Page By page Book Club
Page by Page, the intermediate ELL book club, meets every Wednesday at 1 pm on Zoom. Each week, we discuss a few chapters from the book until we have read it all the way through.
Current selection
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See
We’ll read about 30 pages a week of this book, finishing on December 10, 2025. Copies to keep are available at the Reader’s Advisory Desk.
“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.
A captivating story of women helping each other, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women is a triumphant reimagining of the life of one person who was remarkable in the Ming dynasty and would be considered remarkable today.
Previous Selections
October-December 2021 – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
December 13 2021 – “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan (short story)
January-February 2022 – Great Illustrated Classics: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Adapted by Deirde S. Laiken and illustrated by Pablo Marcos Studio.
February-May 2022 – A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
May-August 2022 – The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
August-September 2022 – The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
September 19, 2022 – “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin (short story)
September 26, 2022 – “Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes (short story)
October 2022 – The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
November 2022 – The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (short story)
December 2022 – “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell (short story)
January 2023-February 2023 – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
March 2023 – Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
April 5, 2023 – “One Boy Told Me” by Naomi Shihab Nye (poem)
April 12, 2023 – “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant (short story)
April-June 2023 – Hidden Figures by Margot Shetterly
July 2023 – Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
August-October 2023 – State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
October-November 2023 – The Maid by Nita Prose
December 2023-February 2024 – Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
February – May 2024 – The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
May-July 2024 – Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
July-September 2024 – Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
October-November 2024 – Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty
-January 2025-March 2025 – The Lonely Hearts Book Club by Lucy Gilmore
April-June 2025 – Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
July-September 2025 – The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman
October-December 2025 – Lady Tan’s Circle of Women by Lisa See