Grace And Mary

By 'quite simply one of the best writers we have' (Sunday Telegraph), a profoundly moving story spanning three generations. 'It is a gem' Independent 'I loved it' Pat Barker Reaching from late 19th-century Cumbria to the present, this elegiac novel celebrates two spirited women: Grace, a farm labourer's daughter who fatefully followed her heart, and Mary, the child she was forced to give up. Unsung heroines according to Mary's son who, as his elderly mother's mind begins to fail, lovingly recreates their lives and the vanished country of their pasts, linking three generations in a chain of enduring love, loss and courage.

Poor, orphaned Grace Parkes is in a horrible situation. Her illegitimate child has just died in childbirth, so she's traveled to the Brookwood Cemetery to place the small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can do right by the little baby, and to avoid the disgrace of a pauper's grave. Grace meets two people at the cemetery who will have a most unusual affect on her life, though she doesn't know that yet. For now, Grace has to suppress her grief and get on with her meager life, scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food, and looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself. But a great fraud has been perpetrated on young Grace - and she is secretly the recipient of a most unusual legacy -- if only she is able to claim it. Of course, the rich only get richer in this gothic tale of class distinctions, mysterious secrets, and malicious fraud.

Grace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace's high-flying imagination.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “A powerfully imagined novel . . . [a] profoundly moving book that engages the heights and depths of human experience.”—Los Angeles Times It is September 8, 1943, and fourteen-year-old Claudette Blum and her father are among the thousands of Jewish refugees scrambling over the Alps toward Italy, where they hope to find safety now that the Italians have broken from Germany and made a separate peace with the Allies. The Blums will soon discover that Italy is anything but peaceful, as it quickly becomes an open battleground for the Nazis, the Allies, Resistance fighters, Jews in hiding, and ordinary Italian civilians trying to survive. Tracing the lives of a handful of fascinating characters—a charismatic Italian Resistance leader, a priest, an Italian rabbi’s family, a disillusioned German doctor—Mary Doria Russell tells the little-known story of the vast underground effort by Italian citizens who saved the lives of 43,000 Jews during the final phase of World War II. A Thread of Grace puts a human face on history. Praise for A Thread of Grace “An addictive page-turner . . . [Mary Doria] Russell has an astonishing story to tell—full of action, paced like a rapid-fire thriller, in tense, vivid scenes that move with cinematic verve.”—The Washington Post Book World “Hauntingly beautiful, utterly unforgettable.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Rich . . . Based on the heroism of ordinary people, [A Thread of Grace] packs an emotional punch.”—People “[A] deeply felt and compellingly written book . . . The progress of each character’s life is marked or measured by acts of grace. . . . Russell is a smart, passionate and imaginative writer.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer “A feat of storytelling . . . an important book [that] needs to be widely read.”—Portland Oregonian “Mary Doria Russell’s fans (and aren’t we all?) will rejoice to see her new novel on the shelves. A Thread of Grace is as ambitious, beautiful, tense, and transforming as any of us could have hoped.”—Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club “A story of love and war, A Thread of Grace speaks to the resilience and beauty of the human spirit in the midst of unimaginable horror. It is, unquestionably, a literary triumph.”—David Morrell, author of The Brotherhood of the Rose and First Blood

We all face stress and tension in our daily lives. We might even wonder why our God of abundant goodness doesn’t remove the everyday struggles we face. Jesus’ interactions with Martha and Mary in the Gospel provide us the key to understanding how God shows us his love by allowing tensions in our lives. As we follow the sisters’ transformative journeys through their own struggles, reflecting on what transpires between Scripture verses, we see their initial tension become the catalyst that drives both Mary and Martha to the feet of Jesus — the place where all discover peace. Grace in Tension explores the areas where stress arises in our own lives. Each chapter ends with a thought-provoking prayer to inspire us to go to God with our problems, followed by questions for reflection to help us see all the ways he’s working for our good. God doesn’t create any of it, but he does show up amid life’s difficulties, ready to lead us through. No matter how big or small our struggle, when we seek him out, he reveals what we need to do to resolve our tension, transforming it into grace. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Claire McGarry is the founder of MOSAIC of Faith, a ministry for mothers of infants to school-aged children to explore their faith through motherhood. She contributes regularly to CatholicMom.com and blogs at ShiftingMyPerspective.com. She is the author of Lenten devotional With Our Savior, and her work has appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Keys for Kids, These Days, and Focus on the Family magazine. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

Accompanied by Nana, Grace travels to Africa to visit her father, who left home when she was little, and learns that love can be without bounds, even in divided families. By the author of Amazing Grace

Using Scripture as a guide, this work helps us to see the image of Mary that is shaped by the stories of her from the gospels. The image that develops out of these stories is altogether different form the one our culture creates.

Two thousand years ago, a girl from Nazareth was transformed by a simple “yes” into the Mother of God—the subject of sublime devotion, divisive controversy, and extravagant speculation. A mother and a virgin, a saint and a peasant, a woman both tragic and triumphant, Mary has held sway over the human imagination for centuries. Yet she has never felt as relevant to our everyday lives as she does today. In Full of Grace, Judith Dupré, the bestselling author of Churches, offers an intimate exploration of this beloved figure, now and through the ages. In a series of poignant stories and essays, Dupré examines Mary’s artistic, cultural, and historical influence, and at the same time shows how Mary’s human journey of love, compassion, grief, and humble strength inextricably connects her to our modern lives. Accompanied by a breathtaking visual feast ranging from classic Renaissance portraits to unexpected contemporary images, Dupré’s text offers insights into the Virgin Mary as a mother and as a religious icon. Visits to the great shrines of Marian pilgrimage—Lourdes, Medjugorje, Fatima, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe—underscore the author’s journey to find Mary’s meaning in her own life. In an essay about Mary in the Qur’an, we see how Mary, far from being an exclusively Catholic figure, emerges as one of the central women in Islam. Another piece details the author’s travels in the Holy Land, a landscape wracked by religious strife but still overflowing with the spirit of generosity that Mary embodies. From Sudanese refugee camps to the painful reminders of Auschwitz, from the struggle of divorce to the challenges of raising a child with autism, we see how Mary’s tenderness, bravery, and grace infuse the story of every mother, young and old. For men and women seeking to better understand their own life journey, this book looks at the many miracles, large and small, along the way. From the Hardcover edition.

From brain structure and role models to the creation drama and the new covenant, Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen helps us to understand more clearly the forces--and the freedoms--that shape our lives.

To Grace, family has always meant her Ma, her Nana and her cat Paw-Paw, but in all her school reading books families have a mother and a father, a boy and a girl, and a dog and a cat. So when Papa invites her to visit him in the Gambia, she dreams of finding a family straight out of one of her story books. But, when she arrives, she finds that her father has a new family. She has a little sister and a baby brother, and even a dog, but the mother is the wrong one she thinks. Although she has a lovely time, she feels as though there isn't enough of her to go around and that she can't manage two families. It is her Nana who helps Grace realise that families are what you make them, just like stories. A warm and delightful follow-up to the international bestseller and modern classic, Amazing Grace, this is an important story for all families and children today.