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Year of the Water Horse: A Memoir
A warm and witty memoir about the ever-changing relationships between mothers, mothers-in-law, and daughters that traverses two continents and multiple generations of two very different yet connected families.
Janice Page hails Braintree, Massachusetts and a large Catholic brood. Her parents had a complicated marriage. Her five siblings each have their own sagas, and there is a destructive genetic force within the family’s blood lines that over generations has caused much heartbreak.
And then there is the large Chinese family of Janice’s husband, James, equally cinematic and sweeping with a rich complicated history of its own. There is a daring escape from war zones, a lost child, immigration to a new world, and a bittersweet reunion after decades of separation.
Janice met James fresh out of college while waitressing part time at Mandarin Garden, that only Chinese restaurant in Braintree. He had just arrived in America from Taiwan. The two work to bridge the divide between them—emotionally, culturally and geographically—and as they build their lives together. From Taiwan to Los Angeles, from her mother's own bipolar disorder to a language barrier with her mother-in-law, Janice finds herself constantly searching for the feeling of home. Janice believes she can close the circle when she embarks on her own journey to become a mother herself. When she and James adopt a baby girl from James’s ancestral region of China, the two close a circle that had been open for generations on both sides, finding home at last.
Filled with humor and heart, wisdom and healing mother wounds, Year of the Water Horse is a profound and compelling story with a deeply satisfying ending that will resonate long after the final page.
Janice Page hails Braintree, Massachusetts and a large Catholic brood. Her parents had a complicated marriage. Her five siblings each have their own sagas, and there is a destructive genetic force within the family’s blood lines that over generations has caused much heartbreak.
And then there is the large Chinese family of Janice’s husband, James, equally cinematic and sweeping with a rich complicated history of its own. There is a daring escape from war zones, a lost child, immigration to a new world, and a bittersweet reunion after decades of separation.
Janice met James fresh out of college while waitressing part time at Mandarin Garden, that only Chinese restaurant in Braintree. He had just arrived in America from Taiwan. The two work to bridge the divide between them—emotionally, culturally and geographically—and as they build their lives together. From Taiwan to Los Angeles, from her mother's own bipolar disorder to a language barrier with her mother-in-law, Janice finds herself constantly searching for the feeling of home. Janice believes she can close the circle when she embarks on her own journey to become a mother herself. When she and James adopt a baby girl from James’s ancestral region of China, the two close a circle that had been open for generations on both sides, finding home at last.
Filled with humor and heart, wisdom and healing mother wounds, Year of the Water Horse is a profound and compelling story with a deeply satisfying ending that will resonate long after the final page.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published December 2, 2025
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758 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 12, 2026
Janice Page (b. early 1960s) is an American journalist. Her 2025 memoir Year of the Water Horse recounts her life story so far, though unlike most of the hundreds of memoirs I've read to date, the focus is largely on recounting compelling or heartbreaking events that happened to people around her, not infrequently in dramatized, screenplay-like fashion. For instance, the title of the book, Year of the Water Horse, references both her Taiwanese husband's oldest sister, whom Page met exactly once and who was born in 1942 (a year of the water horse in Chinese Zodiac) and raised in China, apart from her family when they immigrated to Taiwan for political reasons, and her adopted Chinese daughter, who was born 60 years later during the next water horse year in 2002. For Page, the fact that these two women were born 60 years apart is of great significance, and she explains this in great detail. There are also many other, likely coincidental and generally mundane events in Page's life that she interprets with great significance and detail.
Other characters that feature prominently in the memoir are Page's husband, Page's mother-in-law, Page's late parents and five siblings (several of whom died young, including two sisters from germline BRCA2-mutant hereditary breast and ovarian cancer -- Page herself didn't inherit the family mutation). I'm not sure if each consented (or would have, if they survived long enough) to having their stories told in this way. Though this memoir was published at the end of 2025, it largely stops around 2003 when Page and her husband return from China after adopting their daughter (this was in the peak era of Chinese adoptees sourced from dubious places rather than willingly relinquished, as explored in Barbara Demick's 2025 book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, though it doesn't seem like this is a narrative Page has considered when speculating about the origins of her daughter).
