The Fortune Cookie Chronicles


  • #26 on the New York Times Best Seller List
    and featured on The Colbert Report, Martha Stewart, TED.com, CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose Tomorrow, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, and NPR stations coast to coast. Also selected for Borders Original Voices and Book Sense. Follow me on Twitter! Fan me on Facebook.

  • Archive for July, 2008

    The Fortune Cookie (Chronicles) goes to China

    Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

    My editor, Jon Karp, just let me know that we’ve licensed Simplified Chinese rights (Mainland China) to Shanghai Sanhui Culture & Press. Which is very very exciting. Yay. Even if fortune cookies won’t be sold in China, a book about them will be. The best part of foreign rights is how they are titled and […]

    WONTONT Lust?

    Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

    I got this funny wonton  story over e-mail: I just moved to a new place, and as part of my move, I had to pick a new phone number. So of course, being the kind of person I am, I spend 3 hours last week when I should have been unpacking a) doing research into […]

    General Tso’s potato chips from Terra Kettles, available at Whole Foods

    Monday, July 28th, 2008

    This photo was sent to me by a reader. General Tso continues with his brand extension. He has his own type of chip available at Whole Foods. I’ve seen now, General Tso’s tofu, General Tso’s pizza, General Tso’s chipotle sauce, General Tso’s sushi, General Tso’s duck and now General Tso’s potato chips. (My favorite of […]

    The CommArts Design Award for Anne Twomey for the Cover

    Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

    Fortune Cookie Chronicles is now technically an award-winning book! (Though not because of me.) The cover, done by Anne Twomey, won in the book cover illustration category of the Communication Arts Magazine’s 49th Annual Design Competition. Being a word (and not a design) person, I went to suss out what this competition was all about. […]

    Is fortunecookiechronicles.com a sex site? Web Sense thinks it is

    Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

    So my friend at the City Council sent me this screenshot. Apparently my blog (this blog) has been blocked by Websense for being a “sex” site, which I find endlessly amusing. Maybe the “in bed” aspect of fortune cookies is coming to the fore? (I wrote an article about Web Sense and Saudi Arabia back […]

    Book Publishing Industry Panel on July 22

    Monday, July 14th, 2008

    This is next week… Harvardwood is pleased to present our first-ever publishing industry panel event! The panel will feature authors Ceridwen Dovey ’03 (Blood Kin), Jennifer Lee ’99 (The Fortune Cookie Chronicles), and Nancy Redd ’03 (Body Drama), publishing manager and acquiring editor at Penguin Publishing Molly Barton, and Jennifer Joel ’98, book agent at […]

    My cameo in The Killing of the Chinese Cookie

    Monday, July 14th, 2008

    I saw Derek Shimoda’s The Killing of the Chinese Cookie this week, and I make a brief cameo (as do some of my fortune cookies from around the world). It is when I am in Japan (Kyoto/Osaka area)  getting my fortune cold at a shrine connected with fortune cookies through the tsujiura technique of watching […]

    I’m here. Really.

    Monday, July 14th, 2008

    Sorry for the lapse of blogging. I’ve been coming out of orbit and been busy, well, not doing anything to do with the book for like 10 days (which was lovely)  — this basically included blogging. (Lots of life transition now.) This week book is back in full force. Wednesday at the Harvard Club, Thursday […]

    Chinese chicken in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle?

    Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

    Clues from July 1, 2008 New York Times crossword. 39 Down: General on Chinese menus 60 Down: Kung _____ chicken Crossword writer must have been hungry.

    The Killing of a Chinese Cookie is Coming to New York City

    Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

    Derek Shimoda’s The Killing of a Chinese Cookie is playing in the Asian American International Film Festival in New York City this month. Two screenings: July 12, Saturday, 1 p.m. @ The Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue and again on Monday, July 14 @  7:30 p.m. at the  Maysles Cinema @ 343 Malcolm X Blvd, […]

    Maybe they serve Maryland Crap Cakes too

    Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

    Another humorous Chinese menu typo, send to me by a blog reader.

    Sneaking in on Google’s top search page for “fortune cookie”

    Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

    I noticed a few weeks ago that people were landing at my blog with search of just “fortune cookie” so I was curious where the book was on Google’s search results. It looks like I snuck onto the front page of results. I don’t even sell fortune cookies.