#the tea girl of hummingbird lane

[mycomori]

i finished my book and it was amazing, it may actually give a thousand splendid suns a run for its money as my favorite book. i still can’t bring myself to get on my art program because so much of it is HIS character staring back at me. so i’m thinking maybe i should take some of my older pieces and kind of redo them? not a full redraw but more of an edit, an update to my current style and abilities and resources. i do always look at old art like i wish i could redo that…

[wateryrealm]

🍵 for the book rec:)

I read you wanted recommendations too, for this emoji I’d recommend the tea girl of hummingbird lane by Lisa See <3

is it terrible that i don’t remember posting anything about book recs…but i’m still grateful you thought of me and sent this! i'm sorry for answering so late and i hope this still finds you somehow. lately i’ve been drinking almost eight cups of tea everyday, so a novel about tea seems perfect :-)

[darkandstormyranger]

I've been tagged by @muigiel ^-^

Last song: "Oh Traveller Come" by Reinaeiry & Genshin Impact from Hoyofair..... I love this song so much, holy shit, the way all the characters??? have their little moment??? ITTO'S GRANNY AS A GHOST?? OLDER NOELLE BEING KINGHTED BY JEAN???? i may have cried the first time i watched & listened to it

Currently Watching: The Office, for the second time, and Good Bad Mother with my parents

Currently reading: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See. I have been recently trying to get back into my reading game by reading literally anything and Lisa See's novels proved to be a pretty good choice, since they are easy to read, but also I usually learn at least one interesting fact about history of China so like... yeah. So far, nothing beats The Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy though.

Current obsession: i am haunted by the ghost of my happy past that i can never go back to. Waiting for another hyperfixation to take over and give me a semblance of feeling things. Apart from that, I'm still sailing on that Xicheng boat, even though I am much slower with drawing and writing now :')

[distancemodulus]

To read (b/c my hotel wifi won’t let me use libgen!):

The Sarashina Diary by Lady Sarashina

Invisible Cities by Italy Calvino

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Guin

Last and First Men by Olaf Stapleton

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich

Currently reading:

Odissea di Omero (in Italiano)

The Gossamer Years by Mother of Michitsuna

The Cheese and the Worms by Carlo Ginzburg

Just finished:

The Gemma Doyle series by Libba Bray

Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser (again…)

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See (again!)

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

[backalleygraffiti]

Assigned Reading List for Psychopaths (that want to read and learn to do other things good too)

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson)

The Illustrated A Brief History of Time / The Universe in a Nutshell (Steven Hawking)

Cosmos (Carl Sagan)

Something Deeply Hidden (Sean Carroll)

The Philosophy of Time (Robin Le Poidevin)

The Elegant Universe (Brian Greene)

The End of Everything (Katie Mack)

Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)

The Swerve (Steven Greenblatt)

The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Joseph Campbell)

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

Not “A Nation of Immigrants” (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz)

Caste (Isabel Wilkerson)

The Fox Wife (Yangsze Choo)

The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt)

Life After Life (Kate Atkinson)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel García Marquez)

tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)

Ishmael (Daniel Quinn)

The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer)

A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara)

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane (Lisa See)

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie)

The Satanic Verses (Salman Rushdie)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)

The Testaments (Margaret Atwood)

Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)

Lolita (Nabokov)

The End of Alice (A. M. Homes)

Exquisite Corpse (Poppy Z. Brite)

Tampa (Alissa Nutting)

Cows (Mathew Stokoe)

The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft)

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Jules Verne)

White Fang (Jack London)

The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)

Paradise Lost (John Milton)

The Crucible (Arther Miller)

Macbeth (Shakespeare)

Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra)

Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

Dracula (Bram Stoker)

Sabrina (The Graphic Novel) (Nick Drnaso)

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Annie Dillard)

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (Howard Pyle)

The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)

The Lorax (Dr. Seuss)

Aesop’s Fables (Aesop)

Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Brothers Grimm)

[neoplatinum]

Do not read "the tea girl of hummingbird lane". I'm only at the third part of the book and I'm in shambles 😭 I decided it was a good read to go to sleep and instead I was violently sobbing what is wrong with these writers😭😭😭

Anyway🤭 I'm getting strawberries today pookie 🤭 we love love strawberries.

