Program Type:
Book DiscussionAge Group:
AdultsProgram Description
Event Details
Come talk books with other bibliophiles! This book group will meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Limited copies of the current selection will be available at the Lending Desk. Registration is not required.
This month we will be reading "Lady Tan’s Circle of Women" by Lisa See.
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles.
But when Yunxian is sent into an arranged marriage, her mother-in-law forbids her from seeing Meiling and from helping the women and girls in the household. Yunxian is to act like a proper wife. How might a woman like Yunxian break free of these traditions and lead a life of such importance that many of her remedies are still used five centuries later? How might the power of friendship support or complicate these efforts?