I managed to read two books outside of book club – a remarkable feat given that I can barely read two pages without falling asleep.  Both books were at some time recommended by readinggroupguides

#1. Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane –  Lisa See,

 Rich and incredibly well researched look at the tea culture of Yunnan province in China and the Akha people who cultivate this remarkable product.   The story revolves around Li-yan, born into the ritualistic culture of the Akha who is able to use her limited education to move forward into the 20^th century. Along the way she has a baby with a man her parents deem unsuitable. Forced by the mores of the village, Li-yan leaves her baby on the steps of a government orphanage.  Over the years she aches to know what happened to her daughter and, in California, her daughter, adopted by loving and sensitive parents,  yearns to know who her birth mother was and why she was abandoned.

Great read covering the Akha people (I promise you will want to Google them) and the culture of tea, serving as the background for Li-yan’s journey from village to city to the United States and her daughter’s search for her birth mother, both using Pu’er tea as the vehicle of discovery.

 

#2. Girl on the Block – Jessica Wragg

Memoir based on Wragg’s life in the business of butchery.  Her career began as a teen in central England, working weekends and learning the trade sometimes begrudgingly, from butchers, most all of whom were men. Wragg pursues her passion as a butcher, developing skill in the many cuts of beef, lamb and pork that foodies require, while attending college to prepare herself as a writer.  Wragg includes some recipes, especially one for creamed spinach, that sounds wonderful, along with her life story from partying teenager to partying college student, to staff at the “Ginger Pig” one of London’s top butchers.  Very interesting peek into an industry that is tough, messy, sexist and elite.