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Nell Stevens

@nellstevens

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The Original, 2025. Briefly, a Delicious Life.

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Part 2! What We Are Reading here at #NairnBooks (and yes - Starbuck gets to appear *twice* because she is so cute - and an avid reader. For a cat....)

Anthony & Linda share their current reads, and faves... I really love the sound of TABLE FOR ONE, and despite being a cat person, think the cover's gorgeous!

WHEN THERE ARE WOLVES AGAIN not only stole our hearts for its brilliance, but then went and won the 2026 Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction. It's wonderful. (THE ORIGINAL is another bookshop favourite - it's quite remarkable, and actually lives up to its rep as a Jane Eyre/Patricia Highsmith mash-up: quite the accolade!!!!)

Tell us what you're reading, and loving, right now....??? 📚😸
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#askabookseller #booksellerrecommends #supportlocal #indiebookshop #scottishbookshop #booksofinstagram #readingisfun

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Briefly, A delicious Life

Synopsis:

Briefly, A Delicious Life tells the story of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand’s brief and mostly disastrous stay in an empty monastery in Valldemossa in Mallorca in 1838.

The novel is narrated by Blanca, the ghost of a girl who has been at the monastery ever since her death over 300 years previously. Blanca’s is a life cut short and she is outraged. Having lived in a world full, according to her mother, of ‘beautiful men’, she has found that in death it is the women she falls for, their beauty she cannot turn away from, and it is the women and girls who, over her centuries in the village and at the monastery, she has sought to protect from the attentions of men with what little power she has – bread crumbs in a soup here (for her gluten-intolerant victim), a knocked ink pot there, and once even a heart attack. And then George Sand arrives, this beautiful woman in a man’s clothes, and Blanca is in love.

It was such an interesting concept. I liked Blanka narrating this story as a ghost and slowly learning more about her own life. I enjoyed the descriptions of Chopin‘s music.

#brieflyadeliciouslife

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📚 The Good Time ~ Nell Stevens ✨

ad | gifted

Across eight stories, Stevens introuces us to characters making their way through the absurdities and mundanity of modern existence. They teeter on the edge of self-knowledge, their inner worlds unravelled with tender wit by an author whose writing is of absolutely classic quality, asking all the while: what does it mean to have a good time, and what happens when the good times end?

There wasn't a dud story in here, but of course I should have expected no less from Nell Stevens! I've adored her two historical novels and was thrilled to find her gaze is just as funny and astute when turned upon modern life.

Strong themes of awkwardness, longing, and precarity run through the collection, and queerness abounds as an unremarkable fact of many of these characters' lives. Each story also presented a threshold moment — the sense that something has, or is about to be, crossed or returned to or changed. They captured so many facets of contemporary life in a way that felt both fresh and familiar to me.

A standout was The Strike, in which an art history lecturer at a university considers crossing a picket line to retrieve the IVF medication she's left in her office fridge. Woven through with excerpts from Van Gough's letters, it manages to consider questions as grounded as job insecurity and as existential as whether a solitary existence is a worthwhile one, while never losing sight of the slight silliness of the entire situation.

I also loved the titular story, The Good Time, in which a once-inseperable friendship group are forced to confront what drove them apart. Stevens's control over information reveals and the handling of gradually curdling group dynamics was masterful — I could have read an entire novel about this group, yet didn't feel in the least unsatisfied with the scope of the story.

Wry but not acerbic, empathetic without being mawkish, and recognisably, comfortingly British: this was indeed a Good Time.

Out now from @scribneruk and highly recommended! 🎈

4.5⭐

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September Wrap Up 🍂📚

Q: What was your favourite read in September?

A: Slightly belated I finally managed to upload my September Wrap Up. I read so many great books last month! My favourite read was Blue Jean Summer by @authormaggiegates ! I also loved Mestra by @madeline.e.miller 🤍

#books

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September Reading Wrap-up ✨

This wasn’t my best month. Neither in terms of how much I could read, nor how much I liked some of them. The TBR pile remained mostly untouched, which is a sad sight. Here is hoping for a better reading month 🤞🏼

#monthlyreadingwrapup
#monthlyrecap
#septemberreadingwrapup
#janfavors2026

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The Good Time | Nell Stevens
💛💛💛

A collection of 8 short stories, all asking what it means to have a good time, and what happens when the good times end.

I have really enjoyed several of the stories - how they explored human relationships, the yearnings for the past, and the despair of holding on to those moments. The Reading, Strike, and the titular story are the ones that stayed with me the most. Job insecurities, the much topical point was portrayed very delicately. I really liked how sapphic stories are not a plot point, but are presented as matter of facts. Friendship and motherhood are also much comprehended themes.

Overall, the stories are intelligently written, flow really well, and leave an impact. A solid read.

#booksreview
#thegoodtime
#nellstevens
#shortstorycollection
#janfavors2026

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I found ‘The original’ by Nell Stevens deftly crafted and cleverly constructed and having now also read her first short story collection, ‘The good time’, I remain a firm follower of her work. I can sometimes struggle to connect with short stories but with this collection that was not the case at all.

All eight stories and the characters portrayed in them are distinct, yet some have a familiar thread such as an academic setting, long term friendships formed at a young age and characters wishing to start a family. Some stories caught my attention quicker than others: ‘By then, I was used to getting emails from my dead friend Sam.’ – I’d say that’s an intriguing first sentence!

I find it fascinating that so much can be said in such a short number of pages and how the right phrase can capture so much about a character. Stevens is clearly a very gifted storyteller and this book has left me eager to explore more short story collections.

With thanks to @scribneruk for the gifted copy.

#nellstevens #thegoodtime #shortstories #fiction #modernfiction #contemporaryfiction #shortstorycollection #bookrecommendations #scribner

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Gorgeous short story collection from @nellstevens. Smart, funny, tender, intimate, thought provoking, honest. One of my very favourite writers. Thanks, Nell, for the ride - still thinking about them!

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Come with me to interview an author! I had so much fun interviewing @nellstevens on her novel, The Original. Stay tuned for the article with @boarbooks out soon!!🥳📚 #bookstagram #bookstagram #authorinterview #bookrecs

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📚📦// BOOK MAIL

Thank you as always to the wonderful publishers and publicists for the gifted and proof copies (all tagged). Short stories, memoirs, intrigue and self-improvement - are any of these on your radar?

#bookstagram #bookblogger #bookmail #books #bookstagram

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been some mega busy days with my spiderman obsessed party princess🕷️🖤 ft fanny the fancy carp cause she’s cool as fuck x

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recents 💐📖🌵🚐🐚

another week on the road in our van exploring, working and reading! we made our way from the west french coast down to the spanish desert, and now we’re headed for the mountains! meanwhile I’ve been making my way through this stack of books 💘

I loved the good time, and I’m now almost finished with anita de monte laughs last, which I am also enjoying a LOT – full reviews to come for both!

💐

which in this pile should be my next read?

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