Michelle Zauner, founder of the band Japanese Breakfast, begins her book grieving over her mother’s death and seeking refuge in the aisles of H Mart, the Asian grocery store filled with foods she associates with her mother’s cooking. Growing up Korean-American in Eugene, Oregon, food was central to Zauner’s family life. But coming of age, food was not enough to transcend tricky cultural and generational divides with her mother. Zauner left for college to chart her path as a creative artist and cement her own identity. Her mother’s diagnosis with cancer, when Zauner was in her early 20s, altered the mother-daughter dynamic, shrinking the geographic and emotional distance between them and paving the way for a deeper, more accepting relationship. Zauner’s writing is evocative throughout, especially her sensorial descriptions of food and her moving narration of her mother’s illness and passing.