Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

37 reviews

martinatan's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

you already know this book is perfect and no one can tell me otherwise

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crieraylas's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5


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kaylaswhitmore's review

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I may just be biased, since I am also a Korean-American woman who grew up in Eugene, Oregon…but this memoir is certainly a gift to all who read it, and especially children of Asian immigrants. Words can’t quite describe the bizarre, surreal experience I had reading Michelle’s recollections. In between reeling emotionally from the similarities between her mother and my own, I would find myself blinking as familiar staples of my Eugene hometown popped up on every other page. Though my childhood and relationship to my mother is still quite different from Michelle’s, there were still so many things that struck me as familiar—like a funhouse mirror. Her use of emotion to paint such vivid pictures of the intangible truly drew me in and held me from the very first chapter. Someday, when the ache of her loss and the fear of losing my own mother fades, I will return to this book and reread it anew. For now, I’ll sit here in silence for a bit and cry lol.

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edencameron's review

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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abigailhaagen's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

This book was pretty good. Nothing great or unprecedented, but pretty good. The author spent a lot of time on descriptions, especially of food, which made me tune out from the story. I know food is really important to her and her relationship to her mom, but paragraph upon paragraph made my eyes glaze over. Overall, however, it was a good read.

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ceruleanseas's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0


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jeggert10's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

4.5


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summerb's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

3.5


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aksmith92's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

I don't really love rating memoirs—these books are when humans talk about their lives, the people in them, and usually challenging events. Memoirs usually do or do not do it for me in terms of a great reading experience, and Crying in H Mart did it for me.

Michelle Zauner talks about her upbringing in this memoir—she's living a decent life and recognizes that, but somehow does not get along super well with her parents, particularly her mom. I don't know about you, but as a teenage girl once, this was highly relatable.

More importantly, though, this memoir talks about Michelle's identity as a half-Korean woman, trying to find solstice and being in the food she grew up hearing about and/or eating. She struggles regularly with her identity since she barely speaks the Korean language and only visits Korea every so often. And most important, this book is about dealing with grief and, acknowledging and accepting your past, and moving on from it during traumatic times. There is no mystery or spoiler here: Michelle talks about her family's experience with her mother's cancer diagnosis.

Michelle feels real in this book. She makes decisions you question and doesn't always know the answer. However, the heart in this book is so apparent, and it is simply moving. Not to mention all the incredible references to Korean recipes—this was SO good to add. 

I do feel the 50-70% dragged just a little bit, but overall, this was an incredibly captivating story about a woman finding her own identity in massive grief while leaning on some of the most amazing food recipes she can to feel in her place and with her family. Highly recommend this memoir!

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pageafter_paige's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced

5.0

Wow what a powerful book. I think as someone who isn’t/can’t speak Korean that the audiobook was the way to go because I was able to hear Michelle speak the language with the pronunciation, inflection, tone, etc. 

Michelle opens up to us about being a mixed child and her relationship with her Korean mother. Much of their relationship centers around food which is a big theme throughout and definitely made me hungry. But to them it’s more than hunger. It’s culture, and connection to each other and their roots.

One of the most powerful displays of Michelle and her moms connection can be seen through Michelle’s first two words as a baby (iykyk). Even Michelle’s relationship with her father is somewhat run through her mother. 

My favorite quote can be found in the last chapter: “If there was a god, it seemed my mother must have had her foot on his neck, demanding good things come my way. That if we had to be ripped apart right at our turning point, just when things were really starting to get good, the least god could do was make a few of her daughter’s pipe dreams come true.”

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