How are youuuu

oh pooks save yourself 😭🙏

u love strawberries ive noticed!!

and i am doing okay moods weird but it'll be better later, what about you?

[desperatecheesecubes]

March Wrap Up Part 3! If you saw this earlier, no you didn’t.

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc

Dates Read: 20 March

Review: 4 Stars

Thoughts: If you’ve followed me for a minute you’ll know I LOVE magical girls. I’m so excited to see such an original take get an English license. This opening volume was so fun to read. I absolutely can’t wait for the rest of this journey.

Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione

Dates Read: 20 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: another cute and fun sapphic graphic novel (i read so many sapphic stories this month lmfao) I’d say this was on the lower end of YA and it’s fun for the whole family.

Justice League of America (1960) 4

Dates Read: 20 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: Reading older comics is always a trip because the medium itself has changed so much over the decades. Anyway this was a fun issue. I need to read more class GA stories.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Dates Read: 9 March- 21 March

Review: 4 stars

Thoughts: This was the happiest and most optimistic Lisa See novel I’ve read so far and also probably my least favorite (lmao) the opening chapters were DEVESTATING but it quickly moved on and away from that. Still great just…. Not what I was hoping for I guess haha.

Keeper of Enchanted Rooms by Charlie N Holmerberg

Dates Read: 8 March-23 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: Started reading this for the narrator (who also did Mysterious Letter) only to find out he was 1 of 3 and easily the narrator with the least chapters. Tragic. This is the first of a trilogy but I feel no need to continue on. It was a fun little fantasy.

Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor by Xiran Jay Zhao

Dates Read: 21 March-23 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: Middle Grade tends not to be my genre-I very rarely read it so take this rating with that in mind. That’s said I thought it was really fun! Learning about Chinese history, culture and mythology was a great deal of fun. I can’t wait for whatever Xiran Jay Zhao puts out next. (I mean I know Heavnly Tyrant is next but like I’m general)

Clap When you Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Dates Read: 23 March-24 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: I liked this more than The Poet X but lyrical novels just tend not to do it for me. That’s said I understand why this is considered a modern classic. It didn’t go the way I expected it to based on the premise I had been given but that wasn’t necessarily a detriment to it.

Superman Last Son of Krypton (action comics 844-846, 851, 866-870, Annual 11)

Dates Read: 24 March

Review: 4 stars

Thoughts: This contained two arcs- Last Son of Kyrpton and a…. A Brainiac arc I don’t remember the name of. It’s definitely the set up for New Krytpon. They get Kandor back from Brainiac. I loved reading Chris’s introduction. It’s very interesting how quick this storyline is-the author couldn’t write it all in one go so he ended up writing a story in Superman as well, but like…. The timeline is a mess because of it lmao.

Helen of Wyndhorn by Tom King and Bliquis Evely

Date Read: 25 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: What an intriguing start! Like many people I jumped onto this because I loved Woman of Tomorrow so much, so I’m more than willing to see this through.

How To Get a Girlfriend When You’re A Terrifying Monster

Dates Read: 23 March-25 March

Review: 3 stars

Thoughts: This book was fun but definitely didn’t feel complete. It’s only 115 pages and definitely just felt like the first portion of a regular sized motel. I mean… nothing gets resolved but new problems are introduced consistently. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it! I did and plan on reading the sequel but it just seems like it should have probably all been lnf regularly sized novel. Anyway I was 100% expecting them to have kinky tentacle sex but they didn’t even kiss by the end. SAD!

