A great memoir (and a great birthday present), mostly about the author's parents. There were parts of the book where I forgot that the author was one of the characters! It felt like Thi's parents lived so many different lives, it was even easy to forget that her parents are the same people who at the end of the book are settled with the author in the Bay Area! I also feel like this book dealt well with the historical context of the characters, and so is a good book to read for anyone interested in the modern history of Vietnam.