Oranges are Not the Only Fruit

by Jeanette Winterson | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0099935708 Global Overview for this book
Registered by lisa1301 of Desborough, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on 3/14/2011
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7 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by lisa1301 from Desborough, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Monday, March 14, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. To try and describe what it is about may ruin what the book is about. There was a TV Drama based on the book.

It is supposed to be fiction, but you almost think the author is writing about herself and her own experiences. The main character is a young girl whose religious mother wants her to become a missionary. She explores her sexual feelings and falls in love with another girl. She's stuck between her religious and her sexual feelings for which her mothers friends at the church try to intervene and "exorcise" her.

It's a book I initially thought I'd give it a try but probably wouldn't be my cup of tea but I enjoyed it.

Journal Entry 2 by lisa1301 at Desborough, Northamptonshire United Kingdom on Monday, March 14, 2011

Released 13 yrs ago (3/14/2011 UTC) at Desborough, Northamptonshire United Kingdom

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm sending this book as my first RABCK (random act of bookcrossing kindness) to a lovely lady in the Netherlands, who was most welcoming and helpful to me when I joined Bookcrossing. This book was near the top of her wishlist.

Enjoy, and Thank you.

Journal Entry 3 by chamonix44 at Almelo, Overijssel Netherlands on Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The first part of this journal entry is copied from the other journal entry I made today on 'Toast' by Nigel Slater, because what you will read below is what occurred whilst I was on my way home when I saw the postman delivering two packages and 'Toast' was in one package, and this book in the other one!

I started out on a walk to the post office to mail out a WBN copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, (as I have started a bookring with it). So my dear cat decided to follow me, and trotted behind me and she was meowing really loudly, (well more like wailing). She does this often! Anyway, as always, when I reached the doctor's surgery she stopped, as there is a road to cross to get to the small shopping centre, and luckily she won't go any further! She usually goes back towards our house and waits under a parked car until she sees me coming back again.

So this time, I was on my way back, and almost home when I spotted our postman with a couple of packets in his hand and he was disappearing through our front gate. He never hangs around. If I'm not in, he's back on his bike and off in a jiffy. So I started to run, (I had forgotten about the cat), and our dear cat, seeing me run past her hiding place, naturally thought I was playing with her and she decided to chase me. She was out from under her car hiding place like a flash of lightning and chased after me and darted inbetween my legs. I saw this black flash emerge at 100 miles per hour out through my legs and then she stopped as if to say "I won"! Anyway, I can't stop in a flash like she can, so I sort of sidestepped to avoid her and sprained my ankle!
I limped the rest of the way home, and saw the postman go off on his bike again, but minus the packages, (because luckily they both fitted through the letterbox). I got to the gate and wondered where the cat was. I looked around and she was just sitting there, in the place where she had made me trip, contentedly washing herself!! Grrr!

Anyway I came indoors and picked up the two packages and opened them. This book was in one of them. I can't tell you how happy I am to get a chance to read this. I have often thought I would like to read it, but I didn't actually put it on my wishlist until a few weeks ago when I was watching a book program on BBC2, presented by Anne Robinson and she was interviewing Jeanette Winterson. Well I really liked this author after I read a very moving book by her some time ago. The book was written so beautifully and I always thought I might like to read another book by her. She actually told Anne Robinson that this story is semi-autobiographal, and that the characters in it were her, and her parents. She might have said they were her 'adoptive' parents but I can't be sure. Anyway she called the man, 'dad' and the woman, "Mrs Winterson", because she didn't like her. I have been longing to read this book ever since I saw that tv program.

So thank you very much Lisa for your generosity in sending me this book!




Journal Entry 4 by chamonix44 at Almelo, Overijssel Netherlands on Friday, April 1, 2011
Update on my sprained ankle. I am now wearing a sort of support sock-bandage around it to keep the swelling down!



Journal Entry 5 by chamonix44 at Almelo, Overijssel Netherlands on Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday, April 22nd 2011. Just popped in to say that I started reading this book today. It was a hot sunny day and a good opportunity for me to sit outside inside our gazebo, with a cup of tea and the book. (Well I guess I drank 1½ litres of tea in the end, as that is the amount our thermal teapot holds)! Good Friday is not a holiday here so my husband was at work and I was free to read.....yippee! I've read about one third of it so far. Unfortunately I had to come back indoors to cook our evening meal! Hopefully I will get back to the book sometime over this Easter Weekend.






