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“The Donut King” – An Immigrant Who Made A Difference (And Not Just With Donuts)

 

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I was recently given a copy of “The Donut King: The Rags To Riches Story Of A Poor Immigrant Who Changed The World,” by Ted Ngoy, to read.  I honestly didn’t know what to expect.  To be even more honest, I thought it was going to be a boring story about someone who started a donut business.  Well, I was wrong.  I rarely read a book quickly because I’m a slow reader.  However, I read this book in less than a week. One night I stayed up way past my bedtime reading it because it was so entertaining and intense.

“The Donut King” is an autobiography about Mr. Ngoy’s life.  It starts off with him as a young boy and chronicles his life, which at times, is quite frightening, exciting, and sometimes (for me) shocking and upsetting. It’s far from a simple story of someone going from rags to riches.  It’s actually a rollercoaster of sorts, with highs and lows.

Who Is Ted Ngoy?

Mr. Ngoy spent a large portion of his early life in Cambodia, where his mother struggled to support her family and send Mr. Ngoy to school. During this time and later, Cambodia, as a country, had its own struggles and turmoil, making life for its people, including Mr. Ngoy, difficult.  Eventually, after marrying the woman he was in love with (which is an exciting story in itself), Mr. Ngoy moved to Southern California to start a new (and hopefully safer) life, away from the fighting and fear they experienced in Cambodia. They weren’t able to bring much of anything with them, so Mr. Ngoy quickly had to find a way to support his family in this new world (where they didn’t even know how to operate a stove).  Mr. Ngoy was a very smart and business-savvy man.  He initially took on small jobs (helping a church and working at a gas station) and learned what he could, which, surprisingly, went on to help make him a millionaire in the donut store industry within a relatively short amount of time.  It was amazing to read about.

But, then things took a turn for the worse (and more than once).  I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s quite fascinating.  Mr. Ngoy is candid about his life, talking about his addiction to gambling and the lengths he went through to battle that addiction, which ended up costing him a lot (in more ways than one). Mr. Ngoy also goes into a lot of detail about the history of Cambodia, which was also quite educational and interesting. I highly recommend this book.  I truly enjoyed it!

“The Donut King” will be released nationwide in May 2018.

Connect with “The Donut King”: Amazon

 

 

 

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Donuts

Thursday 7th of February 2019

Yes, this place is truly donut king. My best donut place was Federal donut in Philadelphia, but this place is the best now. I am sure you will fall in love with this donut place at the first bite. Donut dog was fantastic, coffee was so good too.

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