Other Fruit - Some Strange Music Draws Me In (online only)
Please note - ONLINE only
The Other Fruit Bookclub centers LGBTQ+ books, authors and readers and is hosted by Grey (they/them) - for September we are reading Some Strange Music Draws Me In
All are welcome to attend and take part in our discussions, however we ask that if you do not identify at LGBTQ+ you approach the book club as an opportunity for listening and support and give precedence to others in discussion.
We read and discuss one book each month - although there is a core group of regulars, new faces join each discussion and some people dip in and out depending on whether the book grabs their attention.
Use the code OTHERFRUIT at checkout to get 10% off bookclub books :)
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The Book:
It’s the summer of 1984 in Swaffham, Massachusetts, when Mel (short for Melanie) meets Sylvia, a tough-as-nails trans woman whose shameless swagger inspires Mel’s dawning self-awareness. But Sylvia’s presence sparks fury among her neighbors and throws Mel into conflict with her mother and best friend. Decades later, in 2019, Max (formerly Mel) is on probation from his teaching job for, ironically, defying speech codes around trans identity. Back in Swaffham, he must navigate life as part of a fractured family and face his own role in the disasters of the past.
Populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Some Strange Music Draws Me In is a propulsive page turner about multiple electrifying relationships—between a working-class mother and her queer child, between a trans man and his right-wing sister, and between a teenager and her troubled best friend. Griffin Hansbury, in elegant, arresting, and fearless prose, dares to explore taboos around gender and class as he offers a deeply moving portrait of friendship, family, and a girlhood lived sideways. A timely and captivating narrative of self-realization amid the everyday violence of small-town intolerance, Some Strange Music Draws Me In builds to an explosive conclusion, illuminating the unexpected ways that difference can provide a ticket to liberation.