[annethunderstorms]

My Year in Books 2023:

9,563 pages read

33 books read

Home by Toni Morrison

- historical fiction, race, trauma, family

- set in US (Georgia), Korea (Korean War) in 1950s

- main characters: Frank Money, Ysidra “Cee” Money

Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

- fiction, family, immigration, deportation

- set in US (New York to New Mexico/Arizona)

- main characters: unnamed mother, father and their two children

North: How to Live Scandinavian by Brontë Aurell

- nonfiction, lifestyle, culture

- set in Denmark, Norway, Sweden

Fox and I by Catherine Raven

- nonfiction, memoir, nature, environment, biology

- set in US (Montana)

How to Live Korean by Soo Kim

- nonfiction, lifestyle, culture

- set in South Korea

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

- fiction, romance, dystopia, war, immigration

- set in Middle East, Greece (Mykonos), UK (London), US (San Francisco)

- main characters: Saeed, Nadia

Stars Between the Sun and Moon: One Woman’s Life in North Korea and Escape to Freedom by Lucia Jang

- nonfiction, memoir, oppression, survival

- set in North Korea, China in 1990s

Land of Snow and Ashes by Petra Rautiainen

- historical fiction, World War II, Sámi, mystery

- set in northern Finland in 1944, 1947-1950

- main characters: Inkeri Lindqvist, Olavi Heiskanen, Väinö Remes

This Wound Full of Fish by Lorena Salazar Masso

- fiction, motherhood

- set in Colombia (Atrato river)

- main characters: unnamed mother, unnamed boy, Gina

Kings of the Yukon: An Alaskan River Journey by Adam Weymouth

- nonfiction, nature, environment, memoir

- set in Yukon, Alaska

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

- historical fiction, family, tea, Akha culture, adoption

- set in China (Yunnan), US (California) between 1980-2016

- main characters: Li-yan, Haley Davis

Il guardiano della collina dei ciliegi (The Year Shizo Kanakuri Disappeared) by Franco Faggiani

- historical fiction, sports, solitude

- set in Japan, Sweden between 1900s en 1960s

- main character: Shizo Kanakuri

When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge by Chanrithy Him

- nonfiction, memoir, war, survival

- set in Cambodia in the 1970s

Violeta by Isabel Allende

- historical fiction, family saga

- set in Chile, US between 1920-2020

- main characters: Violeta del Valle, Camilo del Valle

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

- nonfiction, memoir, grief, loss

- set in US (NY and LA)

Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

- historical fiction, western, nature, bison hunt

- set in US (Kansas, Colorado) in 1870

- main characters: Will Andrews, Miller, Charley Hoge, Fred Schneider

The Unseen (De usynlige) by Roy Jacobsen

- historical fiction, family saga, hardship

- set in northern Norway between 1910-1930

- main character: Ingrid Barrøy

White Shadow (Hvitt hav) by Roy Jacobsen

- historical fiction, family saga, hardship

- set in northern Norway in 1940s

- main character: Ingrid Barrøy

The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende

- historical fiction, immigration, war

- set in Austria (Vienna), US (Arizona), El Salvador between 1938-2019

- main characters: Samuel Adler, Anita Díaz, Selena Dúran, Leticia Cordero

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

- nonfiction, immigration, crime

- set on the Mexican/US border (Arizona)

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

- nonfiction, indigenous, nature, environment

- set in North America

Hearing Birds Fly by Louisa Waugh

- nonfiction, memoir, travel, culture

- set in Mongolia (Tsengel) in late 1990s

Betty by Tiffany McDaniel

- historical fiction, family saga, coming-of-age, loss, abuse

- set in US (Ohio) between 1900s-1970s

- main character: Betty Carpenter

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

- fiction, classic, modernism

- set in UK (Scotland) in 1920s

- main characters: Mrs Ramsay, Mr Ramsay, Lily Briscoe

Tracks: One Woman's Journey Across 1,700 Miles of Australian Outback by Robyn Davidson

- nonfiction, memoir, adventure, nature

- set in Australia in late 1970s

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappé

- nonfiction, history, politics, war

- set in Palestine (Israel) in 1880s-1940s

Train to Tibet (De trein naar Tibet) by Maja Wolny

- nonfiction, travel, culture

- set in Russia, China

Sovietistan by Erika Fatland

- nonfiction, travel, culture, history

- set in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

- fiction, family, grief, cats

- set in Japan

- main characters: Nana the cat, Satoru Miyawaki

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

- fiction, magical realism, time travel, loss

- set in Japan

- main characters: Kazu Tokita, Kei Tokita, Nagare Tokita, Yaeko Hirai

Tales from the Café: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

- fiction, magical realism, time travel, loss

- set in Japan

- main characters: Kazu Tokita, Nagare Tokita, Miki Tokita

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

- fiction, sci-fi, dystopia, humanity

- set in US

- main characters: a father and his son

Educated by Tara Westover

- nonfiction, memoir, family, religion

- set in US (Idaho)

