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A Thread of Grace

Mary Doria Russell

Start date: February 1, 2020

Finish date: February 29, 2020

Discussion: 2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

Discussion leader: Christopher

Why we're reading this: 2020 Historical Fiction Tournament
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2020 Historical Fict. Tournament

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What Members Thought

Feb 17, 2020 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own-it

A well researched, touching book about the lives of Italians and refugees during the German occupation of Italy at the end of WW2. Explores the philosophical and religious implications of a morality code turned upside down by war. I felt like I learned a lot about the every day lives of civilians and resistance fighters in the Italian Alps with enough historical background to place the story within the wider war effort.

10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 21, 2020 Petra rated it liked it

Well written. Mary Doria Russell can write. This book starts out with a bang. That prologue was chilling. The first chapters were enticing. But somewhere along the line the story got bogged down and it didn't pick up.
I enjoyed the historical aspects. The resilience of the people; their strength, determination, caring.
Russell, though, keeps us distanced from any of the characters. This may be part of the story, meant to show the reality of the times, with people coming & going from one's life, ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 06, 2015 Irene rated it really liked it

This is another brilliant book by an amazingly versatile author. This is the story of the Italian resistance, set in northwestern Italy in 1943-1945. Despite a full stage of characters, Russell manages to make each stand off the page with vitality and unique personalities. Russell does not shy away from the brutality and capriciousness of war. Readers who crave happy endings may be disappointed since even in victory there are no unadulterated happy endings. But, there is also no unadulterated mi ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Feb 28, 2020 Rachel rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

I was conflicted on this one. She's a great writer and I really enjoyed my encounter with an area of history I had never even thought about before. But she verges near the sentimental and the emotional and almost seems manipulative in a way. I had some of the same feelings when reading The Sparrow. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2020 Christopher rated it liked it

Shelves: american, fiction, historical-fiction, 21st-century

This was disappointing, because it started off so promisingly. There wasn’t anything majorly wrong with the book, but the story was divided between too many characters for Russell to do the deep character work that made The Sparrow so great.

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 15, 2020 Pamela rated it it was amazing

Shelves: italy-not-crime

Historical novel set in Northern Italy during the final years of WWII. As the Fascist militias try to hold ground against attacks from bands of partisans, the people of the mountain villages shelter Jewish families from the roundups and reprisals of the German occupiers. This novel follows a number of characters involved in this struggle - Jewish refugees, an Italian rabbi, priests, nuns, soldiers, a disillusioned WWI veteran, a Nazi deserter - as their paths cross in the daily struggle for surv ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2020 Meghan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, war, own, jewish, italian, book-club, challenge, audiobook, bookish, audio-book

A solid 3.5 stars. I loved the viewpoint from the Italian standpoint. I haven’t seen it from theirs before. It was interesting to compare and contrast this to other stories. In the end, humans are humans. War is war. And it doesn’t matter where you come from, bad things. Good things. We are capable of them all.

I couldn’t give this a full 4 stars like I wanted because this story was odd. I’d get caught up in a moment and then the next be completely uninterested and un-invested in what was happeni ...more

1 like · Like · see review