Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts

Saturday, May 30, 2026

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

 Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner - 239 pages


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.


Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Color of Earth, by Kim Dong Hwa

The Color of Earth (Color Trilogy #1), by Kim Dong Hwa, 320 pages

The surest way to get me to read a book is to tell me that it's been frequently challenged.  Apparently this one has made the list recently, and I wanted to know why.  It's manhwa (Korean manga) about a young girl named Ehwa, living in a quaint Korean village with her widowed mother.  Ehwa learns about becoming a woman, sex, and falling in love- but in the most chaste, tasteful way I can imagine.  I found it a little slow-moving, but the story is sweet and thoughtful, and only objectionable if you were scandalized by Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Goong by Park So Hee

Goong, vol. 1: The Royal Palace by Park So Hee - 208 pages

This manga series asks the question what if Korea still had a royal family.  And if they still had royalty, what if a normal teenage high school girl was chosen to be the bride of the crown prince. 
This was an interesting idea.  I enjoyed how much the prince and girl hated each other.