A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

I am little behind the times in reading this one, but I am so glad I waited. All the hype would have made me really dislike the book for not living up to my expectations or being asked by everyone and their mother whether I had read this part or that part yet?! So, I waited, patiently as this book never really grabbed my attention like it did millions of other readers, and when I was offered it in a trade (yes, I lent them my Caitlin Moran's How To Be a Woman) I thought why not, it's about time. And it was.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian is not really about tractors, though there is a bit of information about them and I have to say the only one I recognised was John Deere (felt slightly ashamed), it is about family. A family that has lost their mother two years before, two sisters who are not speaking to each other since the row over money at the funeral, and their father, the man with the Big Ideas. In his 80s, Father has become more and more peculiar since the death of his wife, and nothing makes Big Sis and Nadia (Nadezhda) realise this than when he informs them he is to marry a 36 year old Ukrainian woman.

I must say, I felt Nadia's intense pain when her father talks about Valentina's (that's the 36 year old slut) enormous breasts and his desire to have a child with her. It is a completely horrific thought, never ever ever does a child want to discuss anything of a sexual nature with their parents, my goodness, the 'talk' was hard enough, let's not go back there! There are some brilliant scenes of Nadia meeting the 'slut' Valentina in all her glory, the enormous bosom, the long painted nails, the dyed blonde hair, the outrageous fur coat and the awful way she seems to speak. I also, loved the relationship between Big Sis (Vera) and Nadia, their differences that seem to all stem from one of them being born in the Ukraine just before the war and Nadia being the peace baby. 10 years age gap and they seem to be completely different people, with entirely different childhoods. Nadia has only seen the good, the fair, she still believes (even as an adult) that things aren't just black and white; whereas Vera has known hunger, fear, terror, she has lived through it and come out the other side. To Vera England is a safe place, one not to be taken advantage of, to Nadia it is just home.

However, as much as I enjoyed the relationships and the humorous episodes, I never once found it funny, it wasn't hilarious, I didn't roll upon the floor laughing. I laughed out loud once, while reading the last chapter, but otherwise I just wanted to find out what was going to happen. It kept you in a trap of suspense and wonder, would Valentina ever leave, would Nadia and Vera maintain their truce, what was Valentina up to and many many more. The ending was of the satisfactory kind, with  an uplifting feel.

Final verdict, if you haven't read this book you probably should, it's pretty light and easy to read. Perfect for reading on the way to work or where ever, but it certainly won't change your life.

'Pure' by Andrew Miller

'Dazzling' Guardian
'Gripping' The Times
'Irresistibly compelling' The Sunday Telegraph

Now, I am quite tempted to leave my blog post about this book at that. It was so incredibly good that the plethora of quotes decorating the cover were so justified I almost feel unable to add my very small voice to the fire. But, I will anyway.

Jean-Baptiste Baratte has arrived at the palace of all palaces, Versailles. Here he sits, across from another silent man, waiting for a silent door to open. He is comfortable in his father's suit, he knows it's true worth and his own, or at least he believes he does. A well-educated farmer, an engineer who has built one bridge, well really it was more of a decoration over a small lake, but he engineered it. Jean-Baptiste is a man, just like every other man. He will follow orders from a minister and take money to do as he is told, because that is the only way to make something of yourself. Well of course, this is France, Paris to be exact in 1785, a world that appears to be endless in it's inequality.

Jean-Baptiste is welcomed into the belly of the Parisian beast, he is given a job he is hardly qualified for and has great distaste for and yet, he will take it. He will stay in a house neighbouring a graveyard, a graveyard he has been hired to 'purify'. For Baratte, this place appears unhealthy, there is a stench that seems to come from people's very breath, from inside, a stench that comes from the earth, the cemetery, known as les Innocents, overflowing with death. This unsavoury realisation comes upon him while eating in his new lodgings in the Monnard's house, there is Monsieur Monnard who has his own shop that sells blades, Madame discusses the weather and Ziguette (their rather attractive young daughter) plays the piano badly and enjoys watching people in the street. Their home borders the cemeteries walls and they breath the very breathe of death. For Barette, he must deal with his demons, rally a whole troop to dig up the bones and dispose of the corpses, though of course the minister must have thought of that?!

Now, I really could go on and on, there are so many incredible characters (Armand, the organist, Jeanne, the granddaughter of the sexton, Leceour, the idealistic miner, Jan Block, Lisa Sagent, Helouise, the literary prostitute, Dr Guillotine and many many more), shocking developments, Baratte's adventures around town, the market, the infamous suit... I really could go on and on. But I do warn you, do not read the back blurb too closely, do not turn your copy over, just sit down and read it from the first page. Andrew Miller has a true gift, he makes prose that dances off the page in true unbridled purity. He can make even the most horrific moments appear to be poetic and yet, it is so powerful you find yourself trapped within the moments, almost reliving the horrors as you dream (though of course these dreams are better scripted than anything you could come up with yourself).

I would encourage you all to go out and fetch this book, as always a plea to go to a real bookshop or library (they do the real thing there too, only free!) and then find yourself a quiet place to sit down, for you shall not be moving for a long time! Read it, love it, share it, enjoy the luxuriating wonders of it, for it is truly a monumentally wonderful book. Oh and the cover is great too!

How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

So, while it was warm and lovely I got to hankering for a book with a bit of humour and damn good writing. For some reason my bookshelves, heaving with fiction, weren't quite doing it for me and I went in search of something else. To my surprise it was a non-fiction title that contained all I was looking for, a mixture of biography and feminist rant, but still bursting with humour Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman delivered when nothing else was quite right.

