"The Joy Luck Club," by Amy Tan, is not only a successful book, but has been made into a play and movie. Submitted photo

CANNON BEACH – “The Joy Luck Club,” by Amy Tan is the Cannon Beach Reads selection for December. The discussion will begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17, at the Cannon Beach Library, 131 N. Hemlock St. Cannon Beach Reads is a free book group sponsored by the nonprofit Cannon Beach Library to encourage reading and discussion of significant books. Anyone can attend the discussion, even if they have not read the book. Books can be purchased at the Cannon Beach Book Company, or may be available to be checked out at the library. For further information about Cannon Beach Reads, call the library at (503) 436-1391.

“The Joy Luck Club” focuses on four Chinese-American immigrant families who start a club playing the Chinese game of Mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods. Sixteen chapters are divided into four sections, and each woman, both mothers and daughters (with the exception of one mother, Suyuan Woo, who dies before the novel opens), share stories about their lives in the form of vignettes. Each section comes after a parable.

In 1993, the novel was adapted into a feature film directed by Wayne Wang. The novel was also adapted into a play by Susan Kim, which premiered at Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York.

Born in 1952 in Oakland, Calif., Tan is of Chinese descent. When she was 15, her father and brother both died of brain tumors. Her mother decided that their house was cursed, and they eventually settled in Switzerland.

Tan, who reportedly often fought with her mother, remembers her childhood as unhappy. But her mother plays a significant role in several of Tan’s books, including “The Joy Luck Club” and “The Kitchen God’s Wife.” Tan has written several other books, including “The Hundred Secret Senses” and “The Bonesetter’s Daughter.” Her most recent book, “Saving Fish From Drowning,” explores the tribulations experienced by a group of people who disappear while on an art expedition in the jungles of Burma. A collection of nonfiction essays is titled “The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings.”

Tan has also written two children’s books: “The Moon Lady” and “Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat,” which was turned into an animated series airing on the Public Broadcasting System. She has also appeared on PBS in a short spot encouraging children to write. She was hired in 2006 as literary editor for West, the Los Angeles Times’ Sunday magazine. She is a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock-and-roll band consisting of published writers, including Barbara Kingsolver, Matt Groening, Dave Barry and Stephen King, among others.