First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #75 and Teaser Tuesdays

          
It's Tuesday . . . time to share book excerpts with: 

• First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.

• Teaser Tuesdays hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading, where bloggers post two (2) random “teaser” sentences--no spoilers allowed--to try to entice others to seek out these books.

Today I'm featuring the opening paragraph and a teaser from Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok.  Since one of my book clubs selected Girl in Translation, the author's debut novel for their next meeting, I thought I'd delve into this book, which I got at Library Journal's Day of Dialog for librarians this past May.  The cover is quite clever--it is red (a lucky color), has a traditional design at its corners, and a pair of dancing shoes placed to resemble a fortune cookie. 

 

One

My name is Charlie Wong and I'm the daughter of a dancer and a noodle-maker.  My mother was once a star ballerina at the famed Beijing Dance Academy before she ran off to marry my father, the handsome noodle-maker in Beijing--or at least that's what she always called him before she died.  Hand in hand, they escaped to America to start their family.  Unfortunately, my mother's genes seemed to miss me altogether.  I took after Pa, minus the good-looking part.  And minus the manual dexterity as well: he never managed to pass his considerable noodle-making skills on to me, much as he tried.  So at twenty-two years old I was instead working as a dishwasher at a restaurant in New York's Chinatown.  Pa was their noodle master.  Customers lined up at the back door to purchase packages of his uncooked noodles to take home.

 

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Teaser:  "Lisa hugged me tightly before she left for Uncle's office.  'You'll be great.  You're so much better than you think you are.'" ~ p. 46

What do you think?  Would you continue reading? 

What are you reading now or planning to read soon?

 

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #75 and Teaser Tuesdays was originally published by Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com.  This post cannot be republished without attribution.