of some of Mavis Gallant's short fiction, the stories—all good reads—deal with the serious current issues of politics, economics, race, sex, land appropriation, and identity...these are hopeful stories.” - Robert Edison Sandiford

”[Edison T. Williams] is a story teller! He has the technique of gripping the reader from the beginning. [His] endings are classic Somerset Maugham/O. Henry. I have my favourites among the stories: 'Desmond Lola and Bassman' is fascinating...'The New Sybaris' is a riveting read... 'Island Man' is captivating... but I really loved them all.” - Peter Laurie

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Born in the Briar Patch

“The pretty young housemaid Nellie Peterkin catches the eye of the plantation owner John Bottomsley and at the age of fourteen becomes his mistress. Shortly after she finds out she is pregnant, the plantation owner’s wife announces her pregnancy. John Bottomsley forces Nellie into a pact to take her child should his wife have another miscarriage.

Emily Bottomsley grows up believing she is the daughter of John and Sarah Bottomsley. Just after marrying a British lawyer, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child who is obviously not Caucasian and whom her mother immediately banishes from the plantation. Confused by this strange thing that has taken hold of her life, Emily turns to her nanny's mother for answers and the strange phenomenon of 'striking back' is explained to the bewildered young woman.”

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In Time of Need

A collection of award-winning Barbadian stories that showcase the controversial and often hidden aspects of the supposed Caribbean paradise.

The themes of love and relationships, domestic and emotional abuse, politics in the rum shop, sex tourism and human trafficking and more, are narrated in a satirical and humorous style, often through the voices of innocent and naïve characters.

“Issue-based writing that doesn't seem preachy or pedantic. There is humour. There is full humanity. There is certainly a love of Barbados and the Caribbean evidenced through a willingness to peek beneath the paradisical surface, poke beneath the tropical facade and embrace, warts and all, the society that inhabits our dynamic island and archipelago.” —Ayesha Gibson

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Vaucluse

“Vaucluse is the story of the struggle for freedom versus the fight against emancipation during a period of great turmoil in Barbados. It is 1816 and the planters are determined to maintain their enviable lifestyles. Many plantations are heavily indebted and are going into Chancery.

Henry Peter Simmons, owner of the prosperous Vaucluse plantation, claims that ‘the negro is not yet fitted for his freedom’ and fights against abolition. However, in his will he left the plantation to his ‘two natural coloured and reputed’ sons whom he manumitted before the end of slavery. One former slave referred to Simmons in his own will as a ‘kind master.’

Who was the real Henry Peter Simmons? The profit-driven anti-abolitionist or the kind master? You decide.”

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The Three-Body Problem

"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." - President Barack Obama

“A breakthrough book. A unique blend of scientific and philosophical speculation, politics and history, conspiracy theory and cosmology.” - George R. R. Martin

“The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.”

(A special thank you to book club member, Caity Greig for the group read suggestion.)

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The Art of War

“2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since then, all levels of the military around the world have continued to use the teachings of Sun Tzu. Much of the text notes how to outsmart one's opponent—fighting and winning wars without actually having to do battle.

In recent years, this text has become the essential strategy guide for use in business, politics, law, and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.”

Note: We recommend this translation by Gagliardi. It’s not only a multi-award winner, but a complete version with what appears to be more accurate (& readable) translation.

Don’t think the translation makes that much of a difference?

Here’s a good example we compiled which compares the same 3 lines:

Gagliardi translation—the version we recommend
Do not entice the enemy when their ranks are orderly.
You must not attack when their formations are solid.
This is how you master adaptation.

Ames translation
Do not intercept an enemy that is perfectly uniform in its array of banners;
do not launch the attack on an enemy that is full and disciplined in its formations. This is the way to manage changing conditions.

Clavell/Giles translation
To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose banners are in perfect order,
to refrain from attacking an army drawn up in calm and confident array—
this is the art of studying circumstances.

Cleary translation
Avoiding confrontation with orderly ranks
and not attacking great formations
is mastering adaptation.

Griffith translation
They do not engage an enemy that is advancing with well-ordered banners,
nor whose formations are in impressive army.
This is control of the factor of changing circumstances.