If you haven't heard of this book, I really do wonder where you have been!? It has catapulted its way into bookshops and brought more and more people (women, but also lots of men) to the realisation that they are indeed feminists! Feminism is not about burning your bra or never shaving your armpits, it's about recognising that men and women are not so different. If we are basically the same (or 'the guys' as Moran puts it) then why should one earn less than the other, or be seen in a different way. So let's just all be 'one of the guys' and not seen separately.

Now, I don't want to turn this into a rant about feminism, but please tell me you are a feminist! Young, old, male, female - we all deserve to be treated equally and that's all feminism is! Want to get a job, live on your own, date whoever you want, wear whatever you want, do whatever you want and you believe everyone else has that right to - then by gosh you are a feminist! Congrats, now lets topple this moronic belief that women should be controlled by men and tada we will be better off - all of us (even the men).
Okay, rant over!

Here is my favourite paragraph, well aside from all the gazillions of my other favourite paragraphs: 'Of course, whilst ostensibly both a literally and figuratively small problem, tiny pants have massive ramifications for us as a nation. It cannot have gone unnoticed that, as a country, our power has waned in synchronicity with the waning of our pants. When women wore undergarments that extended from chin to toe, the sun never set on the British Empire. Now the average British woman could pack a week's worth of pants into a match box, we have little more than dominion over the Bailiwick of Jersey, and the Isle of Man. All the good that women getting the vote has done has been undone by their constant struggle against their tiny pants.'

So anyway, you should all go buy this book, it is out in normal paperback now and is super duper amazing-ness! As a woman you should buy it because it will be one of the first times any other woman has ever been so heart-wrenchingly honest about what it means to grow up and become a woman. It will also have you laughing so hard that you embarrass yourself on buses and trains. Trust me, you will be giggling all the way to work/school or where ever and back again!

The Good Plain Cook by Bethan Roberts

The next book I read during my sunshine reading marathon was Bethan Roberts' The Good Plain Cook. It appealed to me because of the myriad of reviews from varied broadsheets and magazines I really admire. However, I found this novel to be a little too predictable. A nineteen year old girl, Kitty, is searching for a new job to escape from living with her controlling sister, she responds to an ad for a 'plain cook' at Ellen Steinberg's house. Ellen Steinberg is an American who is living with a married man, George, and her daughter, Geenie. It is a rather unconventional arrangement and most of the town are talking about her and wondering what it is like inside that house. Kitty is also attracted to all the mystery and so unfolds a rather dreary novel about class, love, sexual awakening and cooking.

Kitty cannot cook, Kitty has never been in love and she has always understood her position in the world. Kitty has also had no sexual experience, she has never even seen herself naked in a mirror! Ellen is pretending to be 'bohemian' but it is all just an act, though her past sexual exploration is covered with some shock and awe by the author. A woman in the 1930s paying for sex from a hairdresser! I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be shocked by this, or by Ellen's constant need to tell us and Geenie, that being naked is so great! (By the way, all the ! after sentences are showing my own disbelief that this is a major plot point of the novel. Sexual awakening in the countryside in England! My little cheeks are flushing!) I felt that Roberts found writing about sex shocking and all I can say is it was not shocking at all!

George is a middle-class (he works in publishing and is supposed to be writing a novel or poetry) Communist. He believes that everyone is equal, but we rarely see him lift a finger to do anything. Instead he is, as Arthur the gardener points out, pretending to care, he hasn't actually helped pull down the wall inside, neither does he help with the gardening, he just stands around. To be honest George is a little like this novel. The reviews would have you believe this to be a brave look at 1930s class and the levelling power of love. Everyone is on equal pegging when they are heart-broken right?

The only character I had any interest in at all was Ellen's daughter, Geenie. I hoped she would see right through the thinly veiled characters of Kitty, Ellen and George and join the reader in finding them wanting. But even Geenie, poor neglected little girl, is left with only half a character. Her rebellions that gave me such hope only ended in pathetic half-hearted gestures at remedy.

All in all, I didn't really enjoy this novel. Especially after reading The Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, I found Roberts' world and characters to be incredibly lacking. Even the ending was unsatisfying, or perhaps I no longer cared for the characters and therefore found the last few chapters incredibly dull and incomplete. I must say that by the end I was incredibly glad to close the book and go off in search of something better.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

I have been a terrible blogger. All those lovely days I spent sitting outside devouring book after book and not once did I sit at my laptop and write about it. So, I will attempt to make up for it today!

The first book I read was by Mary Ann Shaffer, a book many people were talking about a year or so ago. I don't think I could walk into a bookstore or have coffee with a friend without someone mentioning this book. The title alone seemed to attract readers. 'Potato Peel Pie Society' seemed to exude a type of mystery and humour that had been missing from literary books before. The 'Jane Austen Book Club' didn't sound as appealing after hearing this title. But, as you probably know now, I find it difficult to read a book when everyone is raving about it. So instead I re-read 84 Charing Cross Road and fell in love with it again.

Now, finally, I sat down to read 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' and I really enjoyed it. A beautifully written story that explores the realities of life after the war and the importance of family, no matter how that family is made. Juliet Ashton, the accomplished writer who is the central protagonist of this story, engages in a endearing relationship with the members of a Literary Society in Guernsey. Through letters the reader is drawn into the enchanting world of Guernsey's only Literary Society and their terrifying and incredibly brave past.

I have studied quite a lot of history, spent time poring over history books and yet, I know almost nothing about the German occupation of Guernsey. Part of me wished this book was real, like 84 Charing Cross Road that these stories I was reading were true and real. Yet, I was drawn into the story regardless. It is an engrossing and endearing read about the love of reading and the joy you can get from sharing a good book with others.

You should read this book, but if you have a low tolerance for whimsy then read 84 Charing Cross Road but for everyone else read both. Compare! Enjoy them and remember how much you love to read, because the sunny days are coming (I hope) so we are all in need of good books!