Love to talk about books? Join us for Books Sandwiched In, now at the Larry R. Jackson Branch Library.  The group meets in the Jackson Branch Library Meeting Room on the second Tuesday of each month at 12:15 p.m.  

In May, we will discuss The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See.

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.

Reserve a copy on the Lakeland Public Library’s Online Catalog.

A valid Polk County library card and PIN are required to reserve items through the Online Catalog.

Questions? Contact Danielle at Danielle.Daniels@lakelandgov.net or at 863-834-4285.