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Monday Evening Book Group Reads The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

November 8, 2021 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Join our Monday group on Zoom to discuss one of Lisa See’s most popular novels.  Copies are available at our circulation desk in regular, large print and audiobook CD.  Please register to receive the Zoom link and email updates by emailing Beth Van Ness at bvanness@libraryconnection.info.  All adults are welcome at these book discussions.

Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. There is ritual and routine, and it has been ever thus for generations. Then one day a jeep appears at the village gate ; the first automobile any of them have seen and a stranger arrives.

In this remote Yunnan village, the stranger finds the rare tea he has been seeking and a reticent Akha people. In her biggest seller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, See introduced the Yao people to her readers. Here she shares the customs of another Chinese ethnic minority, the Akha, whose world will soon change. Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, translates for the stranger and is among the first to reject the rules that have shaped her existence. When she has a baby outside of wedlock, rather than stand by tradition, she wraps her daughter in a blanket, with a tea cake hidden in her swaddling, and abandons her in the nearest city.

After mother and daughter have gone their separate ways, Li-yan slowly emerges from the security and insularity of her village to encounter modern life while Haley grows up a privileged and well-loved California girl. Despite Haley’s happy home life, she wonders about her origins; and Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. They both search for and find answers in the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.

A powerful story about a family, separated by circumstances, culture, and distance, Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond that connects mothers and daughters.

 

Details

Date:
November 8, 2021
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Inclement weather policy: If Canton schools or afterschool activities are cancelled for weather-related reasons, so too are events for teens and children at the Canton Public Library. The library is often still open, please contact us with questions or concerns at 860.693.5800.

Canton Public Library • 40 Dyer Avenue • Canton, CT 06019 • 860-693-5800 • Fax 860-693-5804