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Booked for the Day

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

On Monday, August 6th, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See while sipping a cup of Pu’erh tea.  Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

  • The majority of the group really loved the book but a few thought it was just okay. A few members could not get through the story for various reasons but was able to join the discussion because of the many themes in the story that have touched us all.
  • The group had a hard time believing that the story took place in 1988. The author gave a lot of background information on the beliefs and customs of the Akha community as well as insight into daily village life. We realized that this group was isolated but some of the customs were really shocking especially considering the time period that the book took place in.
  • One of our members who has a daughter that studied Chinese culture told us this book was a historically accurate tale.
  • The sections of the book written around Haley are written in a different style than Li-Yan’s and we thought it worked well. We also thought the reason for this was to contrast Li-Yan’s and Haley’s lives.
  • We talked about the “no coincidence, no story” quote that was in the beginning of the story. There were too many coincidence to make the story believable, but we realized that was where the story was heading, so not too many surprises in the story.
  • One member said she liked happily ever after ending and we all agreed, but the ending seemed rushed and it left us wanting more in the end. Here’s hoping for a sequel.
  • Most of the story was about female relationships, which we enjoyed hearing about, so it was appropriate that the ending involved Haley, Li-Yan, Ama and the mother tree.
  • The group knew that there were challenges of being a Chinese girl adopted into an American family but did not realized the “grateful but angry” feelings they had. We never appreciated what they endured always wondering about their birth parents and why they gave them away. One member told us the story of how he asked a man from China if he had any children and the response was yes, one boy when the man actually had one boy and three girls. The poem at the start of the book said it all.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.

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