Welcome to Litsy!

3-20-24: My 6th finished book of 2024! This one was hard for me. Michelle wrote a beautiful memoir in honor of her mother full of lovely memories and connections to food from her Korean upbringing. Reading about what she went through with her mom when she became ill was difficult because it was so reminiscent of what I went through with my mom from 2016-2018. Losing a parent is devastating, especially a mother. The author wrote a love letter 💖

I recommended this memoir on Book Interrupted‘s Manuscript Monday. It will make you hungry and want to call your mom.
https://www.bookinterrupted.com/post/manuscript-monday-crying-in-h-mart

#bookinterrupted #bookclub #cryinginhmart #koreancuisine #losingyourmother #ManuscriptMonday #memoirs #bookrecommendations #bookstoread

Hot take, I didn‘t really love or even enjoy this book….

I listened to the audio version, read by the author, and felt hearing the story in the author's own voice really added to the overall experience. My recent loss, though not the same loss as the author experienced, made a lot of the content incredibly relatable. It was sweet, funny, and painful. It also made me hungry! 😆

This book was everywhere a few years ago and I thought I would like it but it never seemed the right time. I just finished on audio and it was nothing like I expected. Yes, I cried hard. Yes I laughed too. But it was very present for me. As different as my life as an only daughter has been, so many painful truths resonated. Some end of life wishes became very clear to me while listening on audio.

This memoir had so much in it. I really liked how honest it was. Michelle didn‘t sugar coat the people in the book or herself. I absolutely loved the details about food in the book. It made me want to visit Korea and indulge in the culture and cuisine. I didn‘t know the band Japanese Breakfast but this book made me go down a rabbit hole of her music, interviews, articles, etc. She is a real artist. I feel her mom is helping her from beyond too. 🥰

A memoir about growing up as a Korean American, and the love and loss of a parent. This book resonated deeply for me.

Also, as someone who doesn‘t typically reach for nonfiction, Crying in H Mart absolutely blew me away. If you have experienced the loss of a parent especially, I highly recommend.

So dope reading about an Asian American experience after reading about a black American one. Really lovely writing and extremely sad but moving af. Not often I read about grief but I'm glad I did. She incorporates the food element so well - determined to dig into some Korean recipes soon.

I love it when my reading comes together like this. I‘m feverishly trying to finish Bab‘s audiobook before the library takes it back and here she appears in Crying in H Mart, after I listened to a chapter about her difficult relationship with her mother earlier today.

I found this book relatable as a Chinese-American (though author is a mix of Korean). I also cried at parts of the book. The author' special relationship with her mom is reflected in this beautiful memoir.

⭐️⭐️💫This is less a review of the content material - because who can rate how another person expresses grief? - and more just of my reading experience.
As someone who has also lost a parent, I thought I would really relate to this book, but I found myself pretty unmoved throughout.
I think if you are the child of immigrant parents or someone who enjoys food memoirs, then this will be a very meaningful book. It just didn't hit the mark for me.

.

I don‘t like saying this about memoirs because they are so personal but I just couldn‘t get into this one. ⭐️⭐️

This book is like a warm hug even for someone like me who doesn‘t like hugs. When language and culture and generational differences seem insurmountable, it‘s blood ties that matter. The connection with food that bridged any gaps between this mother and daughter really spoke to me. This is a beautiful story about grieving and living simultaneously, because life goes on even when the grief seems too much.

Where do you go, when you‘ve seen death?

What a beautiful love letter from the author to her mother. A memoir whose storyline revolves around the author‘s mother dying from cancer when Zauner was in her early 20s that touches on identity, grief and loss, connection and food.

This short memoir by Michelle Zauner hits just the right notes, or should I say—flavors. The parts of the book where Zauner describes cooking and eating Korean food are where this book shines brightest. It‘s easy to say that the other parts aren‘t as good, but then again, very good has a hard time measuring up to flawless. #memoir #nonfiction #foodwriting #bookofthemonth

Finally bought my own copy of this beautiful book. ❤️❤️

My current read, Crying in H Mart. It isn‘t perfect, but the food descriptions are phenomenal. If you love food writing, those parts alone make this book worth the read.
Bonus content: My cat Josephine has claimed my balance board. Everything is a scratching post if you‘re creative 😼
#memoir #nonfiction #foodwriting #cat #caturday

Books for my beach vacation.

Absolutely stunning read🖤 a story of a mother and daughters estranged relationship, the cancer that brought them back together, the grief after the mothers passing, and the Korean food that was their love language before and after death.

