Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters

Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters | Annie Choi

On Annie Choi's website, she begins with this:

My name is Annie Choi and I am going to eat your brains. I will eat them with vigor. Consider yourself warned. I'm very hungry. I've written a book called Happy Birthday or Whatever: Track Suits, Kim Chee, and Other Family Disasters (HarperCollins) and it's out in stores now. Now! As in this very second. You can find it on the shelf next to Bill Clinton and Winston Churchill. My book is about how I want to mace the crap out of my family but also give them a hug. I am pretty sure Bill Clinton's book is not about that.

Here's the synopsis:

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.

More: Annie Choi's website | Interview @ Small Spiral Notebook | Good Reads | Amazon | Venus Zine