Join others at the Wilson Public Library for a monthly book club on Thursday, May 29th at 5:30 PM. Conversation, fellowship, and refreshments will be centered on popular book titles for adults to discuss. This month’s book selection is “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women” by Lisa See.
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—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, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient. From a young age, Yunxian learns about women’s illnesses, many of which relate to childbearing, alongside a young midwife-in-training, Meiling. The two girls find fast friendship and a mutual purpose—despite the prohibition that a doctor should never touch blood while a midwife comes in frequent contact with it—and they vow to be forever friends, sharing in each other’s joys and struggles. No mud, no lotus, they tell themselves: from adversity, beauty can bloom. 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—embroider bound-foot slippers, recite poetry, give birth to sons, and stay forever within the walls of the family compound, the Garden of Fragrant Delights. 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?
This Summer Reading Program is supported in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.
For more information, call the Wilson Public Library at (580) 668-2486 or visit the library at 1087 US Hwy. 70A in Wilson. The Wilson Public Library is a branch of the Southern Oklahoma Library System.