There is nothing more American than pie." But what does that phrase even mean in a big country so full of different traditions and tastes? For Stacy Fong, who grew up in Hong Kong before coming to the US for college, pie turned out to be the perfect lens to learn about and love this imperfect nation. She fell in love with pie.

She ate pie on the road at all-night diners before learning to bake at the legendary 4 and 20 Blackbirds Pie Shop in Brooklyn after she applied for her green card, Now, she decided to bake a creative new pie for every state in the union, representing her experience in that place. And she gifted each of those 50 pies to a friend. Since then, Fong's project gained the noses and notice of CBS Sunday morning and other media. This book in praise of flakey crust, gooey fruit, and sky-high meringue, is also about the traditions and ingredients that make us who we are. Because pie is the food of the heroic, you can see one of our own heroes Dolly Parton gracing the Tennessee Biscuits and Gravy Pie