I really loved The Manicurist's Daughter. This was such a multifaceted read - the immigration experience, early childhood parental loss, grief, family struggles, searching for one's self, travel and yummy food! Susan went through so much in her life and it's great to get exposed to her trials and tribulations without having to experience them for yourself. This book also puts an interesting perspective on plastic surgery and the pursuit of beauty.

Susan's life story is unique and it's great that she was able to share it with readers like myself. I found this memoir so well written ans gripping, which usually is not the case for me when I read memoirs that aren't funny. I highly recommend this to anyone that is looking for an engaging read that's off the beaten path that will stay with you.

The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu was a really good and different memoir. I love the author's sense of humor and her style of writing. My heart was broken by her mother's vanity and need for perfection that led ultimately led to her mother's death. Quick read. Highly recommend.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 is the memoir of playwright and performer Susan Lieu, the youngest, American-born daughter in a Vietnamese refugee family. The book recounts a youth spent in her parents’ nail salons and around her large extended family—many of them salon employees themselves—as well as her quest as an adult to learn more about her mother, who passed away from a botched cosmetic surgery when Lieu was a pre-teen.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 is largely centered around Lieu’s search for information about her mother’s life and death and the frustrations she endures when various family members refuse to answer questions and instead urge her to “let it go.” Over time, the memoir evolves into more than just an account of her mother’s journey and a story of her relatives’ grief and complicated relationships. It also explores other important topics like identity as a first-generation American, the impact of family and culture on one’s relationships to body image and food, and the power of grace and forgiveness.

Though I did find some sections rambling and overly verbose, overall 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵’𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 is a well-written and poignant testament of love and healing. Thank you to Celadon for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Manicurist’s Daughter is a memoir of a daughter who was just 11 years old when she lost her mother. Susan’s mother died from a botched tummy tuck that the family never spoke about. In this memoir, she travels back in time to learn about her family’s six attempts (they were successful on attempt six) to flee Vietnam during the war. Her mother owned two successful nail salons and seemed perfect to Susan — and then she was gone. I picked this up after reading great reviews of it and I agree — the story is one that should be told and Lieu tells it in a beautiful way.

This book was amazing! It's very raw and emotional but worth every moment. I enjoy books such as this one because they give an unfiltered view into their life and what events shaped them into who they have become today!
Susan's mother was the center of everything when she was young. She came to America and sponsored other people so they could come into America and had them work in the successful nail salon she built from the ground up. However, Susan's mother tragically died from a botched tummy tuck when she was eleven. As any child would have Susan had lots of questions and she wanted to be able to grasp what happened to her mother and why. But, her family shut down any questions about the death of her mother, as if they just moved on and left the death in the past. While Susan struggled in more ways than one. She obtained an MBA to fulfill her father's expectations but left it behind to tell her story because her story is important to her!
In the end, getting her story out there she was able to finally get closure on not only the death of her mother but also how parents' trauma and expectations are forced on children and how we are impacted by that. Susan was able to embark on a journey of change and forgiveness, she was able to find the will in her heart to understand the trauma from her parent's past and how to forgive them so she could move on with her life! Thank you Celedon Books and Netgalley for the remarkable journey of this book!

Susan Lieu’s mother was a force of nature. She, her husband, and two young sons survived five failed attempts to flee war-torn Vietnam before escaping to California in the 1980s. She eventually owned two successful nail salons, employing several family members who also lived in her home. She was definitely the matriarch of her clan. So when she died during elective surgery when Susan was 10, the family was lost, adrift for years. This book chronicles two decades of Susan’s search for answers, meaning, and vocation.

I appreciate how candid and vulnerable Ms. Lieu is in sharing her journey, both highs and lows. This was definitely a “window” story into the life of a fellow American that’s completely different from my own. The cover is so eye-catching and pays tribute to the meaningful title.

I highly recommend this be read via audiobook. It’s skillfully narrated by the author who shares many phrases and sentences in lyrical Vietnamese. I can’t imagine it being nearly as meaningful read in print

Thank you to Celadon Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for access to the review copies of this memoir.

I adored this book. The reality is I have no stake in the author or Vietnamese American culture. However something about this memoir really gripped me and made me feel all the feelings. I suppose as a mother and a daughter I could 100% relate to many aspects of Susan’s story. I also felt a deep seeded anger for our American healthcare system. It was a well written and emotional memoir and I loved the nods to Vietnamese culture as well.

I am so grateful that I got to read this memoir. As I have expressed before, I read a lot of memoirs. It is my favorite genre in all honesty. I am always fascinated by reading about other people's experiences. I usually feel lucky to have access to these works and love all of them, however, from time to time, I come across a memoir that is impossible to forget, one that I identify with in so many ways, that it is almost as if the author knew my thoughts while writing it.

I am not by any means saying that I can relate to Susan's family's immigration experience to the USA, to all the pain, struggle, and difficulties they went through to be able to come here, from Vietnam. In that part, I always command authors who share these kinds of experiences, but I can relate to some of the aspects of the mother-daughter relationship between Susan and her mom. I actually highlighted those because I don't want to forget them. Some of these words got to my heart so profoundly that I felt heard and understood in a very weird way but that was my experience while reading this book.