Journal Entry 6 by chamonix44 at Almelo, Overijssel Netherlands on Monday, April 25, 2011
Sunday 24th April, Easter Day.What a lovely hot, sunny day it was. My husband and I went first to church where we had a lovely Easter service and then drank coffee and chatted with our friends. Then on to a place called Beerze, where we had reserved a High Tea, (since you can't even buy joints of meat, or turkeys where we live. So no traditional roast dinner for us, unfortunately. Easter is not a big thing here comparing to the UK. :((
The high tea was nice, but only three teeny weeny sandwiches each! All six sandwiches were cut from only two slices of bread!! I'm a sandwich person and not a cake person!

On the way to the restaurant and back, I read more of this book.
Then later we went to my husband's parents' home to eat their traditional Easter dinner with them, which consists of hardboiled eggs, pancakes and bread rolls, with a mixture of peas, mushrooms and bacon bits to put in the pancakes or jam!

After helping to clear up, I sat outside and finished the book, in between interruptions from my mother-in-law asking me silly things, as always! (She means well)!

Anyway, all the text above was my way of writing a bit of friendship into my journal entries and reviews! Now back to the book:

I quite enjoyed it, but was disappointed that the author didn't mention in the book a lot of the things she told about her mother who she referred to as "Mrs Winterson", and not "mum". Like how all books except the bible and Wuthering Heighs, were forbidden. So Jeanette bought them, and hid them under her mattress. Mrs Winterson discovered a whole bed's breadth of books hidden there and burnt them all in the garden.

I was moved by some of the things I read in the book. I felt really sorry for Jeanette having to live under her controlling mother's rule, (having experienced a controlling mother myself). Jeanette said to the pastor and to her mother: ".......I'm leaving the church, so you can forget the rest". 'They were dumbfounded. I held on tight to the little brown pebble and hoped they'd go away.' I can relate so much to things like that. I also used to find little stones and carry them around with me in my bag or pockets as a child. I always felt devastated if they disappeared.

Also another quote is:
"My mother had always told me that the Cock and Whistle was a den of thieves and tax collectors. Now I saw it for the first time, it wasn't nearly so exciting." (another thing that reminded me of my younger days)!

Jeanette discovered that she loved girls and not boys and a love 'affair' for her was pure, but her mother and others told her that the devil made her do these sinful, unclean things. A couple of times in the book she wrote : "To the pure all things are pure". That moved me each time I read it.

I was sorry that Jeanette never got to meet her real mother and disappointed that the story leaves you wondering what happens next. I would like to read a sequel, but I don't think there is one!

A good book, but not anywhere near as good, as powerful or as moving as the other book I read by this author, "Written On The Body"
Click here!
Thank you Lisa for giving me the chance to read this.


The High Tea at Beerze.You can see 2 chocolates wrapped in foil paper, so now you get a chance to compare the normal size of a chocolate with the cakes. The cakes and sandwiches were teeny weeny or you could say "bite size", but nice anyway.

The bread rolls, hardboiled eggs and pancakes, (under the lid), as Dutch traditional Easter dinner, at M-I-L's house.

And this is how they eat it. Some peas, mushrooms and bacon in a pancake and then the pancake INSIDE a bread roll! Strange or what?!!

Ahhhh....this is more normal to an English person, the traditional cup of tea, except they do not provide you with, or offer you, or expect you to drink it with,.... MILK in it!!
Can you see my reflection in the teapot?!


Journal Entry 7 by chamonix44 at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Thursday, May 19, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (5/23/2011 UTC) at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I am sending this book to whitehorsy, in Belgium, because it is on her wishlist. I'll post it from the UK while I'm there, as it's cheaper to send from the UK than from here in The Netherlands, even though Belgium is so near to The Netherlands!

Journal Entry 8 by whitehorsy at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, May 29, 2011
Thank you so much chamonix44, for this wishlist book! I'm looking forward to reading it and once done I'll pass it on to someone else. That's a promise! :-)

Thanks for the lovely postcard from Holland as well! My hometown, Neerpelt, is very close to the Dutch border... so when I'm there during the weekends, I visit Holland quite often, although I don't get much farther than 'just across the border'. ;-)

Journal Entry 9 by whitehorsy at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, September 4, 2011
I've really enjoyed this book although I had the feeling it ended too soon... I don't often read short books (this one was only 171 pages) because they always seem to be over too soon. ;-)

It's a sad and funny story. Sad for what Jeanette has to go through, sad because she can't be herself and can't lead the life she wants. As a reader you feel she deserves better, especially because she's a nice and sympathetic person. The book is also funny... due to her mother's antics, the dialogues.

