Expand the Canon Book Club: "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"

In our newest Greedy Reads book club hosted by bookseller Valerie Hsu, we read and discuss works that are considered classics today, but might be excluded from standard curricula or reading lists because of subject matter, personal identities of their authors, societal reactions at publication, etc. In other words, we read influential texts that you could have read in a high school English class but probably didn’t because of racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, eurocentrism, etc. in how our educational systems operate.

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “I’m embarrassed I’ve never read ____” or “Why didn't anyone tell me about ___?” or “I was too young to appreciate ___ and I’d like to re-read it as an adult,” we’re here to help you out. Fill in your reading gaps with these classics you might have missed, and come discuss with us on the first Tuesdays each month.

We’ll meet on Tuesday, June 2 to discuss Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson. Here are other selections on the docket for you to get a sense of the types of books we’ll read:

• The Joyluck Club by Amy Tan
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
• Winter in the Blood by James Welch
• America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
• Passing by Nella Larson
• The Bondswoman’s Narrative by Hannah Crafts
• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• No-No Boy by John Okada

About Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit:

A beloved contemporary feminist classic and pioneering work of autofiction—a funny, poignant exploration of a young girl’s quirky passage into adulthood

Jeanette Winterson’s extraordinary career began at the age of twenty-five with the publication of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. An international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Whitbread Award for Best First Fiction, it is considered a classic of contemporary literature and taught widely around the world, in courses ranging from core undergraduate classes to women’s studies and queer studies.

Jeanette is a bright and rebellious orphan who is adopted into an evangelical household in the dour, industrial north of England. Her youth is spent embroidering grim religious mottoes and shaking her little tambourine for Jesus. But as this budding missionary comes of age and comes to terms with her unorthodox sexuality, the peculiar balance of her God-fearing household collapses. Jeanette’s insistence on listening to truths of her own heart and mind—and on reporting them with wit and passion—makes for an unforgettable chronicle of an extraordinary passage into adulthood.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is available for purchase here!

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