The Opposite of Fate, by Amy Tan

An audio book.

This is non-fiction, a collection of essays and short works by Amy Tan.

“Thanks to my mother, I was raised to have a morbid imagination. When I was a child, she often talked about death as warning, as an unavoidable matter of fact. Little Debbie's mom down the block might say, 'Honey, look both ways before crossing the street.' My mother's version: 'You don't look, you get smash flat like sand dab.' (Sand dabs were the cheap fish we bought live in the market, distinguished in my mind by their two eyes affixed on one side of their woebegone cartoon faces.)

The warnings grew worse, depending on the danger at hand. Sex education, for example, consisted of the following advice: 'Don't ever let boy kiss you. You do, you can't stop. Then you have baby. You put baby in garbage can. Police find you, put you in jail, then you life over, better just kill youself.” 

At one point, the author discovers herself in Cliff Notes.

The last essay relates the author's battle with Lyme Disease. It's interestingly written, and probably should be required reading for all medical people, as well as anyone likely to become exposed to the right kind of tick.