Books with author Monique Dong

The Book of Salt serves up a wholly original take on Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh.

The Book of Salt serves up a wholly original take on Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh.

Let me entertain you!Number one key to life: HAVE FUN and BE INSPIRED! You can achieve this by a) reading this book.Can good distraction lead to a more creative, fun-filled life? HELL YES!However, if you end up on the other side of the world overnight, you may have gone too far. Moderation, you idiot!Great thinkers use daily distraction techniques to enhance their lives, overcome pitfalls, and escape into the creative world of their own minds. Award-winning mother and distraction expert Monique Doyle will entertain you with laugh-out-loud true stories, reflective poems and inspirational ideas on how a little distraction in your day can unleash creative riches inside you. She will help you find your own inner distractions to bring happiness and laughter into your life.From breaking into a hotel to kiss U2 frontman Bono to getting advice from Bob Geldof, and from flying across the world to find and then lose love, Monique’s life is full of friendships, family, failures and ultimately FUN and her stories will make you laugh, squirm and cry in equal measure.As Monique shows, having a healthy sense of distraction and a strong connection to your right brain can help you tap into your imagination and improve every aspect of your life. You will be inspired and entertained by this daring and…well, rather distracting, book.“If I could be cloned, shrunk down and snorted into my own brain, I would head straight to the right side, where all the creative fun and dancing neurons in the cerebellumhappen. I wonder if you could short circuit the brain while in there and come out bilingual. That would be cool.” Monique DoyleRead this book and unlock the creative benefits of good distractions today!

Magic, monsters, and mystery? Allie Langston got more than she bargained for when she set out on what appeared to be a completely ordinary summer morning with her best friend, Jimmy. One lost softball and one untied shoe turned Allie's world upside down, landing her in the midst of a magical place filled with wonder and beauty. She quickly learns that this beautiful place has danger lurking around every corner. To make matters worse, Jimmy begins to act in a disturbing manner that puts a serious strain on their friendship. Can Allie muster up the courage it takes to face the truly terrifying obstacles that stand between them and their home?

"[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper. It began captivatingly for those days: 'Two American ladies wish to hire . . .' " It was these lines in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book that inspired The Book of Salt, a brilliant first novel by an acclaimed Vietnamese American writer. In Paris, 1934, Binh has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with "the Steins," stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam? Binh has fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the live-in cook at the famous apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus. Before Binh's decision is revealed, his mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the Lost Generation. Binh knows far more than the contents of the Steins' pantry: he knows their routines and intimacies, their manipulations and follies. With wry insight, he views Stein and Toklas ensconced in rueful domesticity. But is Binh's account reliable? A lost soul, he is a late-night habitue of the Paris demimonde, an exile and an alien, a man of musings and memories, and, possibly, lies. Love is the prize that has eluded him, from his family to the men he has sought out in his far-flung journeys, often at his peril. Intricate, compelling, and witty, the novel weaves in historical characters, from Stein and Toklas to Paul Robeson and Ho Chi Minh, with remarkable originality. Flavors, seas, sweat, tears -- The Book of Salt is an inspired feast of storytelling riches.

“[He] came to us through an advertisement that I had in desperation put in the newspaper.” It began captivatingly for those days: “Two American ladies wish...” It was these lines in The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book that inspired The Book of Salt.In Paris, 1934, Bính has accompanied his employers, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, to the train station for their departure to America. His own destination is unclear: will he go with “the Steins,” stay in France, or return to his native Vietnam?Bính has fled his homeland in disgrace, leaving behind his malevolent charlatan of a father and his self-sacrificing mother. For five years, he has been the live-in cook at the famous apartment at twenty-seven rue de Fleurus. Before Bính’s decision is revealed, his mesmerizing narrative catapults us back to his youth in French-colonized Vietnam, his years as a galley hand at sea, and his days turning out fragrant repasts for the doyennes of the Lost Generation.