Me: A Book of Remembrance is the life story of Winnifred Eaton, but she wrote it under the name that made her famous: Onoto Watanna. Born to an English father and a Chinese mother in Montreal, she moved to Jamaica, Chicago, and finally New York to chase a writing career. To stand out in a crowded market, she adopted a Japanese persona, becoming one of the first Asian North American novelists to achieve mainstream success. The book walks us through her youth, her early struggles to get published, her rise to fame writing popular romances, her work as a Hollywood screenwriter, and her reflections on marriage and motherhood.

Why You Should Read It

This isn't a dry history lesson. It's a deeply personal, sometimes messy, and always human account. You get the sense of a woman constantly negotiating her own identity—between her heritage and her career, between her private self and her public image. She writes about her failures with as much honesty as her triumphs. What stuck with me was her incredible resilience and her sharp business sense. She knew how to work the system, even when the system was stacked against her. It's a powerful look at self-invention long before social media made it common.

Final Verdict

Perfect for anyone who loves memoirs, stories about underdogs, or early 20th-century history. If you're interested in the stories of writers, women forging their own paths, or the complex history of race and representation, you'll find this captivating. It reads like a conversation with a clever, complicated grandmother who's seen it all. Just be prepared—you'll finish it and immediately want to know more about her life.