Crying in H Mart, by Michelle Zauner
Monday, July 27, 6:30 PM
In this 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
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Why we chose it: Crying in H Mart has been on our radar since it came out to universal acclaim in 2021, and when we saw Japanese Breakfast (Michelle's indie pop band) would be performing at Stern Grove this summer, it felt like the perfect nudge to make it happen. We love narrative nonfiction for book club and this one comes with nothing but glowing word of mouth!
Content considerations: Death of a parent (cancer), grief, complicated/emotionally abusive mother-daughter relationship, eating disorder mentions, descriptions of illness and medical treatment
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
.
Why we chose it: Crying in H Mart has been on our radar since it came out to universal acclaim in 2021, and when we saw Japanese Breakfast (Michelle's indie pop band) would be performing at Stern Grove this summer, it felt like the perfect nudge to make it happen. We love narrative nonfiction for book club and this one comes with nothing but glowing word of mouth!
Content considerations: Death of a parent (cancer), grief, complicated/emotionally abusive mother-daughter relationship, eating disorder mentions, descriptions of illness and medical treatment
PAIRED WITH: Etienne Sauvignon Blanc, Maison des Plaisances, Sonoma Valley, 2025
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The wine: A far-from-typical Sauvignon Blanc: skin contact adds peachy, almond-laced complexity to the tropical fruit.
The winemaker: Coral Wang founded Maison des Plaisances in Sonoma in 2021 after apprenticing at a natural winery in the Roussillon. One of the rare Asian women farming and producing her own wines in California, with an intentional focus on lifting women and minority voices in wine. The pairing: Like Crying in H Mart, this wine is a story about identity, heritage, and what gets passed down. Purchase the wine by the glass or bottle during Book Club Meeting! |
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BE SURE TO RSVP
Come enjoy some wine and tell us what you thought of the book with an informal discussion. Remember, if you RSVP and attend, you get a Bingo bonus stamp!
raVES & REVIEWS
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Time, NPR, Washington Post, Vogue, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Philadelphia Inquirer, Goodreads, BuzzFeed, and more • One of President Obama’s Favorite Books of the Year • One of The Smithsonian’s Ten Best Books About Food of the Year
“Michelle Zauner has written a book you experience with all of your senses: sentences you can taste, paragraphs that sound like music. She seamlessly blends stories of food and memory, sumptuousness and grief, to weave a complex narrative of loyalty and loss.” —Rachel Syme, New Yorker Writer
“A profound, timely exploration of terminal illness, culture and shared experience . . . Zauner has accomplished the unthinkable: a book that caters to all appetites. She brings dish after dish to life on the page in a rich broth of delectable details [and] offers remarkably prescient observations about otherness from the perspective of the Korean American experience. Crying in H Mart will thrill Japanese Breakfast fans and provide comfort to those in the throes of loss while brilliantly detailing the colorful panorama of Korean culture, traditions and food.” --San Francisco Chronicle
“Crying in H Mart powerfully maps a complicated mother-daughter relationship . . . Zauner writes about her mother’s death [with] clear-eyed frankness . . . The book is a rare acknowledgement of the ravages of cancer in a culture obsessed with seeing it as an enemy that can be battled with hope and strength. Zauner plumbs the connections between food and identity . . . her food descriptions transport us to the table alongside her. What Crying in H Mart reveals is that in losing her mother and cooking to bring her back to life, Zauner became herself.” —NPR
“Zauner’s storytelling is impeccable. Memories are rendered with a rich immediacy, as if bathed in a golden light. Zauner is also adept at mapping the contradictions in her relationship with, and perception of, her mother. The healing, connective power of food reverberates in nearly every chapter of this coming-of-age story, [in] sensuous descriptions . . . Heartfelt, searching, wise.” —AV Club
“The book’s descriptions of jjigae, tteokbokki, and other Korean delicacies stand out as tokens of the deep, all-encompassing love between Zauner and her mother . . . Zauner’s frankness around death feels like an unexpected yet deeply necessary gift.”—Vogue
“A candid, moving tribute to her mother, to her identity, and to our collective desire for connection in this often alienating world…Zauner’s writing is powerful in its straight-forwardness, though some turns of phrases are as beautiful as any song lyric… but it is her ability to convey how her mother’s simple offering of a rice snack was actually an act of the truest love that leaves the most indelible impression.”—Refinery 29
“Crying in H Mart is palpable in its grief and its tenderness, reminding us what we all stand to lose.”—Vulture
“Poignant . . . A tender, well-rendered, heart-wrenching account of the way food ties us to those who have passed. The author delivers mouthwatering descriptions of dishes like pajeon, jatjuk, and gimbap, and her storytelling is fluid, honest, and intimate. When a loved one dies, we search all of our senses for signs of their presence. Zauner’s ability to let us in through taste makes her book stand out—she makes us feel like we are in her mother’s kitchen, singing her praises.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Lyrical… Earnest… Zauner does a good job capturing the grief of losing a parent with pathos. Fans looking to get a glimpse into the inner life of this megawatt pop star will not be disappointed.”—Publishers Weekly