[octopodhotrod]

Books Read 2023:

Clean Air - Sarah Blake

The Bees - Laline Paull

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West - Gregory Maguire (reread)

Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire (reread)

A Lion Among Men - Gregory Maguire

Out of Oz - Gregory Maguire

The Pod - Laline Paull

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Axiom's End - Lindsay Ellis (reread)

Truth of the Divine - Lindsay Ellis

The Far Reaches Collection - James S.A. Corey, Veronica Roth, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ann Leckie, Nnedi Okarafor, John Scalzi

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See

Feed Them Silence - Lee Mandelo

Crewel - Gennifer Albin

Altered - Gennifer Albin

Set my reading goal for 10 books again this year and made it to 15 🎉 I think that's where I'm gonna set my goal for next year because I've managed to hit my goal of 10 the last 2 years in a row.

Not listed are the 15-20 books I started but didn't finish lol

[elridia]

I don't have a reading blog any more for this, but I wanted to do my top five reads of 2022.

The Liveship Traders series by Robin Hobb

The Great Witch of Brittany by Louisa Morgan

Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

[mycomori]

hey—it's another mutual who also doesn't talk much. i don't know how helpful this'll be right now—you're grieving, and it makes sense, and it will take time. but i wanted to tell you that you will always find something new to love.

books are an excellent idea, if nothjng else is working. i hope the one you're reading is cool :) you loved something, someone, long before you loved the stories told by this asshole. you were a person before. you have not stopped being a person just because the thing you loved is tainted.

and it's hard to believe—hell, it's hard for me to believe that anything will hit how ycgma has hit—but it's true. it's always true. the world is so big. there are so many songs and artists and storytellers. and I'm not telling you to find a new one in a week, or a month, or even in a couple years. but i am asking to remember just how far the world stretches.

you have loved different art before. you will love happier, better, more beautiful art again.

okay this one actually a managed to make me fully cry. thank you so much, i am trying so hard to remember that right now. i’ve started reading a new book by one of my favorite authors (the tea girl of hummingbird lane by lisa see) and am working on unrelated art and sketching some characters from hyperfixations past. thank you again for this message, it means a lot. i’m sorry you’re here with me in this shit, but you’re right, we will get through. there will be other things to love and relate to.

[smokefalls]

You shouldn't be alone. You cannot let memories of what happened in the past turn you into someone you wouldn't recognize. Be who you are, Girl, and the right person will find you and love you.

Lisa See, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane | Author: Lisa See | Publisher: Scribner (2017)

[thisbibliophiile]

Books of 2019 #95

The Tea Girl Of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

[claennis]

january - march reads

I literally will c&p from goodreads if my review there make any sense.

circe (madeleine miller) -  miller does it again. greek mythology and I have had a strained, rocky relationship since forced to study renault’s The King Must Die in high school freshman year. somehow with an incredible talent for both scope and attention to detail, miller carves out ruthless, bloodthirsty tales of Greek godhood meets greek mortality with delicacy and fragility. the result is a captivating, irresistible read. I couldn’t get enough of circe despite her generations of flaws and naivety then brutality and self flagellation. the best part is that all of it is not in vain; that circe attains the perfect closure that she would ever desire and isn’t that the best ending we can ask for? I think this is favourite no.2 so far this year.