What I look for in memoirs, particularly those written by people in mid-life and older, is evidence of character growth through hardship that have led to a novel and self-directed reshaping of one's perspectives (rather than just adapting to current cultural moraes), and decades of distillation and crystallization of those life lessons into themes that'll lead to thoughtful reader reflection. For the first aim, though Page certainly didn't live a challenge-free life, I didn't really perceive much evidence of personal hardship or character maturation, or really much novelty, in her own story -- which is likely why the memoir focuses so heavily on people around her. For the second aim, I also didn't appreciate much synthesis or universalization of the story -- parts read as self-indulgent (particularly all the childhood stories), and overall the narrative is structured as a blow-by-blow of most parts of Page's life until around 2003 (which became rather boring for me, and really only works in celebrity memoirs for their fans who care about what they were doing year-to-year) rather than a carefully curated edit of key events and themes.
My statistics:
Book 12 for 2026
Book 2318 cumulatively
Other characters that feature prominently in the memoir are Page's husband, Page's mother-in-law, Page's late parents and five siblings (several of whom died young, including two sisters from germline BRCA2-mutant hereditary breast and ovarian cancer -- Page herself didn't inherit the family mutation). I'm not sure if each consented (or would have, if they survived long enough) to having their stories told in this way. Though this memoir was published at the end of 2025, it largely stops around 2003 when Page and her husband return from China after adopting their daughter (this was in the peak era of Chinese adoptees sourced from dubious places rather than willingly relinquished, as explored in Barbara Demick's 2025 book Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins, though it doesn't seem like this is a narrative Page has considered when speculating about the origins of her daughter).
What I look for in memoirs, particularly those written by people in mid-life and older, is evidence of character growth through hardship that have led to a novel and self-directed reshaping of one's perspectives (rather than just adapting to current cultural moraes), and decades of distillation and crystallization of those life lessons into themes that'll lead to thoughtful reader reflection. For the first aim, though Page certainly didn't live a challenge-free life, I didn't really perceive much evidence of personal hardship or character maturation, or really much novelty, in her own story -- which is likely why the memoir focuses so heavily on people around her. For the second aim, I also didn't appreciate much synthesis or universalization of the story -- parts read as self-indulgent (particularly all the childhood stories), and overall the narrative is structured as a blow-by-blow of most parts of Page's life until around 2003 (which became rather boring for me, and really only works in celebrity memoirs for their fans who care about what they were doing year-to-year) rather than a carefully curated edit of key events and themes.
My statistics:
Book 12 for 2026
Book 2318 cumulatively
January 3, 2026
Unfortunately, this book was completely boring for me.
December 13, 2025
This memoir, by my friend Janice Page, is so finely threaded, quietly powerful, and very rare indeed, in that it doesn't want to be summarized in a tweet. The memoir genre has become somewhat constricted. If it's not a famous-person memoir (usually ghostwritten or heavily co-authored) or confessional, then it's a tale of some misery (addiction, travail, journey, recovery, event, crime, etc.), packaged in a way that Jenna and friends can squeeze into the third hour of the "Today" show. (And listen, TV producers: I would dearly love to see this book on one of your shows!) We've almost gotten to the point where the universality in most of our life stories is considered lovely but unmarketable. No hook! No elevator pitch! (Or, in the business Janice and I work in, no nutgraf!)
But "Year of the Water Horse" opens strongly. You're reading a story about a complicated working-class Boston brood. Then you think, oh, it's actually going to be a funny tale about a White girl expanding her South Shore world by working in her town's only Chinese restaurant and learning a thing or two about schezuan spices. Then it's a cross-cultural love story, and from there it broadens, and then broadens again, into another family's complications, and the international adoption process. In a way, aren't most of us just trying to tie it all together, make sense of the random beauty of how our lives played out? Trust this book. It has something to tell you, at its own perfect pace.
Here's an excerpt that ran in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
But "Year of the Water Horse" opens strongly. You're reading a story about a complicated working-class Boston brood. Then you think, oh, it's actually going to be a funny tale about a White girl expanding her South Shore world by working in her town's only Chinese restaurant and learning a thing or two about schezuan spices. Then it's a cross-cultural love story, and from there it broadens, and then broadens again, into another family's complications, and the international adoption process. In a way, aren't most of us just trying to tie it all together, make sense of the random beauty of how our lives played out? Trust this book. It has something to tell you, at its own perfect pace.
