The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh

This short memoir came to me as an advance reader from the library. I enjoyed the fluctuation between letters from her mother and her prose throughout the story. This story partially takes place in Davis, which felt unusual– I haven’t read many books that mention Davis, California as a location. Eun Ji gives lots of context about her mother’s family and related family history– while short, the story is enriched by the historical narrative. The way that poetry becomes her profession is as unusual as you can imagine– so I will save it for anyone who might read this on their own. For some reason, Teri kept popping into my mind when reading this– not sure why! I’d highly recommend reading this if you enjoy memoirs, languages and poetry.