Daughter of Heaven: A Memoir with Earthly Recipes

I enjoyed this book very much. Daughter of Heaven is thoughtfully composed and at the same time enormously energetic and energizing. I love the way the story coils back on itself toward the end and packs a wallop! There is a breath-like quality to the last third of the book. The book includes many great recipes, but what I enjoyed most were all the stories about stones! My parents are both geologists so I am used to hearing fascinating stories about stones. I loved them all: the stone soup, Li's centering rock, the stone bridge between Li and her father, and especially the Afterward and the author's conversation with Old Man Hill! Lovely! 'Keep your voice low' and 'Don't swallow!' I also found Li's description of her life as a hermit-writer inspiring. I appreciated her description of her days writing on the island in Finland- struggling not to spend to much time on survival so that more can be spent in fantasy. My father died when I was young and as I never knew him well, I find stories about fathers and daughters very interesting. I understand that this mythical relationship is not often harmonious. I loved it when Li heaved out that her father was 'not an articulate man, even in Chinese'. (Sadly her great strength was his great weakness.) There were many parts that moved me: when the banana leaf dragon boats appear in the pond, Li waiting in the bank on Mott and Canal with an article on Guilin to show her father, the jagged rhythm of that conversation in the restaurant, her reflections on suffering in fiction and memoirs. Li's memoir transported me to a fascinating new world and I thank her warmly for that! This is a most inspiring reflection on the complications and adventures of growing up in a multi-cultural family.

Leslie Li's memoir is nothing less than astonishing! Beautifully written, it is a true gem, a heavenly memoir, subtle, mythical, evocative and strong, the real deal so to speak. Li is a writer of extraordinary talent, don't miss out on this one, it will give you pleasure and food for thought!

Author, Leslie Li, guides us through her life as a Chinese-American. You will journey through her ancestry, her relationships with her family and growing up in New York with the strictness of the Chinese beliefs. Well written and easily read, this work gives you insight into the author's life and way of life. This work also includes stories from her grandmother, Nai-Nai and recipes from her heritage. Four stars for Li, a novelist writing her family story. ****

What initially attracted me to this book in a shop in Zurich was the cover. The title, colors and images made me pick it up. Then there was the inner sleeve, a quick read told me - Hmmm - meeting this person Nai Nai, some recipes, and listening to Leslie Li describe her life sounds like a fun read - but it was so much more. Daughter of Heaven takes you deep into Leslie's life - that of her wonderful family, of their interaction with each other and the changing world around them. Leslie gives you insight to her world as a child, where she is a little bit spoiled, a little bratty, and somewhat annoyed by her grandmother - Nai Nai and her conservative father. She then returns to these images as a woman, and in realizing what a treasure her family had become to her, finds answers to many questions that have followed her for decades. Nai Nai - we have the pleasure of enjoying the life (in pages) of this incredible woman - #1 wife of Li Zongren - Chiang Kai-shek's choice for vice president. You get to enjoy Nai-Nai's food (with sumptuous recipe's at the end of each chapter), hear about her subtle yet carefully planned undoings of wife #2, and are witness to her departure from life after age 100 (I was quite sad during this part of the book). You also get to meet Leslie's father, a caring and sensitive man, caught between his stoic traditional Chinese upbringing, his American wife and their children, who are a constant source of challenges and discovery for him. Leslie has such a colorful family, and does a magnificent job of making the reader a part of her family - it's as if you were Leslie's best friend and she was imparting these experiences to you first hand and inviting you to dinner. I know I want to meet Nai Nai (unfortunately she has passed away), her father, and Leslie herself to probe for more stories. This is an honest take on the discoveries of life, one which I am certain we can all relate to in some way, as well as getting `a lovely parting gift' at the end of each chapter of a recipe, which brings this book into another dimension - the universal language of food.

"Daughter of Heaven" is a charming and wildly useful book that allows one into the heart of a family and the soul of a Chinese kitchen. The recipes are complex in taste but easy to follow!