
Lady Tan's Circle of Women
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer Lim
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Justin Chien
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By:
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Lisa See
About this listen
*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!*
From “one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot” (The New York Times Book Review) an immersive historical novel inspired by the true story of a woman physician in 15th-century China—perfect for fans of Lisa See’s classics Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane.
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? 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.
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Eloquently written and read
- By D on 07-21-07
By: Lisa See
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The Valley of Amazement
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Joyce Bean, Amy Tan
- Length: 24 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Shanghai, 1912. Violet Minturn is the privileged daughter of the American madam of the city's most exclusive courtesan house. But when the Ching dynasty is overturned, Violet is separated from her mother in a cruel act of chicanery and forced to become a "virgin courtesan." Half-Chinese and half-American, Violet grapples with her place in the worlds of East and West - until she is able to merge her two halves, empowering her to become a shrewd courtesan who excels in the business of seduction and illusion, though she still struggles to understand who she is.
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Just could NOT get past the ugliness
- By Pamela J on 11-25-13
By: Amy Tan
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The Bonesetter's Daughter
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known....
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Exceptionally good
- By Eileen Finn on 03-25-03
By: Amy Tan
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The Interior
- A Red Princess Mystery
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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While David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, receives an urgent message from an old friend imploring her to investigate the suspicious death of her daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client, Tartan Enterprises.
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Narration is terrible
- By Veronica (OhYesItsV) on 08-15-17
By: Lisa See
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On Gold Mountain
- The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 18 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Out of the stories heard in her childhood in Los Angeles's Chinatown and years of research, See has constructed this sweeping chronicle of her Chinese-American family, a work that takes in stories of racism and romance, entrepreneurial genius and domestic heartache, secret marriages and sibling rivalries, in a powerful history of two cultures meeting in a new world.
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Great story...awful narration
- By Solbakken on 06-02-17
By: Lisa See
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Paper Wife
- A Novel
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife - a paper wife. On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.
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Just okay..disappointed
- By Donna Smith McG on 11-03-18
By: Laila Ibrahim
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Peach Blossom Paradise
- By: Ge Fei
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Peach Blossom Paradise, set at the time of the reform, is the story of Xiumi, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and former government official who falls prey to insanity and disappears. Days later, a man with a gold cicada in his pocket turns up at their family estate and is inexplicably welcomed as a relative.
By: Ge Fei
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The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
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Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
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The Moon in the Palace
- The Empress of Bright Moon, Book 1
- By: Weina Dai Randel
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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There is no easy path for a woman aspiring to power. A concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the emperor's attention. Many paint their faces white and style their hair attractively, hoping to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. But young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the emperor a gift he can never forget.
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One of the most annoying narrations
- By Foodiewife on 01-28-17
By: Weina Dai Randel
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Women of the Silk
- A Novel
- By: Gail Tsukiyama
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama takes listeners back to rural China in 1926, where a group of women forge a sisterhood amid the reeling machines that reverberate and clamor in a vast silk factory from dawn to dusk. Leading the first strike the village has ever seen, the young women use the strength of their ambition, dreams, and friendship to achieve the freedom they could never have hoped for on their own.
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beautiful writing
- By Beth Walker on 04-03-25
By: Gail Tsukiyama
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Flower Net
- A Red Princess Mystery
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Elaina Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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In the depths of a Beijing winter, during the waning days of Deng Xiaoping's reign, the US ambassador's son is found dead - his body entombed in a frozen lake. Almost simultaneously, American officials find a ship adrift in the storm-churned waters off California. No one is surprised to find the fetid hold crammed with hundreds of undocumented Chinese immigrants - the latest cargo in the Chinese mafia's smuggling trade. What does surprise Assistant US Attorney David Stark is that among the hapless refugees lies the corpse of a Red Prince, a scion of China's political elite.
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terrible reader , not very coherent book
- By JB on 03-09-06
By: Lisa See
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Pavilion of Women
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 15 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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On her 40th birthday, Madame Wu carries out a decision she has been planning for a long time: she tells her husband that after 24 years their physical life together is now over and she wishes him to take a second wife. The House of Wu, one of the oldest and most revered in China, is thrown into an uproar by her decision, but Madame Wu will not be dissuaded and arranges for a young country girl to come take her place in bed.
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Horrible narration!
- By Customer Review on 06-17-15
By: Pearl S. Buck
What listeners say about Lady Tan's Circle of Women
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- S. Henison
- 09-26-23
So great!
I loved these women. I felt their struggle. I cried with them. I was thrilled when they got a few rewards for so much hard work living in such a hard place and time. Isn't it amazing all the ways women have been held down and forced to walk a narrow path determined by men?
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6 people found this helpful
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- christy
- 07-16-23
Lisa See never disappoints!
I can honestly report that I have never been disappointed by a Lisa See novel. My favorite one is still Snow Flower and the Secret Fan but they are all great. I love the dive into the Asian traditional culture specifically related to the women and the upbringing of girls. It is fascinating and I love how Lisa See creates and identifies the great strengths of the female characters in her novels. They have great strength but in a realistic way that stays true to the culture.
The reality of foot binding experiences intrigue me and also terrify me. I highly recommend any of the Lisa See novels and will continue to enjoy them as she publishes more. Bravo, Lisa See, you are an amazing author and so consistently valid. Thank you.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kaye
- 06-29-23
Beautiful Book!!!
Women are still struggling with the same issues that plagued females in Lady Tan’s life time. She was a beautiful person who helped those around her who struggled with health issues. She treated both the physical and spiritual aspects of a woman, which we are now finding out is so important for complete and correct healing to occur.
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2 people found this helpful
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- kathleen thomas
- 07-08-23
Hard Lives
Started a little slow for me but ended up i really liked it. I listened to it twice. How different and difficult life was then. The reader was very good. I just thought it would be better if she'd had a Chinese accent.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jennifer
- 06-22-23
Good historical fiction
I enjoyed this book. It was very interesting and had a good plot. I liked learning about the many details of the lives of women 15th(?) century China.
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2 people found this helpful
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- KANGLE
- 06-23-23
Better than most, love author!
Great story. Best characterization of culture! Could be best yet of women’s main influence in the time period. Enjoyed the history lesson too!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Mabriej
- 07-10-23
Beautiful story
Beautiful and complex relationships between women and the men who loved them. Females helping females.
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2 people found this helpful
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- PATTY C.
- 07-03-23
Soo Good
This story caught my attention from the first pages. Excellent historical history about the customs of the wealthy educated members of society and the differences of the men and women in the 16th century China. Excellent book and excellent narration.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Alex Sanchez
- 07-24-23
Couldn’t stop listening
Great story! I couldn’t stop listening! I would recommend this book to others who like well-written, detail-oriented stories.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Charlie Firestone
- 06-16-23
Another triumph for Lisa See
Loved this book on several levels. It relays so much of 16th Century Chinese society, including its class system, sexism, bureaucracy, beliefs, and of course medicine. Within that ancient background, the story telling contains many insights applicable to us today, from familial and friend relationships (See’s forte) to those of health and medicine. The parallels between the Chinese method of immunization from the smallpox pestilence and the Covid-19 epidemic vaccine are apparent. While it does take a few chapters, the story develops with interesting and surprising spine-tingling revelations in the final three or four chapters, making you appreciate the necessary detail in building to that climax. A triumph!
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