American Panda
Written by Gloria Chao
Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller
4/5
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About this audiobook
“Delightful.” —BuzzFeed
“Charmed my socks off.” —David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Kids of Appetite and Mosquitoland
Four starred reviews for this incisive, laugh-out-loud contemporary debut about a Taiwanese American teen whose parents want her to be a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer despite her squeamishness with germs and crush on a Japanese classmate.
At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.
With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth—that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.
But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels?
From debut author Gloria Chao comes a hilarious, heartfelt tale of how, unlike the panda, life isn’t always so black and white.
Gloria Chao
Gloria Chao is the critically acclaimed author of American Panda, Our Wayward Fate, and Rent a Boyfriend. When she’s not writing, you can find her with her husband on the curling ice or hiking the Indiana Dunes. She does not regret putting aside her MIT and dental degrees to write, and she is grateful to spend her days in fictional characters’ heads instead of real people’s mouths. Visit her tea-and-book-filled world at GloriaChao.Wordpress.com and find her on Twitter and Instagram @GloriaCChao.
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Reviews for American Panda
202 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hearing the dialect was great! Audio book is the way to go if you don’t speak or understand this language. It’s a better experience
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I absolutely loved this! Great read. Love the Asian rep.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely loved the humour, characters and the story. The navigation of the cultural issues are prevalent for most ethnicities.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dont be fooled by this cover its not a sweet romance it is very well written I learnt a lot about Chinese Culture and how tough it can be to be one thing and then be another loved the Chractures. Be prepared to cry in places as well. Loved the narrator
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book shows the challenges of having strict parents even if your not from the same race it shows difficulty and the pain and losses. Will most likely re-read
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I love it, the details, traditions, ups and downs. Omg! Recommend it
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As a guy who dated a Taiwanese woman, this book made me laugh out loud recognizing the stereotypes from the Asian culture. I can highly recommend this book! Also the narrator did an awesome job!