Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Last year my mother and I published her book "One Way Ticket to L.A.: How a Nurse from L.A. Found Love in Hollywood." If you had told my fussy, 15-year-old self that I could write and publish a memoir with my mother, I would never have believed it. Mother-daughter relationships are tricky that way. They are not static but rather morph and evolve over time, into often something better than anyone could have imagined. This is the territory of Michelle Zauner's beautiful memoir "Crying in H Mart." Growing up with a Korean-American mother and a Jewish-American father in Eugene, Oregon, Zauner didn't know many other Asian families. She felt lonely and different, and this pain was made harder by her mother's high expectations. Her happiest memories were traveling to Seoul with her mother where they would stay in her grandmother's tiny apartment, and eat traditional Korean food. She felt safe and protected within the walls of her grandmother's apartment, away from the rest of the world. After moving to the East Coast for college, Zauner's identity as a woman and a child sadly start to unravel when, at the age of 25, her mother is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. Trying on careers in both cuisine and music, she is not sure where her passions lie. She finds herself racing against the clock to connect with her mother, and learn as much as she can about her Korean heritage to inform her future. Food, motherhood, marriage, love and other themes are artfully explored in this book, which started as an essay in the "New Yorker." Now a successful singer-songwriter, currently with the indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, Zauner's poetic prose presents a moving view into the mother-daughter relationship. And my mom is pretty awesome, too. This year she is celebrating 50 years on the board of my elementary school, Oakwood. To buy this book on Amazon click here.