taps foot impatiently......

Come on guys, what's occurring? Even Mr Lily has nearly finished reading Tractors! (I think leaving it on the stool in the bathroom probably caught his attention.) Read more!

sussed it! team blog

(Lily) The old man didn't get on with Vera because if she hadn't stolen the guard's cigarettes in the camp, she and her mother would not have been sent to the correction block and her mother wouldn't have been raped and made pregnant with Nadia! 'You're not my daughter'...'Don't dig up the past'...It all makes sense now, lol. I have to admit I enjoyed Tractors more the second time round but only because I knew what to expect. I wouldn't describe it as an un-put-downable book or prize-winning material - too repetitive and disjointed in a 'device to keep you reading' sort of way. What does everyone else think? Read more!

bedtime reading

is what I'm doing - working my way through Tractors again. Maybe this time I'll discover Vera's secret, I missed it first time round. (Lily) Read more!

Lily's belated New Year's resolution

Josephine, you're a star!

Perhaps it was a daft idea, getting the book club up and running just before Christmas when people are at their busiest/most stressed. So much has happened since then I've forgotten what I thought about Tractors so I'm going to read it again (yes, even the history of tractors bits, cornbread!) and then post a proper review. I hope you'll join me x

Actually, I don't think I'm going to get round to it. I have a new obsession now - knitting. Carry on without me! Read more!

right you lazy lot.... team blog

(Lily) Ok, I'll get the ball rolling. The first thing that struck me about Tractors was that some people might think the elderly father contemplating marriage with a much younger compatriot was a little far-fetched. Well let me tell you this ... when my husband's Czechoslovakian father died in his 80s (a heart attack while swimming) we discovered that he had left everything to a mystery Czechoslovakian fiancee that no-one had ever heard of until then! And as for eccentric Slavs - I will never forget the toe-curlingly embarrassing reunion at Gatwick Airport when pa-in-law met up again with his two sons that he abandoned when they were children. I'll spare you the details as its rather personal, but his tirade was delivered in exactly the same broken English as depicted in Tractors, and at full volume!

(Josephine) Wow, Lily. Sounds like you related to this book in a much more personal way than I did. That isn't to say that it didn't suck me in, though. My favorite parts were definitely the descriptions of and interactions with the father, and Nadia's reminiscence of her late mother. I loved the way the two generations (kind of three, as Vera was so much older, and more Ukranian, than Nadia) looked at life.
Her mother lived in fear based on her very real experiences with tyrants, but had no real reason to fear the British government. She used her fear, though, in productive (I would say even heroic) ways. She never spent money she didn't have to spend, she saved every peice of food she could, and she trusted the earth to provide so long as she put in the time and hard work.
The father loved Ukariane but couldn't admit what it had become. He chose to ignore the terrible history and honor the intelligence and creativity that came out of Ukraine.
Vera was haunted and therefore rigid. She loved her family but was too protective to actually protect them until she bent a little to be more like Nadia.
Nadia was a little too understanding. She was the most British of the family, and didn't understand their Ukranian ways. She finally blended the cultures a little more when she became more like Vera.
That horrible Valentina was sooo intriguing, but I also just kind of wanted her to drop dead most of the time.
All I got for now :) Read more!

start without me team blog

I'll catch up. Read more!