I love memoirs and I love memoirs that allow me to go into a world that is so different than my own. But even when a world is different than my own I am still able to find parts in the book that I can relate to and connect with. Enjoyed this book and it's unique perspective.

Really enjoyed this book! I have been really into memoirs recently and this one was high on my list to read. Beautifully written, funny, but also informative and heartfelt. Thanks NetGalley for the copy.

Heartwarming, brilliant, and very meaningful look at one of Detroit's cultural instutitions. Really focuses on human stories and connections, and makes me wish I'd had the chance to experience the place for myself. Written breezily and accessibly--I could see this becoming a television show or movie.

This is a great book that looks at life split between the culture of one's family and understanding a new culture of the United States. I loved the personal stories that made me resonate as a first-generation American with similar stories. The chinese food aspect puts it over the top to provide variety of fun stories working in a family restaurant while also staying true to the personal journey of the writer. Great book!

Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this Memoir. I was drawn to this book for a few different reasons, it talked about restaurant life, it was set in Michigan, and it was a new to me perspective on all of those things. I am grateful to have read this book and learn of what it was like growing up in a family restaurant during the early 80’s. And how the struggles of a city trickle into life of a family restaurant. I found Chin’s story of his coming out engrossing. Chin’s writing was heartfelt and yet propelled you down the path of his life in an engaging way. I did find myself hungry a lot reading his loving descriptions on the taste and feel of family meals. Thank you Curtis Chin for sharing a piece of your world with us.

This is a fun read with good stories but it lacks depth in what I expect of memoirs - still a good read.

I'm a sucker for a food-centric memoir, so I was an easy target for this one. Curtis Chin's coming-of-age memoir, centered around his family's Chinese restaurant in 1980s/1990s Detroit, is at turns funny, tender, and reflective. The author does a great job narrating the audiobook!

This book was the perfect segue between my goals to read Asian authors for AAPI month and queer authors for Pride month! As a gay Chinese-American myself, I really looked forward to hearing Curtis Chin's perspective from a male view and this memoir definitely delivered. The juvenile voice used for the first two-thirds of the story made it slightly difficult for me to relate to his experiences, but I ultimately loved Chin's realizations about himself and his family surrounding him. The sections directly connecting to Chinese menu sections was a great touch that I really appreciated and I found Chin's voice and perspective extremely unique to him and his story.

Curtis Chin's memoir offers a unique perspective, reflecting the nuances of his experiences in Detroit during the 1980s. It's a testament to the diversity of memoirs as a genre, showcasing how personal history can be shaped by time and socioeconomic factors. The conversational tone of the memoir, especially in audiobook form, seems to have provided an engaging experience, allowing the narrative to resonate with listeners in a meaningful way.

The writing style has a conversational, light hearted tone and combined with the focus on the Chinese restaurant, it gave me family sitcom vibes. I think people who want something that touches on serious topics, but don't want to dwell on trauma would enjoy this. Personally, I didn't love the writing because I think the light tone also meant that it was too safe and surface level.
I did appreciate seeing Detroit and what it was like growing up as a Chinese American there, particularly during the time of Vincent Chin's murder. This book also offers a look at queer coming of age during the AIDS crisis.
Overall, the perspective was
interesting but the writing style wasn't for me.

Coming off the heels of the last memoir I listened to being just mediocre, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant was good! Not just in comparison, but just good.

Curtis Chin takes us through his life of growing up the third of six children in a Chinese family (in a Chinese restaurant, as indicated by the title) in the Corridor of Detroit in the 80's and his life learning about race (as 'picking a side' only meant to his classmates Black or white), politics (a childhood Regan-era Republican who grew out of it once he got out into the world with differing opinions), and what it meant to be gay during the upswing of the AIDS crisis when he was young and celibate and geographically removed from the brunt of it. It's a life story told with humor and relatability no matter what aspects you don't share with him or his life-- personally, the story that resonated with me the most was the college teacher accusing him of plagiarism because his story was 'too good' for him, a creative writing major in a very small and selective program, to have written. I've been there! Of course my experience didn't hold the heavy cloud of racism.

