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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
adventurous
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I started to write a 4 star review, and I couldn't think of a reason not to give it five. Stellar. I'm really starting the year off with some winners.
Wow this book was stressful and so good. Will they make it? Will they not? All over some eggs! There is war, famine (human made), violence, strategy. So many things. And a great understanding of the strength of the human spirit.
just couldn't get into it. immediately forgettable for me. i've read a few ww2/holocaust books, and this just wasn't as good as others.
I tried...I really did, but I guess I'm turned off by the constant obsessions that young men have...I don't care to hear about sexual conquests and practices in real life...and I certainly won't spend my leisure exploring that. The overall plot is very interesting, but the two main characters are so disgusting that I no longer care.
Not, as my mother initially thought, a funny and charming read. It is both of those at times, but it is also dark and, at times, graphic. Worth reading.
David Benioff is best known for bringing an adaptation of Game of Thrones to HBO, and while this story is far removed from Westeros it shares that series’ depictions of the blunt brutality of war. I was first drawn to Benioff through a very different work, however: The 25th Hour (still one of my very favorite films). And there are some commonalities there, too, particularly with following protagonists on finite timelines before the beginning of a final sentence: life in prison or sure death at the hands of Bolshevik special forces.
What distinguishes City of Thieves most from Benioff’s other work is its root in his own family history. He opts to tell the story of his grandparents as fiction to give license for the embellishing of details, but one can almost imagine the stunned Benioff hearing a version of this incredibly harrowing story for the first time. The result is a book that offers some tense action alongside fatalistic humor and haunting moments of tenderness.
What distinguishes City of Thieves most from Benioff’s other work is its root in his own family history. He opts to tell the story of his grandparents as fiction to give license for the embellishing of details, but one can almost imagine the stunned Benioff hearing a version of this incredibly harrowing story for the first time. The result is a book that offers some tense action alongside fatalistic humor and haunting moments of tenderness.
L'assedio nazista di Stalingrado, ovvero il momento in cui il corso della storia, che sembrava voler consegnare l'Europa al reich millenario, è cambiato. L'eroismo di quella città martire, dei suoi abitanti indomiti, che ha insegnato di nuovo agli invasori una lezione evidentemente non ben compresa ai tempi di Napoleone.
All'interno di questa cornice eroica c'è una storia piccola, per certi versi tragicomica, che mostra come persino all'interno di una città assediata e che muore di fame c'è chi muore un po' di più e chi un po' di meno.
Ed ecco che una improbabile coppia di eroi, un soldato disertore e un ragazzino beccato a saccheggiare un cadavere tedesco, viene mandata in missione per conto di un alto capo del partito, missione assurda e per certi versi un po' ignobile, che però permetterà ai due di mostrare di che pasta sono veramente fatti.
Tra tutti i personaggi emerge quello di Kolja, il soldato disertore, un autentico russo come se ne trovano nei romanzi di Tolstoj.
Avrebbe meritato cinque stelle, non fosse stato per qualche congiuntivo sbagliato di troppo nella traduzione italiana.
All'interno di questa cornice eroica c'è una storia piccola, per certi versi tragicomica, che mostra come persino all'interno di una città assediata e che muore di fame c'è chi muore un po' di più e chi un po' di meno.
Ed ecco che una improbabile coppia di eroi, un soldato disertore e un ragazzino beccato a saccheggiare un cadavere tedesco, viene mandata in missione per conto di un alto capo del partito, missione assurda e per certi versi un po' ignobile, che però permetterà ai due di mostrare di che pasta sono veramente fatti.
Tra tutti i personaggi emerge quello di Kolja, il soldato disertore, un autentico russo come se ne trovano nei romanzi di Tolstoj.
Avrebbe meritato cinque stelle, non fosse stato per qualche congiuntivo sbagliato di troppo nella traduzione italiana.
3.5/5stars
This book was a very quick read, and a very interesting story taking place during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. Two boys are given the task to find a dozen eggs in a city in the midst of starvation.
This book did a PHENOMENAL job at combining humor and ridiculousness with serious topics and trials of the war. This book had you laughing one page, and staring in horror at a new fact of WWII. This had a lot of information I had never read about, which I really enjoyed. And I've never read such a light-hearted and slightly ridiculous WWII story.
This book was a very quick read, and a very interesting story taking place during the siege of Leningrad during WWII. Two boys are given the task to find a dozen eggs in a city in the midst of starvation.
This book did a PHENOMENAL job at combining humor and ridiculousness with serious topics and trials of the war. This book had you laughing one page, and staring in horror at a new fact of WWII. This had a lot of information I had never read about, which I really enjoyed. And I've never read such a light-hearted and slightly ridiculous WWII story.