warcross (marie lu) - this book is so close to 5 stars for me it hurts (really a 4.5 more than anything). the first in its series engaged me right off the bat even with its usual y.a. tropes: down on her luck protagonist, life changes when she catches the eye of young-rich-genius-tall-dark-handsome CEO/creator/programmer (I’m not one to talk; I’m all for young-rich-handsome-genius ceos guffaws stupidly). the futuristic virtual gaming reality intertwined with reality was interesting and fun. the twists, though predictable, were also fun. however, what didn’t work for me were two things: 1) the romance and 2) the agreement to keep things on the dl and then having all actions of the protagonist pretty much disregard it. granted, the romance part was kind of redeemed at the end...I still feel like I didn’t need the little onsen getaway; no matter how nice onsens are. 

vassa in the night (sarah porter) - firstly, I have no preliminary understanding or knowledge of Russian folklore from which Vassa in the Night is based on. so to me, many things had no explanation and some narrative strands that were introduced actually didn’t provide any more insight to the story than mere random conjecture. it was pretty bloody and gruesome; I don’t like dolls; yet, I still enjoyed this weird, crazy, bizarre story.

autoboyography (christina lauren) - disclaimer: I don’t actually like reading drama genre literature. although, there are exceptions. one can tell a lot of heart went into this: the writing truly captures the melodramatic uncertainty of teenage life and sexuality alongside the wider subject of religion and societal acceptance. I don’t know much about Mormonism besides a scattering or stereotypes from when I used to live in the states, so I’d say that this book was quite a gentle and unbiased look into the religion, its believers and their doctrine. barring the serious bad rebounding (god what is with rebounding it makes me cringe) I cared for both tanner and sebastian enough to invest in their relationship and even cross my fingers for a happily ever after for them. I will be picky and say that there was a little too much perfection going for both protagonists, but was willing to overlook it for all the angsty boypain. overall, a sweet composition tackling issues in a genuine manner and a romance to fall and root for.

chainbreaker (timekeeper #2) (tara sim) - chainbreaker is a solid sequel to the first of its trilogy and it is not just a mere stepping stone for the finale, which is a joy to divulge in. there are some clever developments that move the original characters along. that doesn’t stop the fact that new characters are just as interesting and worth investing some time and emotion into. it’s a pretty crazy universe but I do love the historical fiction/steampunk/fantasy mashup. it works for me and I am excited to see what’s next in book three.

the tea girl of hummingbird lane (lisa see) - please see disclaimer in bold above. there are many great elements to this novel that I can appreciate: the effects of culture and tradition of a minority group on a young, ambitious girl who strives to do and go beyond what is expected of her, the Cultural Revolution, the love and research into tea, specifically pu’er, how people can grow (for the better and for the worse) alongside societal changes. however, I had a particularly hard time reading past the first part. I can’t put my finger on exactly what, besides the fact this kind of drama literature isn’t my cup of tea... (haha bad pun soz)

the lady’s guide to petticoats and piracy (montague siblings #2) (mackenzi lee) - you guys, I loved this sequel so much; what fun this was...! though I have to admit: the sentiment wasn’t the same from beginning to end. it took me a while to get into Felicity’s narrative but once she left London and went into cahoots with Sim and Johanna, I was sold. while monty lacked drive, felicity is all determination and stubborn will, and I enjoyed how the book addresses what is her strength is also her biggest weakness, a double-edge sword. I’m always a big fan of historical fiction in the 19th century despite the loose references being made. the intertwined focus of medicine and naturalism is great; some good research has obviously been made to ground the novel. above all though is how much I loved the gradual teamwork between the three women—their interactions, their combined strength from their own differences and inner will... truly a delightful read. I mean who doesn’t like pirates?!

[bookexploreralyssa]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️My second Lisa See, and I now want to read everything she’s written. As many others have said, her books are like a engrossing history lesson, but one with fleshed out characters you can’t help but feel for. I was absolutely absorbed in the life of Li-yan and homeland- a small, tea harvesting Chinese village in the mountains. I even went out to get my own Pu-Erh tea (which is much talked about in the book) to sip on while I read. But Lisa See isn’t just spoon feeding interesting Chinese history to us here, she’s taking about important topics such as immigration, family, tradition and identity. . 🍵I highly recommend this author to anyone who is curious. The other book I’ve read by her, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, is equally captivating and remarkable. So, what do you guys think about this book or Lisa See? I would love to hear your favorites or suggestions on similar books!