Thanks again for this RABCK chamonix44! I'll send it along to someone else. Lots of people have this book on their wishlist.


Journal Entry 10 by whitehorsy at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (10/12/2011 UTC) at Leuven, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I found a new home for this book... it'll travel to fellow bookcrosser Soozreader in Finland. Happy travels little book... happy reading Soozreader! :-)

Journal Entry 11 by wingSoozreaderwing at Joensuu, Pohjois-Karjala / Norra Karelen Finland on Saturday, October 15, 2011
Thank you very much for this book:) I just finished reading Written on the body, so I look forward to reading this as well... but as I now have a few books to read before this one, I'll borrow this to a follow bookcrosser sannuli for her 1001-project:)

Journal Entry 12 by sannuli at Joensuu, Pohjois-Karjala / Norra Karelen Finland on Monday, October 24, 2011
Thank you Soozreader :) Curious to see how this one differs from the previous one of hers...

Journal Entry 13 by sannuli at Joensuu, Pohjois-Karjala / Norra Karelen Finland on Thursday, December 29, 2011
Quite boring really. Any books that involves serious religious fundamentalists gives me the creeps. I didn't like the characters but Winterson does know how to write though. She goes deep but this one wasn't one for me.

Back to Soozreder 10.1.2012

Journal Entry 14 by wingSoozreaderwing at Joensuu, Pohjois-Karjala / Norra Karelen Finland on Tuesday, January 10, 2012
This book is back with me:)

Journal Entry 15 by wingSoozreaderwing at Joensuu, Pohjois-Karjala / Norra Karelen Finland on Monday, January 28, 2013
Not sure what to say about this book...it was interesting and well written... but also quite short and yet in my opinion too many pages were used in writing about things (legends) that hadn't much to do with the story itself and for me they unnecessarily disturbed the reading experience.

This book will travel onwards as soon as I manage to get to the post office.

Journal Entry 16 by wingSoozreaderwing at on Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Released 11 yrs ago (1/29/2013 UTC) at

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

The book is on its way to the next reader as a part of the wishlist tag-game! Enjoy!

Journal Entry 17 by wingrodespringbalwing at Moerbeke-Waas, Oost-Vlaanderen / Flandre Orientale Belgium on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
thanks soozreader for this wishlistbook :-)

Journal Entry 18 by wingrodespringbalwing at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, December 22, 2013
I've read this book yesterday, some of my TBR were pilling up :-)

I couldn't agree more with Soozreader: "Not sure what to say about this book...it was interesting and well written... but also quite short and yet in my opinion too many pages were used in writing about things (legends) that hadn't much to do with the story itself and for me they unnecessarily disturbed the reading experience."

I was a bit disappointed I've heard a lot about this book and it couldn't quite give me the joy I was expecting...

Journal Entry 19 by wingrodespringbalwing at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium on Sunday, December 22, 2013

Released 10 yrs ago (12/22/2013 UTC) at Roosdaal, Vlaams-Brabant / Brabant Flamant Belgium

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book will go to Flutterbies9 as a trade :-) Hope Flutterbies9 enjoyes it more than I did.

Save travelling!

Journal Entry 20 by Flutterbies9 at Meare, Somerset United Kingdom on Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Many thanks for your sterling efforts to get this book to me. It has now safely arrived.
I read this book when I was at college and now only vaguely recall it so I've been looking forward to re-reading it. I suspect I will have a different perspective on it now, though I do know I still like her writing style.

Interesting to see how far this little book has travelled from UK and around Europe over the years before coming back to the UK.

Journal Entry 21 by Flutterbies9 at Meare, Somerset United Kingdom on Thursday, January 23, 2014
Well, I have not been disappointed. As I have said before I read this book many years ago whilst still at college and liked the style of writing then and now. I thought my perspective may have changed over the years and it has. Previously the intensity of the narrative and the heavy religious overtones blended together to form an unforgettable impression of interesting writing. This time some of the religious extremes were uncomfortable but the fruit theme and the sexual awakenings became more lyrical. The writing is still however interesting, expressive and compulsively readable despite reservations about the subjects tackled.
I've never seen this as a drama but I might be tempted to now that I've re-read this.

I'll put this as available at present but may change that soon.

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