In Chinese, the closest expression to "oh my god" is "wo de ma ya." It's an interjection, a polite expletive, something to say when you're out of words. Translated literally, it means "oh my mother"--the instinctual first person you think of when you're on the cusp of losing it, or putting it all together.

In each essay of this hilarious, heartfelt, and pitch-perfectly honest memoir, journalist Connie Wang explores her complicated relationship to her stubborn and charismatic mother Qing Li through the "oh my god" moments in their travels together, venturing into the world to find their place in it, and sometimes rail against it--as well as against each other.

This brilliantly original work of feminism and flaw is Eat, Pray, Love for a new generation--if our real-life heroine had Minor Feelings and Trick Mirror in her suitcase and her always endearing, occasionally infuriating mother in the copilot seat; and if, instead of finding themselves through pasta and yoga, this iconic mother-daughter duo attended a Magic Mike strip show in Vegas, experimented with edibles in Amsterdam, and flip-flopped through Versailles, wondering where their next trip would lead.