Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Harper Collins
DDC/MDS
| 974.71004957092 |
Description
Meet Annie Choi. She fears cable cars and refuses to eat anything that casts a shadow. Her brother thinks chicken is a vegetable. Her father occasionally starts fires at work. Her mother collects Jesus trading cards and wears plaid like it's a job. No matter how hard Annie and her family try to understand one another, they often come up hilariously short. But in the midst of a family crisis, Annie comes to realize that the only way to survive one another is to stick together . . . as difficult as that might be. Annie Choi's Happy Birthday or Whatever is a sidesplitting, eye-opening, and transcendent tale of coping with an infuriating, demanding, but ultimately loving Korean family.
User reviews
LibraryThing member eenerd
Awesome writing, awesome (quick) read. Annie Choi is fantastic and hilarious. You can relate to her experiences with her family, no matter what your background. She is definitely a writer to watch.
LibraryThing member coolmama
Lovely book of first generation Korean American Annie, and her relationships with her family (especially her mother and father). Full of love, compassion, humor in all their foibles. A really great book. Look forward to more by Ms Choi.
LibraryThing member steenface
A funny look at life with a typical Korean family. I found myself chuckling and empathizing completely. Annie's writing style is delightfully light and funny and her portrayal of her family is one I'm sure most of us can relate to, Korean or not!
LibraryThing member aeiouna
I found this book at my used entertainment store, with a "Employee Recommendation!" bookmark tucked into it, which basically said I'd find the book - and Choi's mother's antics - hilarious, which is why I picked it up. However, I didn't have a "laugh out loud" moment until the very end, but it did
On the other hand, I loved the descriptions of everything Asian: the traditional Korean clothing, food, traditions. Some of my favorite chapters were set during family visits to Seoul.
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keep my interest the entire time. I found the fact the parents' dialog was written in, for lack of a better comparison, stereotypical broken Asian English ("Why you no like? It fun!") slightly jarring, but not enough to pull me out of the book.On the other hand, I loved the descriptions of everything Asian: the traditional Korean clothing, food, traditions. Some of my favorite chapters were set during family visits to Seoul.
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LibraryThing member kanata
A short quick read of stories by a Korean-American woman about her family. Mainly her mother and how their relationship is. Quite humorous little tales. Each chapter being a different remembrance. Nothing earth shattering but a decent enough sunny afternoon read.
LibraryThing member silenceiseverything
Let me just start out by saying that Happy Birthday or Whatever was a thoroughly enjoyable read. The author, Annie Choi, writes about her family with wit and sarcasm and you just can't help but laugh at her somewhat tense relationship with her mother.
The thing that I loved most about this book was
Even if you aren't Korean, you'll love this novel. It's relateable to anyone who has felt embarrased or annoyed at their family members or felt that they wouldn't live up to the expectations that were set by them by their family. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a memoir about a slighly dysfunctional family, yet want to laugh out loud. I read this book in about four hours and had to stay up late to finish it. I just couldn't put it down.
The thing that I loved most about this book was
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that it was heartwarming and humorous. There are a lot of memoirs out there written about a dysfunctional family that are depressing. "My mom was a bitch to me. My dad left and didn't care that we had no income. My brothers and sisters were homeless." Yes some of those types of memoirs tug at my heart strings, but it was refreshing to read one in where the family is dysfunctional but love each other while not really standing one another. Even if you aren't Korean, you'll love this novel. It's relateable to anyone who has felt embarrased or annoyed at their family members or felt that they wouldn't live up to the expectations that were set by them by their family. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a memoir about a slighly dysfunctional family, yet want to laugh out loud. I read this book in about four hours and had to stay up late to finish it. I just couldn't put it down.
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LibraryThing member mimo
I think the person who recommended this book to me thought I would really relate to the author, who, like me, was also born in 1976 to a couple who recently immigrated from South Korea to Southern California. But really, I didn't. Some of her stories sounded familiar to Margaret Cho, who I actually
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adore. But this subject does not appeal to me in a memoir. This is just something my friends and I laugh over a couple of pitchers of Hite and soju cocktails. Actually, I spent most of the book wondering how two similar beginnings could have two such different outcomes. Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
2007-04-03
ISBN
0061132225 / 9780061132223