Crying in H Mart

Michelle Zauner, who sings and plays guitar in the band Japanese Breakfast, expanded a New Yorker essay of the same name into a memoir of family, food and grief. She recalls being one of the few Asian American children at her school in Eugene, Oregon, the strict but loving demands of her mother, Chongmi, and long stays in her grandmother's small apartment in Seoul. When Zauner was 25, her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis forced a reckoning with her Korean identity, and learning to cook Korean food became one way through grief. The book includes family photos. H Mart, named in the title, is a North American grocery chain selling Korean and other Asian foods.

Dua Lipa chose it as her April Monthly Read, calling it extraordinary and noting that some readers will already know Zauner as the singer and guitarist of the indie band Japanese Breakfast.