Red Eggs and Good Luck

“A master of figurative language, Lam deftly describes her life in a multicultural family and the pressures they face from both their Chinese and American societies. Readers will enjoy the transformation of each dynamic member of the family and find themselves rooting for the protagonist again and again. This book celebrates the power of resilience and a young girl’s determination to chase her dreams. Lam left me wanting more.”
—Amanda Zieba, author of Breaking the Surface and the Orphan Train Rider Series

In China, girls are bad luck and are often drowned. But Angela and her sisters are lucky. They are born in America and allowed to live two lives in one world: eating dim sum and praying the rosary; studying hard at school and playing make believe with their dolls. With a Chinese father who loves consumerism and an American mother determined to give her daughters the opportunities she was denied, Angela and her sisters grow up celebrating both their Chinese heritage and their American culture. But when their father suddenly becomes ill, Angela begins to question the limits of luck and the power of prayer—and to wonder whether she will ever find the courage to be herself.

Author: Angela Lam

Publication Date: October 6, 2016

Categories: Fall 2015, Memoir

Description
About the Author

Description

“A master of figurative language, Lam deftly describes her life in a multicultural family and the pressures they face from both their Chinese and American societies. Readers will enjoy the transformation of each dynamic member of the family and find themselves rooting for the protagonist again and again. This book celebrates the power of resilience and a young girl’s determination to chase her dreams. Lam left me wanting more.”
—Amanda Zieba, author of Breaking the Surface and the Orphan Train Rider Series

“In opening up Angela Lam’s story one soon feels a settling down, a savoring of scenes similar to the placid detail of Van Gogh’s ‘Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries.’ Hasty though I am by nature, I’m almost tempted to just settle into that prose-verging-upon poetic passage of time, of images.”
—Geoff Wood, author of Living the Lectionary

“Red Eggs and Good Luck is the kind of honest, beautifully written memoir that will have you staying up way too late turning pages.”
—Jennifer Fulwiller, bestselling author of Something Other Than God

“Do yourself a favor. Read [Red Eggs and Good Luck]. Get it for your book club (are you paying attention, mom?). Give it away as Christmas presents. If nothing else, get it from the library… If your experience is anything like mine, the only thing you won’t like about this moving, little gem, the only thing about it that will make you really angry is that it ends.”
—Brian O’Neel, Editor-in-Chief, The North Coast Catholic

About the Author

Angela Lam is a writer and artist who lives in Northern California. She is the author of a collection of short stories, The Human Act and Other Stories, and three novels (published under Angela Lam Turpin). Red Eggs and Good Luck won the 2003 Mary Tanenbaum Award for creative nonfiction and She Writes Press’s 2014 Memoir Discovery Contest.