Book launch of Dumpling Days by Grace Lin, held at Porter Square Books on Jan. 21st.
(Note: this is a joint post from Jen and Lisa)
Grace Lin’s book launch felt like one big happy gathering, just in time for Chinese New Year. Lin gave us a taste of her new book by reading to us from Dumpling Days. This time around, we travel with Pacy to Taiwan, her parents’ homeland, for a month long food adventure. In the sushi restaurant chapter, Pacy encounters for the first time raw fish and wasabi and a high-tech Japanese toilet with a control panel. “You never press the red button!” we learn as Lin sent us into fits of laughter, perfectly capturing Pacy’s youthful voice in a spot-on reading.
Yes, that’s a fancy toilet on the projector screen.
There are plenty more deliciously embarrassing Pacy moments in the book, but it’s clear that food was the star of the (dumpling) day! Lin even signed her books, “happy eating!”
We met Pacy!
To top it off, each audience member got to take home a goodie bag stamped with a Chinese-style seal:
The bags came with candy, a dumpling recipe, a red envelope containing a “secret url” of deleted chapters from Dumplings Days, and our very own Pocket Pacy doll (Dumpling Days edition, hence the bright pink dress).
These dolls act like vicarious traveling companions. The idea is to bring the doll with you whenever you’re traveling and take pictures of Pacy in exotic locales all over the world. Lin has been leaving behind Pacys on her travels (see here) and she encouraged us to send in our pictures. What’s really amazing about these dolls is that Lin painted all of them by hand!
So, keep your eyes pealed for Pacy in photos and around the world. Enjoy some dumplings and happy year of the dragon!
