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The Household Guide to Dying
 
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Listen to a clip from The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide. [Windows Media Audio]
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The Household Guide to Dying (Paperback)

by Debra Adelaide (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.69 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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  • This item: The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide

    In stock.
    Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk.
    This item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions

  • Molly Fox's Birthday by Deirdre Madden

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Product details

  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Harper (5 Jan 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007281110
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007281114
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 80,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #42 in  Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Health Issues > Death & Bereavement

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Product Description

Review

'Darkly comic novel with a tone that is Desperate Housewives meets Six Feet Under!this is caustic and hilarious, as well as heart-warming. A clever read that stays with you for a long time' Red 'Adelaide's moving novel captures both the hope and sadness of Delia's plight' Daily Mail 'A novel about loving and grieving!filled with humour, warmth and sadness -- just like life' Good Reading 'I found this novel entrancing. The Household guide to Dying is a joyous, irreverent romp of a book that resonates deep inside long after you finish. Delia's magical, crystalline voice made me fervently wish that she was real and that I knew her.' PATRICIA WOOD, Lottery


Product Description

Desperate Housewives meets Six Feet Under in this brilliantly moving and darkly comic novel, which charts the attempts of dying heroine Delia -- a modern day Mrs Beeton -- to prepare her family for the future and lay to rest a ghost from her past. Delia Bennet has made a living writing a series of hugely successful modern household guides, with advice on everything from laundry to lovers. The one thing she hasn't ever given advice on is her own situation: barely forthy by dying. To prepare her family, she tries everything from writing lists to teaching her daughters to make the perfect cup of tea. What she really needs is a household guide: the kind she is expert at writing. She sets to work. But the writing forces Delia to confront painful ghosts from her past. there is a journey she needs to make, and one last vital thing she must do...
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The Household Guide to Dying
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Touching, emotional.. wonderful! , 11 Jan 2009
By Michelle Moore "bookclubforum.co.uk" (Kent, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Delia Bennet is the author of a series of successful modern household guides. She's also dying from cancer. As she has her own experience to draw on, she sets out to write a final guide.. `The Household Guide to Dying'.

Whilst researching and writing this book, Delia comes to realise that there are issues in her past that she has to face, and deal with. One day she climbs into her car, and takes a journey that she hopes will help her do just that.

The story moves around in time, jumping between events. Early in the book, it is easy to lose track as to where you are in the story, so it's certainly one to pay attention to, rather than dipping in and out.

For me, however, there came a point where I started to feel myself fully immersed in the way of writing, the evolving storylines, and the characters, and I had difficulty putting it down.

Delia writes about dying in a candid and straightforward way - she develops her own ways to deal with her feelings, and what is to come.. and in doing so, she also starts to deal with the past. I love that feeling when I know a book has me hooked, and this was it!

This is a very emotional book, touching on some heart-breaking events, but it avoids being overly sentimental. This may not be the way that you, as a reader, personally expects to face your own death, but it's completely believable that it's Delia's way.

There are many aspects of the story that I don't wish to spoil, as I believe that are best met in the way they unfold. It's possibly not a book that everyone is going to get along with, but if you do, I suspect that you will gain a lot from it. My main advice is to not give up on it if you struggle at the beginning, as this is a book I would not have wanted to have missed.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Original, 26 Dec 2008
By Lincs Reader (Lincolnshire, England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Household Guide to Dying (Hardcover)
An excellent read that I really enjoyed - and although the subject matter may sound depressing and more like a misery memoir it is far from that. This is brilliantly original and charts Delia's attempts to provide for her family after her death. She writes list, teaches her young daughters to make a real cup of tea and boil eggs and plans their weddings.

Delia writes an advice column for a living and has also written a series of modern household guides - she wants to write a 'household guide to dying', but she also wants to sort out unfinished business from her past.

The story follows Delia on her journey and also through writing her guide. At times it brings a lump to the throat and at others it raises a giggle.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Uplifting and Enlightening, 18 May 2009
The Household guide to Dying follows the story of Delia who is terminaly ill and has onlymonths to live. The book revolves mostly about her struggles with death, but there is also a side plot in which Delia needs to lay some ghosts fromher past before the moment arrives.

This book is witty yet subtle, sad yet happy. Most of all it will question your every day existence and how you feel about those you love. This book is well worth the risk and I look forward to more from Adelaide!
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