Read about the other entries on the list.The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones
Don’t read Mones’ book unless you’re prepared to compulsively crave Chinese food for every meal as you follow recently widowed food writer Maggie McElroy from L.A. to Beijing to face both personal and professional challenges—determining if her husband fathered a daughter with his mistress, Gao Lan, and profiling handsome, talented chef Sam Liang, whose grandfather wrote the (fictitious) culinary masterwork The Last Chinese Chef. Sam’s also auditioning for the Chinese national cooking team (I’m still not sure if that’s a real thing). Maggie’s emotional baggage and budding romance with Sam, insider details about Chinese culture and history (Mones worked there for two decades), and intriguing minor characters like Gao Lan are really just garnish for the food bits. How do you say bon appétit in Mandarin?
--Marshal Zeringue
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