Rate this book

Only In Spain: A Foot-Stomping, Firecracker Of A Memoir About Food, Flamenco, And Falling In Love (2014)

by Nellie Bennett(Favorite Author)

3.63 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1402293852 (ISBN13: 9781402293856)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Sourcebooks

review 1: this australian woman created a dream: to dance flamenco in spain. so she saved money, took lessons, went to spain. fell in love, fell out of love. by golly kept at it, went to dance schools. danced her ass off, danced for modern troupe in madrid, danced the sun up in sevilla, danced danced danced the juergas.maybe she is still there, dancing. entertaining and informative and fairly well written with trajectory, not just report. she broke some hearts though.
review 2: Only in Spain was a delightful walk through Spain in flamenco shoes. I studied abroad in Spain and found myself laughing out loud every few pages at how similar Nellie's experiences were to mine. I totally connected with the journey from the struggles and misunderstandings in the beginning, ... moreto the exuberance of trying the new foods, all the way to taking things to the limit (even though I didn't run away with gypsies, but I've had similar crazy experiences). The title really says it all- Only in Spain. How many times when I've been there and seen things that could be categorized as both good and bad, but either way, just so different than how we do things at home and thought to myself "this is why I love Spain." Nellie captures those delightful moments in this book. Her writing style is so inviting and humorous that I feel like I'm having a conversation with a best friend. An example is when she talks about her tolerance for hot Spanish men going up as she lives there- and she explains that everyone down to the mail man is drop-dead gorgeous and she can't go getting all weak in the knees every time she walks out the door! Or when she first arrives to the airport in Spain and is all jet-lagged and looking as tired as she feels, then being stopped by a customs agent that could be a male model. I know this experience first-hand. Her observations about the different regions of Spain are also spot on, from the dark-eyed olive-skinned beauties of the south all the way to the mountain men living in the north.The real meat of this whole story (about a vegan, lol) is that she had a dream and she followed it. She fell in love with Spain and she made it happen on a shoestring. It wasn't always easy and she gave us her honesty in showing us that she didn't always even enjoy the experience- but then she would stop and look around and realize that flamenco (and her dream) were in the small moments of life all around her everyday. This is a good lesson for anyone, no matter what dreams you may have. less

Download links for: Only in Spain: A Foot-Stomping, Firecracker of a Memoir about Food, Flamenco, and Falling in Love

Advertising