Briefly, A Delicious Life

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trouble with the provincial, 19th-century villagers, Blanca watches helplessly and reflects on the circumstances Stevens, Nell (2017). Bleaker house: chasing my novel to the end of the world. London: Picador. ISBN 9781509824410. Can I absolutely discount this novel as Bad? No, but that's precisely the problem. It's not that there's nothing redeemable about Briefly, A Delicious Life, but rather that it never does anything with its redeemable parts. It has so much potential, and yet it simply does not deliver on that potential--a fact which, for me, made it all the more disappointing in the end.

I don't hesitate to mark 'Briefly, a Delicious Life' as a five-star read. It will be something I'll reread, and have as a fixture in the STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS section of the library.

Read George Sand’s memoir A Winter in Majorca, which recounts the details of her trip with Chopin and her two children. How does she describe Mallorca? What do you make of Stevens’s adaptation of Sand’s experiences? George and her family clash with the villagers several times throughout the novel. Did you sympathize with one group over the other? What grievances did you feel were justified? Do you think a resolution could have been reached?

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? We’re really going to stay here?” Maurice, hovering in the doorway from the garden, looked uncertain. I did feel, perhaps, the book didn’t entirely know how to end itself or what to do with Blanca once she’d told her story (it’s certainly not a text interested in what it means that it has a ghost in it, which—honestly—is fair enough). Or perhaps it was just that the emotional intensity had reached such pitch, with Chopin finally able to piano and yet also about to die maybe and angry Catholics descending on the monastery, that a vague sense of anti-climax was inevitable. After all, as I pointed out in the opening of this review, that’s kind of the problem with life as a whole. This book is the definition of a five-star read to the point where I debated not writing a review beyond that because nothing I say would be as good. But I have Thoughts. I found myself floored by Nell Stevens' mastery with language, by her deep understanding of the human spirit, by the astonishing freshness of this historical novel. Briefly, A Delicious Life is a shining work of art and Nell Stevens is an original, whose touch is as deft as it is masterful."Blanca’s ability to affect the world around her is limited and often depends on the strength of her emotional state. The stronger her feelings, the more impactful her influence. What is the significance of her powers operating this way? What does this say about the importance of one’s emotions? This reading group guide for BRIEFLY, A DELICIOUS LIFE includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book. A bird startled in the tree above them and flew off, dislodging a little flurry of feathers and leaves, and both men looked up as though expecting bad news.

I went into this book almost completely blind and I’m so glad I did! it’s a beautifully romantic historical fiction, filled with music, love, and humility. the book focuses on gender roles quite a lot, which was really interesting to read about, as the book is set in 1800’s Paris and Mallorca. George, one of our central characters, rejects marriage and typical women’s fashion, adopting trousers and suits for most of the book.

fourteen-year-old Blanca dies in a hilltop monastery in Mallorca. Nearly four hundred years later, when Both the novel and the film of Gone With the Wind have traditionally been regarded as canonical accounts of life in the 19th-century US. According to Sarah Churchwell’s bracing new book, it is time to remove the narrative from its undeserved pedestal and examine its problematic treatment of feminism, class and, above all, race afresh. She persuasively suggests that Margaret Mitchell’s story has been inspirational in the worst possible ways, leading to everything from Trumpism to racist brutality and has inadvertently led to an America even more divided than before. Briefly, A Delicious Life