Read this when
The Woman Warrior
When your mom's stories are half warning, half legend, and you're the one who has to decide what's true. 🗡️
Who it's for
Kingston writes as a daughter trying to sort her mother's talk-story, family myth and Chinese legend from her own American girlhood, and she lets the confusion show: she often cannot tell which version is true.
Confused→Empowered
Feelings it meets
What it is
Maxine Hong Kingston's 1976 memoir is made up of five interconnected chapters that blend her own Chinese American girlhood with her mother's 'talk-story' and Chinese legend.
Where to find it
In print from Vintage International and as an e-book; widely available in libraries (Libby/Hoopla). An audiobook edition exists. Not public domain.
Before you start
Heads up: An aunt's suicide with her newborn.
Age: Ages 16+
Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question:W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk
