This was an excellent and interesting book! I knew the author from her work in journalism and seen her interviewed about the book. I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to read an ARC through #NetGalley. I thought that Vicky Nguyen shared her story with warmth, humor and honesty. I highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-copy of Boat Baby by Vickie Nguyen in exchange for a honest review.This is a very well-written first hand account of Vicky Nguyen’s incredible rise from a small child leaving Vietnam after the rise of Communism after the Vietnamese War to learning to acclimate to her new American life in the Pacific Northwest as her parents struggled to better themselves in their new country to finally rising to national acclaim as an investigative journalist on the NBC Today Show.Vicky holds nothing back telling the reader about prejudices she encountered as well as her disagreements with her father about some of his questionable financial dealings.You will finish this book feeling like you have read the story of a close friend.Nguyen draws you in to her story and doesn’t let go until the final page.

I really enjoyed reading Vicky Nguyen's memoir and seeing her parents through her eyes. It's evident that she loves her parents and that they are survivors. I have been really interested in learning more about refugees of the Vietnam war, and of the violence and fear that drove them to leave. It's something that wasn't really covered when I was in school--we barely learned about the Vietnam war, and only from the US POV. Hearing about growing up in an immigrant family and as a child of refugees is fascinating. Then to see how Vicky rose to success as a journalist was also incredibly fascinating and she did a fantastic job sharing her struggles and success.

I really enjoyed this and highly recommend this for libraries and book clubs.

“As refugees, my parents and I have become familiar with the uncertainty of evolving in new spaces. That discomfort has given me something singular and valuable, like a tiny piece of grit that irritates the tissue inside an oyster but eventually forms a pearl. My pearl is understanding what it took to get here, literally. I don't take my life for granted because I know my history.”

3.5 stars!

boat baby, written by nbc news anchor vicky nguyen, tells the story of nguyen’s life starting with her family’s escape from communist vietnam when she was only 8 months old all the way to her rise to fame as a renowned investigative reporter. we learn about her parents’ life in saigon, how they adjusted to living in america, the opportunities they seized and challenges they faced, and the utter amount of sacrifices they made to ensure their daughter could have a better life than them.

nguyen has stated that she wrote this book not only as a tribute to her parents, but also as a love letter to america, a country she finds singularly unique in its upward mobility and plentiful opportunities. especially during a time when our country is so fraught with division, this book shows what it is to love a country and be grateful for the privileges you gain from living in it while still being able to critique its flaws and fight for it to be better.

the most compelling part of this book to me was its focus on the immigrant experience and the tangled web of emotions that come with it. we see it in nguyen’s relationship with her parents and how as she grows older, she struggles with feelings of guilt and questions about what she owes them (especially her father) in return for all their sacrifices.

“But my mom and dad never talked about prejudice or racism, and I didn't bring it up. I suspected they were targets too, but they did not complain or explain. We just endured it. Their attitude was Why bother being upset? Who cares if some people treat you badly? Life is too short to dwell on those indignities and injustices. Just find another way.”

this quote in particular stood out to me. it is the mentality of many first-gen immigrants: heads down survival at any cost. it reminds me a lot of a hasan minhaj quote that i love from his first comedy special: “My dad’s from that generation where he feels like if you come to this country, you pay the American dream tax. You endure racism, and if it doesn’t cost you your life, pay it. There you go, Uncle Sam. But for me, I was born here. So I actually have the audacity of equality. I’m like, ‘I’m in Honors Gov, I have it right here. Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. All men created equal.’ It says it right here, I’m equal. I’m equal. I don’t deserve this.” as second-gen immigrants, we are afforded the opportunity to push back, to ask for and receive more than our parents ever did, more than they could ever hope for, more than they ever knew existed. and with this truth comes guilt, guilt that the only reason we are able to do these things is because of the very fact that our parents were not.

this book reads less like a cohesive narrative and more like a series of chronological vignettes, which i generally do not mind. however, many of them had a repetitive anecdotal structure that introduced a life struggle nguyen was going through and ended with a neatly wrapped bow of a defining moral that helped her get through it. it all felt a little too aesop’s fable-y and heavy-handed for my liking.

this memoir did not blow me away but it was definitely a pleasant read, and nguyen’s humor and personality shone throughout. i had no idea who she was before picking this up, but i imagine if you are a fan of her and regularly watch her on tv this would be an incredibly enjoyable read!

ty to netgalley for the e-arc!

I don't watch broadcast news (or really watch the news at all), so I had no idea who Vicky Nguyen is, but the description of her story intrigued me! I think it was an interesting read into the complexity of what the immigrant experience can be, and there were a lot of deep insights that could be applied to many areas and situations that I think people will definitely resonate with.

This was a quick read about the author and her family’s immigration story. The stories are short and punchy. Unfortunately the writing style of this book did not work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to have an advanced reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest review!

I wasn’t familiar with Vicky Nguyen before picking up this book, even though I live in the Bay Area, where she and her family lived for a long time. This is a memoir of her life, starting when her family fled Communist Vietnam and eventually settled in the United States. I enjoyed the first half of the book – reading about their escape and their settling in to life in the U.S. I knew a lot of the areas she wrote about and was familiar with the television station where she first worked. The less successful part for me was the behind-the-scenes workings of a television news show – I was more interested in her personal story. However, she’s a good writer (to be expected of a journalist, of course), and consequently, this was a fast , interesting read for me. Thank-you to Ms. Nguyen, Simon and Schuster, and NetGalley for the ARC of this title.

3.5

I found the first half of this book interesting. The family's flight from Saigon captured my attention more than the second half. The family went through some difficult times, but nothing too devastating. It seems unusual for immigrants to come to the U.S. for the first time and open their own businesses, but Nguyen's parents had determination and worked hard. The author herself also did well and works for a television network.

Boat Baby is an easy to read story of an immigrant family, even if you're not familiar with Vicky Nguyen from the Today Show. The story covers her parents escape from Vietnam when Vicky was a small child, to her childhood moving around with her parents as her dad tried out different enterprises, to her education, career as a journalist, and family. Vicky is a likable author and this is a good book to read, even if it's not a totally new story.

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. Thank you, Vicky, for sharing your story of hope. This book details the author's life coming to the US as an infant and a refugee. She shares her struggles and achievements in creating a life for herself. I would definitely recommend.

In her new memoir, Today Show news correspondent, Vicky Nguyen, discusses her parents’ experiences in communist Vietnam, their narrow yet successful escape, and their bravery in leaving everything and everyone behind to give their daughter a better life in America.

It was inspiring to read about their journey and their never-ending determination to succeed in a new country, starting from literal scratch. I enjoyed learning about the Vietnamese culture and what Vicky and her family faced on a daily basis.

She also chronicles her schooling and career paths, as well as marrying her high school sweetheart and eventually, having children.

Admittedly, I enjoyed the parts about her family and Vietnamese culture the most, but this memoir as a whole was compelling, and at times, humorous.

Boat baby is Vicky Nguyen’s journey through life from escaping communist of Vietnam as a baby, to becoming an inspirational investigational journalist. Through her story, she gives a multigenerational perspective and describes her experience of maintaining, cultural traditions, navigating a new culture, and achieving her dreams. Her resilience is so apparent, not only through the story she tells, but how she tells her story. Particularly, in this current political climate, many of the issues she touches on including racism and bias against immigrants feel even more important than they ever have before. Also, as someone who usually reads romance, I love the love story between her and her husband and the way she speaks about him with so much admiration and respect. Thank you, Vicky Nguyen for sharing your story.

I already had a high regard for Vicky, one of my favorites on the Today Show. She is one of the hardest working journalists in broadcasting today. This memoir starts with her family’s courageous escape from Vietnam, a shocking heartbreak with the murder of her uncle (and how that comes full circle), her parent’s hard work and hustle to experience the American Dream of entrepreneurship and the financial hardship that can come with it. She honestly admitted taking advantage of her parents at a young age as they often took her word for it that her way was the way it was done in America.

Vicky’s intelligence, work ethic and confidence were evident. And how she even researched and read books on how to be successful, and used that advice in her job interviews and salary negotiations. She was not afraid to stand up for herself in the workplace and wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. It was an interesting contrast to her dutiful daughter persona at home.

The chapters relating to her investigative reporting career were so interesting and her passion for her work was so evident. I loved her recount of her early years, her mistakes and her own hustle for success and how it ultimately led to her current position on NBC’s Today Show.

It was so eye opening to have Vicky explain what is expected from the children within her culture, and how the lack of emotional support from her parents were the norm. Heartbreaking were the descriptions of racism that she and others experienced, especially during the Covid pandemic, but even as a young girl.

Vicky so openly shared her experiences with pregnancy losses, the birth of her daughters, and her questions about her own ability to be a good mother. My heart broke that she sometimes felt her girls were better off when her own mother was caring for them. It is one of the few times she showed a lack of self esteem.

She successfully expresses her gratitude to her parents despite a difficult relationship with her father which she so vulnerably shared. I am awed by her husband who not only encouraged each promotion, he uprooted his own career when her opportunity for a dream national job at NBC was offered in NY. The book ended soon after their arrival and I’d love a follow up since Brian was not looking forward to this move. I’m left wondering if he’s warmed up to the East Coast!

Although Vicky Nguyen is on a popular broadcast news network, I have never heard of her. The first half of this book describes her parents background, their leaving Vietnam, and her early years; these were great reading. I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author and loved hearing the Vietnamese pronunciation, even though it may be an Americanized version as she states.

Somewhere along the way the story seemed to lose some focus, or maybe it was my interest. There were some things discussed, talked about in the book that wasn’t full explored, left me as a reader wondering why was that included. Other times, a situation felt important to her and her family, but not to me as a reader. Maybe I just don’t get memoirs sometimes.

For myself the ending was abrupt, or overall there was a missing part of the book, what exactly I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it is emotion, although that is not fully absent. In any case, I’m glad I read this book, learned about another person’s lived experience which is different than mine. There definitely needs to be more books like this.
Book rating: 3.5

enjoyed hearing about how Vicky moved through her career and got to where she is now. At some points, especially in the first half, this book felt a bit ummm, unfeeling I guess? Which, to be fair, when you’re living through really big important life moments at 8 years old, you don’t necessarily feel feelings proportionate to the moment.

I guess the way I would say it is that Vicky talks about her parents not being terribly emotionally available to her and I could really feel that in the first half of the book. That lack of feeling left me a bit uninterested but I’m glad I continued on with reading it.

I enjoyed listening and it is cool to hear about other people’s experiences but, for me, this one fell a little flat.

Copy kindly provided for review by publisher via NetGalley:)

It is difficult for me to rate memoirs and auto-biographies, as I find it very skewed to critique someone's personal story and writing.

If one can do their best to separate themselves from the personalization of this memoir, readers will still find it hard not to enjoy this story of a family fleeing an emerging communist Vietnam, hoping for a better future in America. Vicky Nguyen seems to just scratch the surface of what it is like to be an immigrant, and a female, Asian immigrant in a new world, and the nuances of discrimination and racism she and her family faces. Vicky also explores the differences between what it means to be a dutiful daughter in a culture which differs than her partner's relationship and dynamic with his own family. What breaks my heart, is her ability to speak about her parents and their struggle to find their place in the world.

The one part of the book that I found hard to read through was the time during Covid. After reading multiple books with a Covid timeline, I felt a bit exhausted of being affronted with the topic. I do not want to discredit the increased racism against Asians during this time, as it was very real and the actions that occurred were unforgivable.

Thank you Vicky Nguyen for putting your life story and being even more vulnerable to the world.

Thank you Netgalley, Simon & Schuster and the author for the opportunity in exchange for an honest review.

I will be posting to socials.

“To make a living in communist Vietnam, you had to hustle,” Vicky Nguyen writes, and her parents were hustlers.

After America left Vietnam, Vicky Nguyen’s family illegally found passage out of the country on a boat. They were lucky; their boat didn’t capsize and pirates didn’t rape and murder them. They lived in a camp of forty thousand until they were able to gain entry into the United States.

The Nguyen family hustled to build their American Dream. Vicky had her challenges, but she was a hustler, too, and after she determined her life’s goal, she made it to the top as a news anchor on the Today Show.

Her family’s story is an immigrant story we have heard before, of people who start with nothing but their determination and smarts and make a good life, allowing their child to achieve an even greater life.

It is a story about family mutually supporting each other, parents giving a child the chance to bloom, and the child supporting the parents after they achieve success. It is about a lifetime commitment to one’s soul mate and the sacrifices made for your partner.

Visits to her birth country brought a feeling of belonging because she was finally with people who looked like her, and the awareness of the great privileges afforded her because her parents had made it to America.

Nguyen discusses her work and stories that garnered awards, harassment and support from workers, the fight for an equitable salary, racism and Covid era anti-Asian hate. Most of all, she shares her gratitude for her lucky life and the parents who taught her how to be a good daughter, wife, and mother.

Lastly, she writes, “We all have a sphere of influence,” encouraging us to “choose to foster empathy and understanding in your everyday actions.”

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Vicky Nguyen is the well known news anchor of CNN and NBC. In her memoir Boat Baby, she tells the story of her live and that of her parents. When Vicky was a baby in the 1980's, her parents fled communist post-war Vietnam by boat, and after a dangerous journey on sea, they landed on refugee camp in Malaysia. Vicky's mother had worked for the Holt adoption organisation back in Saigon. While they where in the refugee camp, she wrote a letter to the Holt organisation in the USA, asking for sponsorship to get her family to the United States, which worked, and where Vicky's life started in Eugene, Oregon and later Reno and San Jose. Vicky's parents had worked day and night, worked their way up and they became financially stable. For Vicky, it was not always easy growing up as a Vietnamese immigrant; she was always seen as a different outsider. After high school, she studied at the University of San Francisco where she graduated in communcation, after she found her passion in journalism during this study.
She describes how her succesfull career started; starting as a reporter at local news stations before landing her role at NBC News in New York. Meanwhile, she has a long distance relationship with Brian, during the book, we learn about their challenges and sacrifices they made because of the long distance, and the moves to other cities Vicky has because of her work, and the strained relationship with her father because of his unresponsible behaviour with money and doing business.

Vicky's memoir is a true and honest look into her life, both personally and professionally. Vicky truly knows how to engage her audience with her story, which is not surprising as she is an accomplished news anchor. She shares the most personal things about her life and that of her parents, and this book shares an honest picture of what it is like to grow up as a second generation Vietnamese immigrant in the USA. A topic that is more actual than ever now.

Boat Baby is a beautifully written and moving memoir, that is also a joy to read. I recommend you to read it too!

This was a quick read! Very interesting to read her family’s journey! I was nit aware of Vicky Nguyen prior to Boat Baby.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

This is a well written memoir from famed journalist, Vicky Nguyen. She came to America as a child with her parents. She and her family struggled as immigrants. It was a huge cultural shock, but they learned to adjust even though they faced hardships and discrimination. I liked reading about her parents and attending college as a journalism major. Good book but a little uneven at times. Very informative.