For anyone who likes memoirs, queer stories, coming of age stories, Chinese stories, stories about how the world changes even in prosperous areas and the adjacent areas where people are just trying to live, or for anyone who just likes great food descriptors, this one's for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the eARC in exchange for review!

I really enjoyed the unique premise and point of view in this book. Our library has purchased this and it has circulated well thus far.

For me this book was alright. I loved learning about the food, and I wanted to try everything he talked about. The family had interesting dynamics. I felt he should have spread out the time period a little more though. I wanted to hear more about his life when he went to New York and found himself. I felt he could have expanded it more.

Chinese American and gay in Detroit. It is a tough go if you come from a multi-generational large Chinese family running a popular Chinese restaurant called Chungs. How does one resolve being a minority, racially, unable to to also talk about his sexual orientation to his family..
Curtis Chin does an admirable job of explaining his world and his own coming of age. Quick pacing and an engaging story make for a good read.

Sometimes there are books that really give you a whole new appreciation for that genre. Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant is one of those books for me. Unfortunately for this memoir, that’s not a good thing.

Chin looks back on his life and tells the reader what happened–a common thing for memoirs to do. Yet, there is little self-reflection here. In fact, most of this memoir is a list of bullet points from his life and nothing other than that. Even as he aged up, there was still no reflection in what had happened which made it feel like he never learned anything through his experiences.

Him not learning anything seemed to particularly shine through the casual anti-Black racism. Associating anger to Black people while saying he could never be that angry because he is a Buddhist. This was mentioned and then nothing else was said about it. Moved on like it wasn’t a problem.

Memoirs are really a chance to see what someone has learned throughout life and how they have grown, but as this one continued, I never got the feeling the Chin had learned anything or really grown.

Between that and the way it was written, it was really hard to connect to the author or his story. I felt detached the whole time as everything was listed out like a bullet point with no poetic language to make it more interesting or compelling.

I wish that I could recommend this memoir, but I can’t. There was so much that was glossed over that this really felt like a long go girl give up nothing moment.

While I enjoyed reading about the author’s experiences growing up in his family’s Chinese restaurant in Detroit, I thought this book lacked depth. Chin reflects on his different identities, a gay man, a member of a Chinese-American household, and a resident of a city on the decline, throughout the story. However, these reflections lacked depth and the story felt flat. I believe this title would have worked better as a collection of essays rather than a memoir.

I really thought I would like this memoir.

It has a unique format and I love the idea of lessons learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Sadly, the contents of this book just left me feeling meh. I understand that this is a memoir and essentially just all experience and opinion, but Chin is lacking in selfawareness and the pieces are mediocre at best.

What a heartwarming memoir! Curtis Chung grew up within his family owned Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine restaurant during the 1980's in Detroit. Chung shares reflections on his identity as a gay American-born Chinese man during the AIDS crisis, the divided sociopolitical atmosphere of Detroit, and his desire to branch out on his own to explore the world. I adored the writing style - each story centers around an item on Chung's menu. It is rich in humor, honesty, and the naivete of a young child learning the world around him.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Although the premise of this book was strong, which is a memoir of a Chinese-American gay man growing up in Detroit in the 70's and 80's, I ultimately didn't find Curtis Chin's writing voice to be substantive or narrative. This is a collection of memories that hit many interesting themes: diaspora Asians, generation gaps, coming-of-age, queer awakening, and high profile events such as Vincent Chin's murder. I regret that this book wasn't for me and I will not be finishing it. I read 45% before I decided not to continue. Here is an example of the writing style that didn't resonate with me:
[ I decided there were two types of racism. While all incidents were dumb, some were dumb and mean, things like someone saying "Go back to where you come from" and any sentence that included "You people." (hide spoiler)]. Maybe Curtis Chin will find his audience elsewhere, but this one is not for me.

I didn't love this one but I also didn't hate this one. However I'm not sure how I feel about this one.