Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

I cannot exactly put my finger on the reasons why, but I really loved this memoir. It is equal parts sad, nostalgic, culturally rich, vulnerable and underneath it all it rings true. The author opens with the loss of her mother Chongmi to cancer when she is in her early 20's and her mother was in her mid-50's. It came on the midst of the deaths of her grandmother and aunt, so that when the author found herself going regularly to H Mart, the Asian supermarket chain redolent with as many flavors of nostalgia as there are Korean ingredients. The book is emotionally layered, and these pilgrimages are suffused with the grief, anger and anxiety that start off the look back at a turbulent relationship that never had a chance to settle in to an adult one. This story is also the author's own, showing not just where she went next, but where she comes from, and who she is. There is a lot about being from a mixed background, not white and not Korean, both and neither and wanting to be what she is, which is both.