Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Winner of the Memoir & Autobiography award

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner



An unflinching, powerful memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band--and meeting the man who would become her husband--her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious and plainspoken, lyrical and honest, Zauner's voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, and complete with family photos, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.

This book was SO good! Hope you guys like it too!!

Admittedly I am only about 20% in, but the book is only okay so far. Does it get better? (Don’t worry, I’m not giving up!)

I listened to this on audio last month and thought it was great. The author narrated it and that made it even that much better. I do remember it being a little slow going in the beginning though.

I just finished the audiobook yesterday, oh my goodness. I definitely had to go give my mom a big hug after.

Kaitlin wrote: "I just finished the audiobook yesterday, oh my goodness. I definitely had to go give my mom a big hug after."

I finished it today and I feel much the same. :-)

Good book & relatable!