Here's an excerpt that ran in the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
February 1, 2026
The first chapter of this book was excerpted somewhere (maybe on Substack?). Once I'd read that chapter, I knew I wanted to read the whole book. Memoirs are often written by celebrities or they are written by survivors of some major trauma. That trauma might be addiction, or divorce, or domestic violence. Maybe it's a war story or a troubled childhood. Those memoirs can all be engaging but this one doesn't fit those categories. In Year of the Water Horse, Janice Page presents pieces of her life story. Although there are tough moments and hard days in her story, it's not a story of Big Trauma or Huge Obstacles to overcome.
No, Janice's life unfolds in mostly and ordinary way. I like how she traces parts of her life back to their origin. What might her life have been like had she not needed to get a job that summer between high school and college? The job that she did get (waitress in an Asian restaurant) ended up changing the course of her life yet, at the time, she had NO idea that that was going to happen.
This book was a delight to read. The story itself is captivating and made even more so by Janice's lively writing style. Her humor offsets some of the sadness that is a part of every life. Sometimes, Ms Page speaks from the philosopher's chair and I appreciated those passages. It gives me something to think about.
The cover is The Best - one star awarded simply for that beautiful artwork!
If you're a fan of memoir and/or you appreciate a well told tale, pick this one up.
No, Janice's life unfolds in mostly and ordinary way. I like how she traces parts of her life back to their origin. What might her life have been like had she not needed to get a job that summer between high school and college? The job that she did get (waitress in an Asian restaurant) ended up changing the course of her life yet, at the time, she had NO idea that that was going to happen.
This book was a delight to read. The story itself is captivating and made even more so by Janice's lively writing style. Her humor offsets some of the sadness that is a part of every life. Sometimes, Ms Page speaks from the philosopher's chair and I appreciated those passages. It gives me something to think about.
The cover is The Best - one star awarded simply for that beautiful artwork!
If you're a fan of memoir and/or you appreciate a well told tale, pick this one up.
December 31, 2025
In her touching memoir, Janice Page describes vast parts of her life so far. Her emotional relationship to her family being a late unplanned child to a mother who has already had four children, much older than Janice, that she was overwhelmed with while at the same time when Janice was little she had the motor capacity for her as the other children were older already. She described, how she was humbled by breaking as a waitress to finance per university, as well as how she met her Taiwanese husband James. How they found their way together, and how she dug into her mother-in-law’s sad life story.
It is very far very emotional and super interesting memoir, which I enjoyed listening to and reading. A very detailed and to the point view into an exceptional family, and the lives of the family members. I really enjoyed reading it and can only recommend..
It is very far very emotional and super interesting memoir, which I enjoyed listening to and reading. A very detailed and to the point view into an exceptional family, and the lives of the family members. I really enjoyed reading it and can only recommend..
January 10, 2026
When I first requested to read this book on NetGalley, it was supposed to be a filler for when I’m stuck between things I want to read or don’t feel like reading any of the books on my TBR at the moment. What started as a filler turned into an eye opener that changed my perspective on a lot of things. One main thing I can’t get out of my head is when she said something like if a decision isn’t among the top three things you’d undo given a second chance, there’s no point in carrying its regret. I don’t have the exact quote since I listened to an audiobook version, but I kid you not, I rewinded that part several times just to hear what she said again because it was SUCH an eye opener for me. I highly recommend this book! I especially like the audiobook version because it is read by the author, which is something I love.
December 4, 2025
I just started reading the first chapter. I'm already annoyed. It feels like the author had to self-censure and couch the casual racism of mid-60s Massachusetts in a long excuse/explanation. A few paragraphs later, the author goes out of her way to tell us she thought Sidney Poitier was cute.
Girl, you're trying too hard.
We know what the racial blindspots were in suburban all-white New England. You don't have to spell out your youthful ignorance is not a reflection of your present mindset. The woke brigade is not coming for you.
That overcorrective detour distracted from an otherwise compelling story. I hope it won't be a recurring issue in the rest of the book.
The two-star rating is provisional. It could be bumped up later.
Girl, you're trying too hard.
We know what the racial blindspots were in suburban all-white New England. You don't have to spell out your youthful ignorance is not a reflection of your present mindset. The woke brigade is not coming for you.
That overcorrective detour distracted from an otherwise compelling story. I hope it won't be a recurring issue in the rest of the book.