Kaufman translation
Never attack if you see the enemy in prime condition
and his appearance is strong and steady.
His organization may be stronger than yours and you will need to replan your strategy. Note: This version seems to be incomplete skipping over & leaving out many lines!

Sawyer translation
Do not intercept well-ordered flags;
do not attack well-ordered formations.
This is the way to control changes.

What a huge difference & you can clearly see why we recommend the Gagliardi translation!

(A special thank you to book club member, Sena Karataşlı for the group read suggestion.)

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The Chilli Bean Paste Clan

“Chilli bean paste was big business, had been for Gran’s family for four or five generations. Sichuan peppers, on the other hand, were the sort of thing any small trader could sell. All they needed was a place to set up their stall. But, humble though the trade was, the Sichuan pepper was as essential as chilli bean paste at all Pingle Town dinner tables.

Dad had kicked around the chilli bean paste factory for over 20 years, learning the ins and outs of his trade under the tutelage of his shifu, Chen, and if it had taught him one thing, it was that people were born to sweat. You ate chilli bean paste, and Sichuan peppers, and ma-la spicy hotpot, to work up a good sweat, and screwing a girl made you sweat even more. The more you sweated, the happier you felt, Dad reckoned. He remembered the fiery heat that the sweat-soaked bed-sheets in Baby Girl’s house gave off.”

“Set in a fictional town in West China, this is the story of the Duan-Xue family, owners of the lucrative chilli bean paste factory, and their formidable matriarch. As Gran’s 80th birthday approaches, her middle-aged children get together to make preparations. Family secrets are revealed and long-time sibling rivalries flare up with renewed vigour. As Shengqiang struggles unsuccessfully to juggle the demands of his mistress and his wife, the biggest surprises of all come from Gran herself.”

“Yan Ge’s writing is outstandingly imaginative… The Chilli Bean Paste Clan delves deep into the pettiness and shortcomings of family relationships, dissecting them with remarkable insight and humour.... Yan Ge is not just a talented story-teller, she is also a versatile stylist, able to put her mastery of the local dialect to excellent use.” - China Literature Media Award judging panel, 2013

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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Empress Dowager Cixi

“Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.

At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by 8 allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia, and the US.

Based on newly available (mostly Chinese) historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.”

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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A Hero Born

“The epic Chinese classic and phenomenon published in the US for the first time!

Set in ancient China, in a world where kung fu is magic, kingdoms vie for power and the battle to become the ultimate kung fu master unfolds, an unlikely hero is born.

After his father—a devoted Song Dynasty patriot—is murdered by the Jin empire, Guo Jing and his mother flee to the plains of Ghengis Khan and his people for refuge. For one day, he must face his mortal enemy in battle in the Garden of the Drunken Immortals. Under the tutelage of Genghis Khan and the Seven Heroes of the South, Guo Jing hones his kung fu skills. Humble, loyal and perhaps not always wise, Guo Jing faces a destiny both great and terrible.

However, in a land divided—and a future largely unknown—Guo Jing must navigate love and war, honor, and betrayal before he can face his own fate and become the hero he’s meant to be.”

This book is included in a distinctive genre that few Western readers are familiar with—wuxia which literally means “martial arts chivalry” in Chinese. It’s a unique blend of the Ancient Chinese martial arts philosophy of xia (chivalry) & the long history of wushu (Chinese kung fu). While deeply reflective of Chinese culture, with deep roots in Chinese history, language, & nuance, with culturally-specific plots which will appeal to historical fiction aficionados, wuxia also fuses in elements of martial arts fantasy. In this ancient Chinese world full of noble heroes & pitched battles, fantastical kung fu swordsmen who can fly & walk on water are woven into dramatic historical events making this an original genre which will appeal to those who love fantasy or those who love historical fiction.

Note: If you’re looking for the paperback in Amazon US, it appears as if there are 2 different versions—one that’s not out till March. I can’t tell the difference between the two (maybe a new publisher or a new translator). Amazon is doing funny things so if you want the paperback version or are having an issue seeing the paperback version that’s available now, use this link: https://amzn.to/2R0lmPp.

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Love in a Fallen City

“Masterful short works about passion, family, and human relationships.

These six stories, most available in English for the first time, were published to acclaim in China and Hong Kong in the '40s; they explore, bewitchingly, the myriad ways love overcomes (or doesn't) the intense social constraints of time and place.

Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of 20th century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chang’s achievement is her short fiction—tales of love, longing, and the shifting and endlessly treacherous shoals of family life. Written when Chang was still in her twenties, these extraordinary stories combine an unsettled, probing, utterly contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity, with an intense lyricism that echoes the classics of Chinese literature. Love in a Fallen City, the first collection in English of this dazzling body of work, introduces American readers to the stark and glamorous vision of a modern master.”

“With language as sharp as a knife edge, Eileen Chang cut open a huge divide in Chinese culture, between the classical patriarchy and our troubled modernity. She was one of the very few able truly to connect that divide, just as her heroines often disappeared inside it. She is the fallen angel of Chinese literature, and now, with these excellent new translations, English readers can discover why she is so revered by Chinese readers everywhere." – Ang Lee

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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Countrymen

“Amid the dark, ghastly history of WW II, the literally extraordinary story, never before fully researched by a historian, of how the Danish people banded together to save their fellow Jews from the Nazis—told through the remarkable unpublished diaries and documents of families forced to run for safety, leaving their homes and possessions behind, and of those who courageously came to their aid.


In 1943, with its king and administration weakened but intact during the Nazi occupation, Denmark did something that no other country in Western Europe even attempted. Anticipating that the German occupying powers would soon issue the long-feared order to round up the entire population of Jews for deportation to concentration camps, the Danish people stood up in defiance and resisted. The king, politicians, and ordinary civilians were united in their response—these threatened people were not simply Jews but fellow Danes who happened to be Jewish, and no one would help in rounding them up for confinement and deportation.  

While diplomats used their limited but very real power to maneuver and impede matters in both Copenhagen and Berlin, the warning that the crisis was at hand quickly spread through the Jewish community. Over 14 harrowing days, as they were helped, hidden, and protected by ordinary people who spontaneously rushed to save their fellow citizens, an incredible 7,742 out of 8,200 Jewish refugees were smuggled out all along the coast—on ships, schooners, fishing boats, anything that floated—to Sweden.

While the bare facts of this exodus have been known for decades, astonishingly no full history of it has been written. Unfolding on a day-to-day basis, Countrymen brings together accounts written by individuals and officials as events happened, offering a comprehensive overview that underlines occupied Denmark’s historical importance to Hitler as a prop for the model Nazi state and revealing the savage conflict among top Nazi brass for control of the country. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in the midst of the terrible history of the twentieth century and demonstrates how it was possible for a small and fragile democracy to stand against the Third Reich.”

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Seven Gothic Tales

Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the 19th-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.

Seven Gothic Tales was instantly popular when it was first published, revolving around mysterious, bizarre or supernatural events that explore questions of philosophy and identity. Although writing of death and failed loved affairs, Dinesen’s lush, ornate prose also has moments of humour.

“These Danish tales are a modern refinement of German romanticism. They are peopled, or haunted, by ghosts of a past age, voluptuaries dreaming of the singers and ballerinas of the operas of Mozart and Gluck, young men who are too melancholy to enjoy love or too perverse to profit by it, maidens dedicated to chastity and others hopeful of a gentlemanly seduction; their generally fantastic adventures are exquisitely played.” —The NY Times

”A book in that special realm in which artistry is more real than reality.” — Time

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The Keeper of Lost Causes

“Far from being just another morose Nordic crime writer, Adler-Olsen creates a detective whose curiosity is as active as his soul is tortured.” - Library Journal

“Adler-Olsen merges story lines with ingenious aplomb, effortlessly mixing hilarities with horrors. This crime fiction tour de force could only have been devised by an author who can even turn stomach flu into a belly laugh.” - Publishers Weekly

“Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.

Carl Mørck used to be one of Denmark’s best homicide detectives. Then a hail of bullets destroyed the lives of two fellow cops, and Carl—who didn’t draw his weapon—blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing he expects. But Department Q is a department of one, and Carl’s got only a stack of cold cases for company. His colleagues snicker, but Carl may have the last laugh, because one file keeps nagging at him: a liberal politician vanished five years earlier and is presumed dead. But she isn’t dead...yet.”

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