Easily one of my favourite books in the world, "Oranges are not the Only Fruit," is a fabulous tale, often shattered with bits and pieces of fairy tales, segues, and the ultimate return to the story of a girl, her religiously zealous mother, and the budding of a lesbian sexuality in a truly conservative world.

I adore this book, it makes you laugh out loud, and at the same time has real depth to it.

Release planned for Wednesday, March 05, 2003 at Billings Bridge Shopping Mall in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

On the forums, Aisho mentioned that for a birthday, one might cellebrate the BookCrossing way by releasing a book per year of the official day of celebration. Always - er, sometimes - one to rise to a challenge, I pondered a bit, wandered a lot, and decided to give this a shot.

March 5th, 2003, I turned 28. To celebrate, 28 books were scattered through Ottawa - most by myself, some by passing them off to individuals who visited me at the insanely early hour of 6:15 a.m. in a local 24 hour diner, or who met up with me prior to the 5th. Each visitor got a book to release somewhere a lot further away in the city than I could get to in one day (especially a day where I had to get to work in the early afternoon for a complete store inventory - Happy Birthday to me.)

So - if you found this, you found my birthday present to you. I hope you like it, I hope you pass it on to someone else, or re-release it into the wild. And hey, it's not about growing older, it's about growing.

Now - specifically about this book: Behind the Orange Juice, inside the Loblaws. Hey, it's not the only fruit juice, either! Take a peek behind 'em, and find some really wonderful brit lit! This is one of my favourite titles, and one it hurt to part with - but it is my bifday! Share the joy.

This was Release #21 of 28.

I found the book very interesting. Jeanette Winterson has a nice way of presenting her eccentric characters in a humorous manner. She drew me into the very religious family and community. Tracing jeanette's evolution from a very orthodox child believing in all that presented to her to someone who challenged her environment and the people in it is very convincing and exciting. Among other things, her insights into what it is like to "go back home" and how people see us as "who we were" is very compelling. I thought, perhaps, those who opposed Jeanette's changes(i.e. her mother) could have been considered with more sympathy(at times they were one-dimensional but perhaps they were really like that).

All in all a great book and I am in process of passing it on.

Released on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at 1355 Bank @ Riverside, Entrance Lobby in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

I am leaving the book in the cafeteria on a table in the back corner. I'm going to try to do it without someone noticing. Let's see what happens!

I got this book from a friend who doesn't read much about two years ago. I was at her house and surprised to see a book sitting on her dresser--she's very open about her dislike of reading, so I asked her about it. Someone had given it to her (can't remember who) and she said I could have it since she wasn't going to read it. No idea how it made its way from the CMHA to her. I noticed the tag, etc, but wasn't thrilled with the book and put it away and forgot about it until I was cleaning up my bookshelf recently and my curiosity was piqued.
About the book, I don't know, it just didn't do much for me, although after reading these glowing reviews maybe I'll give it another shot before letting it go. I guess I've read my share of this genre, and it can get a bit old (kind of like all the Frank McCourt-like "poor Irish childhood" stories do). Also, I like my repressed-lesbian tales with a bit of action to them and there weren't enough juicy bits for my liking.
I'm totally excited about bookcrossing.com now that I've figured it out, and I definitely plan on releasing some of my own collection soon. I think I'm going to leave this book somewhere at Carleton University, or maybe at a Bridgehead coffee shop.