Heartbreaking + as good as everyone says it is. Wish I had read this before I saw her last year.

Michelle shares the complicated relationship she had with her mother and while doing so, uncovers the unconventional ways in which her mother loved her and showed her love. It was touching to watch Michelle discover these little gems while processing her grief.

#bookhaul10
Because 25% off is a siren call.
I had a $50 birthday gift card and $50 worth of Plum points, so with the discount this stack cost me $25. 🤩

Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.

#FirstLineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

Michelle Zauner, a Korean-American woman, reflects on her imperfect yet beautiful relationship with her mother before she passed away from cancer. She copes with grief by learning how to cook Korean dishes in hopes of reconnecting with her Korean heritage, and feeling closer to her mother. If you like books discussing love and grief, parental relationships, life as a first generation immigrant child, you will enjoy this book.

Finished the tagged and powering through 7Moons today and tomorrow!! “I WILL be a completist.”

The Zauner is for an online book club on the 8th and due back at library tomorrow 😂 I liked it and REALLY craving Korean food!

27th Feb 2023

Sweeeet! My hold at the library came thru so I can finish this before an online FB discussion in 2 weeks 🙌 #ReadICT grief category

I don‘t know how you do it, but on more than one occasion I‘ve come home after a rough day to find unexpected book mail from #LitsyLove You are all the most wonderful people, thank you so much 💌 And @AmyG , I just dropped a letter to you in the mail today, what a fun coincidence

My reading for February has slowed way down from January, but I‘m still making my way through the audio version of this. Zauner‘s writing keeps me interested in her story, and I love hearing the Korean words spoken out loud; I think it really adds to the experience. So far, this is a memoir is one I would definitely recommend. #2023reading

I really thought I would like this one, but it failed to connect with me. It was an emotional story, but I had a hard time keeping my interest

It‘s been a long time…. But this one brought me back to Litsy! Anyone who has been through significant loss, especially a parent, this book will reach down and touch your heart. I loved this memoir. 5⭐️!

Goodness gracious so good. A very intimate read and I feel honored that Michelle Zauner shared her story ❤️ Highly recommend! #LitsyLoveReads

The perfect words were chosen and written in a perfect order to display the complicated relationships and the feelings when a parent dies in such a relatable way to me.

While undoubtedly cathartic & meaningful for the author, I was left unmoved by this admittedly raw, honest, and very well-written memoir. Zauner is a good writer, one adept at invoking time & place & her descriptions of food, as many other reviewers have noted, are fantastic & liable to make you hungry. This was recommended to me by two different friends & I can see why the book spoke to them. It simply didn‘t have the same resonance for me.

Today‘s reading…

Chapter 17:
In fact, she was both my first and second words: Umma, then Mom. I called her I two languages. Even then I must have known that no one would ever love me as much as she would.

Chapter 16:
"You don't need many ingredients, but as you can see it takes time. That's why jatjuk is very precious. Like, for example, one of your family members is sick, nothing much you can do. When we visit the hospital we usually make this jatjuk because patients can't eat like normal food. Pine nuts has protein and good fat for body so this is perfect food for patients who are recovering from their illness," Maangchi explained.

Chapter 15:
I closed my eyes, leaning into it, channeling my best Karen Carpenter- that tiny, tragic figure. That starving woman in the yellow dress, slowly crumbling under the pressure to seem happy for the camera, slowly killing herself on live television, striving for perfection.

Chapter 14:
Lovely was an adjective word my mother adored. She'd told me once if pressed to describe me in a single word, lovely would be the one she'd choose.

Chapter 13:
With my mother's ring on my right hand I felt like a five-year-old in a full face of makeup. I twisted it back and forth, trying to get comfortable, it's facets glistened in the light of breaking dawn, oversized and out of place on my undiscerning finger. It felt heavy.

Chapter 12:
"When you were a child, you always used to cling to me. Everywhere we went," my mother whispered, struggling to get the words out. "And now that you're older, here you are - still clinging to me."

Chapter 11:
There was no one in the world that was ever as critical or could make me feel as hideous as my mother, but there was no one, not even Peter, who ever made me feel as beautiful.

Chapter 10:
We had tried to choose living over dying and it had turned out to be a horrible mistake. We drank another round, tried to let it wash us over.

Chapter 9:
The eye of the storm, a calm witness to the wreckage spinning out into its end.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Chapter 8:
Something that was always in the hands of other people to be given and never my own to take, to decide which side I was on, whom I was allowed to align with. I could never be of both worlds, only half in and half out, waiting to be ejected at will by someone with greater claim than me. Someone full. Someone whole.