I didn't want the book to end but at the same time, I was rooting for Susan to finally find at least some of the answers about her mom that she was so eagerly trying to find.

Thank you Celadon Books and Netgalley for the free advanced copy, in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, I loved learning more about Lieu's family history, especially near the end when she detailed her parents' struggle to escape Vietnam. There are so many sentiments that hit close to home for me about traditionally Asian families and their viewpoints/love languages.

I think it's difficult to rate memoirs as obviously this story is incredibly important and deserves to be shared - props to Susan for not only writing this but for developing an entire one woman show to honor her mother and her family. I think people who aren't familiar with Vietnamese would have a more enjoyable time with the audiobook since there is some of the language dispersed throughout the book.

I think the book was just a bit long for me - the cult experience during college personally felt really grueling to listen to? And I think that's just preference. I'm glad I read this book and I appreciate Celadon Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion!

This is a memoir of Susan Lieu, who was a first generation Vietnamese American. Her family came to the US on a dream and ran a nail salon. It’s where she grew up. At 11, her mom dies from a surgery complication and her world is rocked. Susan spends her whole life trying to find out what happened and understand her mother.

This was fantastic. Susan held nothing back as she told her story. The discussion of grief, self-acceptance, worry, doubt, family history, and complicated family culture/dynamics were at play. Susan’s storytelling of her life was captivating and I didn’t want to put it down. From her mother’s tragic death, to her college days, to her marriage, and complex relationship with her family, this was a truly incredible memoir.

By the end of this memoir, it felt like a love letter to grieving, understanding your family and family dynamics, and accepting yourself and your family. I was taken with Susan immediately and I’m so glad I read this book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Manucurist’s Daughter ✨
Author: @susanlieu
Publisher: @celadonbooks
Release Date: March 12 (out now!)

⁉️: What is a book that has stayed with you this month?

Sometimes there are books that exist to entertain, and then there are some that you are meant to pick up at a certain period of your life. Susan Lieu’s memoir is one such book in which as a daughter, I could relate to her experiences growing up in a country not ours and the unexpected loss of Lieu’s mother. When I lost my own in an untimely manner to stomach cancer without a warning. I could also relate to Lieu’s struggles with the health care system when she was taken to the emergency as my body gets used to living without a pill.

As readers, we bear witness to her emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American dream and as a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. I feel her anger, pain and related to how her relationship with her mother’s family transformed after she was gone. Lieu’s voice is strong yet vulnerable, human, and is one of the memoirs that should be taught in schools. In fact, I loved it so much that I will be adding it to my syllabus.

We have been reading memoirs in one of my classes and scholars have observed that often memoirs give in to the dominant narrative that has shaped around the tragedy, bu authors like Clementine Warmariya’s The Girl Who Smiles Beads and Susan Lieu’s The Manucurist’s Daughter paint a more nuanced portrait of grief, trauma, body image, loss, anger, and coming to terms with loss of a mother-daughter bond.

Finally, the Vietnam war and its aftermath was introduced to me by The Women recently and it inspired me to seek voices of Vietnamese authors and hear their stories. It is one that is a 5✨ and a story of how inter-generational trauma is real and present. If you were curious about the impact the Vietnam war had on families, then I would recommend picking this one up.

Thank you @susanlieu for the wonderful note and @celadonbooks for gifting me the arc.

#SusanLieu #TheManucuristsDaughter #Celadonbooksreader #Celadonbooks #shnidhi

This was such an exceptional memoir! It was tough to process too, or at least I could see why it was tough for the author over so many years since her mother's death. Her mother was a complicated person. I would have liked to have better understood how the author felt about her mother's behavior towards her, which was often very mean, and I'm surprised she didn't address this more. But it was so well written and captivating, and I learned so much about the lives of this immigrant family and their origins. It was really moving, I was choked up in several points. I also didn't expect there to be such a focus on food (and body image, I guess that should've been more obvious) but I was pleasantly surprised by all the food descriptions and the role food played in her memories. Just a really engrossing and interesting memoir and family story.

I really enjoy reading memoirs and learning about peoples lives. They make you think, and contemplate your own things going on as well.

Susan's story is of the loss of her strong immigrant mother and how that impacted her life, learning who her mother was, who her family is, and who she is as a person and finding herself.

I enjoyed reading about how Susan's spiritual beliefs played a role in her grief of the loss of her mother. I do wish I would have listened to this on audio to learn the proper pronunciations of the names and convos at some points and did find myself skimming those a little bit. But still overall this book at beautiful impact and appreciate Susan sharing her life.

Thank you NetGalley and Celadon Books for the early copy of this book.

When we feel, we heal.