The two-star rating is provisional. It could be bumped up later.
December 19, 2025
As a general pricipal, I'll say more people write memoirs than should. The fact is not everyone has something "real" to say that is eye-opening or expands your world view or explores what's important, or whatever else you might say looking at the lives of others brings. I'd also say that fictional stories are often more impactful than real life.
This story, though, could easily have been dreamed up and written as fiction, and probably would have been even more believable! It's hard to imagine what more could have been thrown at Janice Page. A LOT of hard stuff. And a lot of love.
I love listening to audio books narrated by the author, and this is no exception. Her own words, her own voice. A well told and hopeful "story". I highly recommend.
This story, though, could easily have been dreamed up and written as fiction, and probably would have been even more believable! It's hard to imagine what more could have been thrown at Janice Page. A LOT of hard stuff. And a lot of love.
I love listening to audio books narrated by the author, and this is no exception. Her own words, her own voice. A well told and hopeful "story". I highly recommend.
Read
January 29, 2026Narrator and author Janice Page drew me right in to her memoir. She writes eloquently about growing up in a large Catholic family of 6 children, a mother diagnosed with bipolar disorder, dating and marrying a Taiwanese immigrant man and more losses than most human beings have to deal with in young adulthood. She does not feel sorry for herself, owns her decisions and their consequences and moves on with life. A fascinating second story is the one she unearths over several years of getting to know her mother-in-law, whose family was caught up in the 1949 Chinese Civil War. A well told story of an interesting life.
December 29, 2025
Janice Page’s memoir details her journey from wait staff at a Chinese restaurant in Braintree, Massachusetts to the adopted mother of a Chinese-born baby. Janice’s writing is Didion-esque, examining her own personal turmoils and pitfalls while keeping focus on her husband and his family, both lost and found, and including a smattering of celebrity tidbits and appearances (Brenda Lee, Julia Sweeney). Page’s writing is humorous and profound, while maintaining a pace that makes this memoir an easy and delightful read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 27, 2025
Listen to the audiobook. It was narrated by the author and done extremely well. I found the majority of the book to be very interesting, including the family history of cancer and the BRCA gene, the adoption of her daughter and I absolutely loved her husband James. There were just a few parts here and there that lost me and seemed to ramble a little….but overall I really enjoyed it and found it to be an excellent book.
January 25, 2026
I enjoyed getting to know the author and her family throughout this memoir. Unsurprisingly, my favorite part was hearing about Janice and James' experience adopting their daughter from China. This gave me the opportunity to relive my husband's and my experience adopting our daughter from the same province (Jiang Xi) and then visiting Guangzhou and staying in the same famous hotel there, The White Swan, about 1 1/2 years after Janice, James, and their daughter were there.
January 27, 2026
I read all the rave reviews about this book so was looking forward to reading it. Especially as a fellow Massachusetts girl, too. But I just never warmed up to the author. She certainly didn't paint herself in a very good light and came across as very self-absorbed to me. James, however, seemed delightful with an interesting life and I wish he had written a book! Three stars for Massachusetts.
February 13, 2026
Beautifully realized interweaving of two life stories - a child of working class Boston and a Chinese empire - that come together into a rich, well-lived life. Straightforward reading by the author strikes exactly the right tone.
December 7, 2025
Family love
A well written memoir of the dynamics and tragedies of this family. It was one of the first books in a while that I was not able to put down.
A well written memoir of the dynamics and tragedies of this family. It was one of the first books in a while that I was not able to put down.
December 29, 2025
Great book
A wonderful overview of relationships of mothers and daughters. The author also offers an enlightened global perspective of what is human and special in all of us.
A wonderful overview of relationships of mothers and daughters. The author also offers an enlightened global perspective of what is human and special in all of us.
January 26, 2026
So well written. I enjoyed this book from the very first sentence. Great story.
January 28, 2026
3.5 stars
January 28, 2026
Delightful, well composed and pithy. James sounds like a treasure.
December 13, 2025
Incredible memoir. Great writing and I experienced a range of emotions while reading Page’s story. In the interest of full disclosure, I know the author and some family members mentioned in her book. It can sometimes be really uncomfortable rating a book by someone you know, but in this case it was easy. It’s a great book. Page pulls together some amazing threads between the two family histories (hers and her husband’s).
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews