Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner (you may know her as Japanese Breakfast, an indie rockstar) was born in Seoul, South Korea to a Korean mom and a white American dad. (She also has Jewish heritage, fun fact!) When she was 9 months old, the Zauners moved to Eugene, Oregon, and her only connection to her Korean heritage became the food her mom cooked — and their yearly trips to Korea.⁣ When her mom dies of cancer when Michelle is 25, she turns to Korean food as a way to mourn her. It’s a heart wrenching (and delicious) memoir about moms and daughters and identity and food and cancer and everything in between.

What I loved most about “Crying in H Mart” was how Zauner’s emotions clearly and strongly came through: “Hers was tougher than tough love. It was brutal, industrial-strength. A sinewy love that never gave way to an inch of weakness. It was a love that saw what was best for you ten steps ahead, and didn't care if it hurt like hell in the meantime. When I got hurt, she felt it so deeply, it was as though it were her own affliction. She was guilty only of caring too much. I realize this now, only in retrospect. No one in this would would ever love me as much as my mother, and she would never let me forget it.”

If you’re a person who cries when they read: be prepared. You can also read the viral essay in The New Yorker that the book is based on.