Amy Chua Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Amy Chua
Amy Chua was born in Champaign, Illinois on October 26, 1962 to ethnic Chinese-Filipino parents with Hoklo ancestry that emigrated from the Philippines. She grew up speaking Hokkien.

Her mom was born in China in 1936, before she moved to the Philippines when she was two. She later converted to Catholicism during her high school years and graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, with a degree in chemical engineering, summa cum laude.

Her dad, Leon O. Chua, is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. Quanzhou, Fujian is his ancestral hometown.

Amy was also raised Catholic and lived in West Lafayette, Indiana. At the age of 8, her family moved to Berkeley, California.

Amy has described herself as being an “ugly child” during her school days; getting bullied in school for her foreign accent (which she has lost) and was the target of some racial slurs from several of her classmates. She attended El Cerrito High School, where she graduated as the valedictorian in her class.

During college, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1984 from Harvard College, where she was named a John Harvard Scholar and an Elizabeth Cary Agassiz Scholar. She got her JD cum laude in 1987 from Harvard Law School, where she was the first Asian American officer of the Harvard Law Review, serving as the executive editor.

After her time spent in law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Patricia M. Wald on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

“World on Fire” was selected by The Economist as one of the Best Books of 2003 and was a New York Times bestseller. Tony Giddens called it one of the “Top Political Reads of 2003”.

Amy taught JD Vance during at least his first year of Yale Law. She was the one that persuaded him to pen “Hillbilly Elegy”, his memoir, which became a movie starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams and was a New York Times bestseller.

“World on Fire” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2003. The reigning consensus is that the combo of democracy and free markets would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this revelatory investigation of globalization’s true impact, Amy explains why many developing countries are actually consumed by ethnic violence after they adopt free market democracy.

She shows how in non-Western countries all around the world, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These “market-dominant minorities” Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, Chinese in Southeast Asia, whties in Latin America and South Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Indians in East Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia, become objects of violent hatred.

At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, which unleashes confiscation, ethnic demagoguery, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the US has become the world’s most visible market dominant minority, which is a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism all around the world. Amy is a friend of globalization, however she urges everybody to find ways to spread its benefits and curb some of its most dangerous of aspects.

“Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” is a non-fiction book that was released in 2011. At once laugh out loud funny and provocative, this ignited a global parenting debate with its tale about a mom’s journey in strict parenting. Amy argues that Western parenting attempts to nurture and respect children’s individuality, as Chinese parents usually believe that arming kids with strong work habits, skills, and inner confidence prepares them best for the future.

This chronicles Chua’s iron-willed choice to raise Lulu and Sophia (her own daughters) the Chinese way and the remarkable, sometimes heartbreaking results her decision inspires. Profoundly challenging and achingly honest, this book is one of the most talked about books from our times.

This is a courageous and thought provoking read, and it gets breathtakingly personal at times. This tale of Amy’s is just as compelling as a good thriller. Amy delivers the most stimulating book on the subject of child rearing since Dr. Spock. It’s a funny, smart, honest, and just a little heartbreaking of a read.

“The Golden Gate” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2023. This is an evocative, compelling, and sweeping historical thriller which paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffered by the turbulent crosswinds of this world at war and a society that’s about to undergo some massive change.

In 1944, in Berkeley, California, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after one drink in the bar when a presidential candidate gets assassinated in a room upstairs. Walter Wilkinson, who was a rich industrialist with some enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, could have been target by any number of groups. However oddly, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy happening at the Claremont, some ten years ago: the death of Iris Stafford (just seven years old at the time), who was a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in San Francisco. Some say that she is still haunting the Claremont.

The many threads of this case continue leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, all now adults. Iris’s cousins Nicole and Cassie. And her sister, Isabella. Determined to not allow anything distract him from finding out the truth, not the interest of China’s First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, or the powerful influence of the Bainbridges’ grandma, or the political aspirations of Berkeley’s district attorney, in his findings, he follows this investigation to its devastating conclusion.

This page turning debut novel brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when class and race defined the very essence of justice, power, and sex. And it introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, who is a mixed race ex-Army officer that is still reckoning with his own history.