THE MANICURISTS DAUGHTER is a raw and moving memoir told from the POV of the youngest daughter of Vietnamese refugees about the crumbling American dream and her search for answers after her mother’s tragic death from a plastic surgery gone wrong. In her journey through grief, healing and acceptance, Lieu brings readers on her quest to demand answers from the doctor who preyed on vulnerable Vietnamese immigrants and got away with medical malpractice and uncovers the painful truth about her mother, herself and the impossible ideal for beauty. Susan Lieu created “140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother,” a theatrical solo performance that weaves together the multi-general immigrant experience, body insecurity and shame and accountability in the medical system. It’s so important that Susan could share her findings in this format for her family’s own healing journey as well.

I will never turn down an immigration story. Every story is unique and deserves to be shared. There’s so much power in being the first, second, or however many generations in, and what we learn about ourselves through learning about our family’s origin story connects us all. I understand all too well the frustration of having a family that deals with grief by pushing it down and refusing to talk about it, so I applaud Lieu’s efforts to continue the fight for answers to give herself the healing she needed and deserved, even when it felt impossible at every turn. In a world where plastic surgery is pushed on women from every angle, it’s so important to raise awareness to the conversation around beauty standards and medical malpractice, particularly in communities that are often silenced and don’t have the same resources to fight back if something like this happens.

Lieu’s Vietnamese roots are braided throughout the entire memoir. From names and phrases to traditional meals and practices, I was captivated by how Lieu wrote about her heritage. She’s a natural storyteller and I appreciate that she shared her family’s story with the world. I can’t imagine how proud her mother would be to know that she dedicated her life to finding answers not only for her own family but raising awareness and being the voice to so many others.

A special thanks to @celadon for the advanced digital copy! This is certainly a top contender for me for memoir of the year and I recommend everyone picks up a copy.

The Manicurist’s Daughter a memoir, by Susan Lieu
Pub 3/12

This book is an emotional yet beautiful read. This story is very sad and yet Lieu us so strong you can’t help but feel things will get better. I really appreciate her honestly and drive to get answers after the tragedy of her mother passing away when she was young. The range of emotions she was able to convey was impressive and impactful.

I cried multiple times due to the heavy nature of her story. Her Vietnamese culture was also a ground element of her life and I enjoyed how she highlights that too.

This was a very emotional book, expected due to the subject matter but it wasn't maudlin or overly sentimental. It was a real look into the Vietnamese immigrant experience here in the US. Her mother died when she was only 11 and her family really seemed to have pushed on (had to push on) and she is now grappling with that. She really dove into the research around her mother's medical malpractice death which was little hard to read but impressive in her diligence.

*Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the chance to review an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

The thing with memoirs is they are very I-centric. They are full of "this happened to me", "I felt this", "I wanted to know why", among other things. This is not a bad thing. After all, the author is sharing something monumental in his/her life.
Case in point: Susan Lieu tells us about losing her mother at the age of 11. This was a very strong line in her life. Before her mother's death there was a big family that lived and worked together. After her mother's death, the family split and she rarely saw her mother's side of the family again. No one spoke about her mother. It was as if her mother had done something unspeakable, when all she wanted was to be more beautiful.
Susan spent a large portion of her life trying to find and understand her mother. She went to Viet Nam several times to talk with relatives about their memories of her. Mostly she got nothing, but slowly, bit by bit, she started to see the person her mother was. After that, she started to feel her mother's presents occasionally. To consolidate her impressions, and because other people asked her to, she created a spoken word show about her mother called "140 pounds; How Beauty Killed My Mother". Most of that show informs this book.
The first generation cultural conflicts of immigrants is not something we think about. The parents live with the customs they learned from their parents while the children learn our language and ways. Sometimes understanding of what really happened comes years later, after hurts have separated children from other relatives. Susan found that to be the case in her family.
I liked this look at the the way Susan grew up. I recommend the book.
I want to thank the publishers who gave me this book through Netgalley. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

I’m still trying to put words together after reading Susan Lieu’s memoir, The Manicurist’s Daughter. It’s left me speechless and heartbroken, with its beautiful, poignant, and profound prose, it is one of the most amazing memoirs I’ve read. It’s rare for a book to make me cry, and this one still has me sobbing. The way Susan reconstructed her family history and intergenerational trauma was an incredible journey to experience, with many highs and lows. I was in awe of how well Susan captured her perception of her family and it slowly transformed as she learned more about them and herself through the creation of her show 140 Lbs. This memoir will stay with me for a long time! Know that it will grab your heart and not let it go with its food dishes, family dilemmas, and raw stories of growth and resilience. It’s a must-read!

The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu is a raw and real memoir. The author is open and honest as she shares her life as the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who are working hard to survive. I applaud her for opening the door to let the reader see inside her family and her Asian culture. We follow her family’s adjustment to life in the United States and see the dedication of her mother, the family matriarch, as she opens nail salons to make a living.

When Susan is 11 years old, her mother dies following a plastic surgery procedure. Key topics are addressed head-on: the quest for physical beauty, a family’s survival following the mother’s death, and the pull of tradition and heritage. The writing is excellent and yet heartbreaking at times.

Published March 13, 2024.