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Oh My Mother!
- A Memoir in Nine Adventures
- Narrated by: Connie Wang
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
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Oh My Mother!
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Publisher's Summary
“Humorous, endearing, and intimate.” —TIME
“Mother and daughter relationships are always tricky but this peripatetic pair has outdone all of us with this most excellent adventure written by my namesake, author Connie Wang.” —Connie Chung
A dazzling mother-daughter adventure around the world in pursuit of self-discovery, a family reckoning, and Asian American defiance
In Chinese, the closest expression to oh my god is wo de ma ya. It’s an interjection, a polite expletive, something to say when you’re out of words. Translated literally, it means oh my mother—the instinctual first person you think of when you’re on the cusp of losing it, or putting it all together.
In each essay of this hilarious, heartfelt, and pitch-perfectly honest memoir, journalist Connie Wang explores her complicated relationship to her stubborn and charismatic mother, Qing Li, through the “oh my god” moments in their travels together. From attending a Magic Mike strip show in Vegas to experimenting with edibles in Amsterdam to flip-flopping through Versailles, this iconic mother-daughter duo venture into the world to find their place in it, and sometimes rail against it—as well as against each other.
There are hijinks, capers, and adventures. There is also tenderness, growth, and discovery. In telling these stories about the places they’ve gone and the things they’ve done, Wang reveals another story: the true story of two women who finally learned that once we are comfortable with the feeling of not belonging—once we can reject the need to belong to any place, community, census, designation, or nation—we can experience something almost like freedom.
What the critics say
One of Elle’s Best and Most Anticipated Books of 2023
One of Cup of Jo’s Book Recs
One of Oprah Daily’s Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2023
One of Nylon’s 12 May 2023 Books to Add to Your Reading List
One of Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Spring and Summer 2023
One of Good Morning America’s 15 Fresh Books to Get Lost in This May
One of Katie Couric Media’s 8 New Books to Add to Your Shelf Immediately
One of Brit + Co’s Brand New Books We’re Excited to Read in 2023
One of Zibby Mag’s Most Anticipated Spring and Summer Books
One of BookRiot’s Most Anticipated Travel Books of 2023
One of PureWow’s 14 New (and New-Ish) Books to Read for AAPI Heritage Month
One of TIME’s 8 New Books to Read or Give This Mother’s Day
One of Shondaland’s 5 Books to Read This Mother’s Day
One of Vogue’s 10 of the Best Beach Reads to Lose Yourself in This Summer
One of W Magazine’s 14 New Books to Dive Into This Summer
One of StyleCaster’s 8 Must-Read Books by AAPI Authors
“Hilarious, candid, and heartfelt . . . It’s like Eat Pray Love meets The Amazing Race with hints of Cathy Park Hong’s hit essay collection, Minor Feelings.” —Oprah Daily
“In journalist Connie Wang’s loving, candid debut memoir, she explores her relationship with her mother through nine sweet and funny essays—capturing the joys and complexities of big moments, like attending a Magic Mike strip show in Las Vegas or taking edibles in Amsterdam together, to the quiet, small ones.” —Nylon
“Wang explores all the hilarious, wonderful, wild aspects of her relationship with her mother, Qing Li. . . . Wang tells the type of genuine and relatable stories that mother-daughter partners in crime will cherish.” —Shondaland