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The Bucolic Plague
- How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers: An Unconventional Memoir
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A happy series of accidents and a doughnut-laden escape upstate take Josh Kilmer-Purcell and his partner, Brent Ridge, to the doorstep of the magnificent (and fabulously for sale) Beekman Mansion. And so begins their transformation from uptight urbanites into the 200-year-old-mansion-owning Beekman Boys. Suddenly Josh---a full-time New Yorker with a successful advertising career---and Brent find themselves weekend farmers, surrounded by nature's bounty and an eclectic cast: roosters who double as a wedding cover band; Bubbly, the bionic cat; and a herd of goats, courtesy of their new caretaker, Farmer John.
The Bucolic Plague is a tart and sweet, touching and laugh-out-loud funny story about goats, mud, homemade soap, approaching middle age, and finding new depths of love and commitment wherever you live.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Mark
- 09-13-12
Selling your dream and name dropping
Any additional comments?
My wife and I both got bored with the book about 60 percent of the way through and quit listening. I had a hardcopy of the book that I gave to a friend, and he said he passed it along too because it was too shallow.
So two city slickers spend LOADS of money buying a cool historic country farm and mansion, go to parties at Martha Stewart's house, have wacky adventures with animals (like feeling sad over killing turkeys only to learn real ones don't offer much meat and so the Thanksgiving party doesn't have enough food), and turn the farm into an online site complete with blog. Of course, commuting and the large expenses put demands on their relationship so they have spats.
It just didn't work for me. Maybe if you're more into New Yorker anxiety and celebrities, you'd like it more.
9 people found this helpful
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Performance
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- Crystal
- 01-31-12
Real and Funny
This book is like a breath of fresh air, real and funny. The performace was excellent.
6 people found this helpful
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Story
- Lisa Masini Shapiro
- 06-23-15
Laugh out loud story
It is rare that a book makes me laugh out loud, but this one did - even at the gym while on the elliptical. This was an entertaining, yet honest, sometimes poignant, story.
3 people found this helpful
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- hot mama
- 01-21-13
So Funny and Sweet
Would you consider the audio edition of The Bucolic Plague to be better than the print version?
Equal
Who was your favorite character and why?
Brent and Josh and Polka Dot
What about Johnny Heller’s performance did you like?
Yes
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes! and I did twice.
Any additional comments?
This is a great story. I already ordered the soap for my son who is allergic to everything and it is working great on him!!
3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Marijane
- 08-01-11
Great beach listen
Great listen though I think the narrator could have been better. Coming from a "rowhouse" in Philadelphia, upon moving 15 miles outside the city limits, I purchased an end unit "townhouse". I then felt I had to get a riding mower since the lawn was bigger than a postage stamp. I can so feel their pain, especially having Martha Stewart as a friend. Very enjoyable.
3 people found this helpful
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- Orlando
- 10-15-13
Bye bye city, hello country
I wander what Martha thinks of this book? It's a well written chronicle of the two city boys trying to find the farming skills they need to save the Beekman mansion, only to finally realise that their urban savvy is what they needed all along. A really honest and forthright read.
2 people found this helpful
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- cherish
- 05-19-12
hillarious
What made the experience of listening to The Bucolic Plague the most enjoyable?
the common conversation style of the writting
Who was your favorite character and why?
Brent, Josh, and farmer John
Have you listened to any of Johnny Heller’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have never listened to him before but thought he was a very good for this story
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Not so much extreme but had me laughing and snickering through the whole book
Any additional comments?
a very easy read/listen type of book. If you are familiar with the fabulous beekman boys , it makes the book even more enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
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- Kristy R
- 05-21-22
Great Book
This is my fourth time through listening to the book. makes you want to go plant a garden and maybe get some goats.
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- JuliAnnePD
- 04-09-22
Unpredictable
Delightful and unpredictable turns of phrase and storytelling. My husband has talked of desiring an agricultural foray; I hope he will give this a listen too!
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Overall
- Katherine L.
- 11-28-20
Entertaining
Loved this book overall! Funny and a great treatise on the folly of perfectionism. Loved the descriptions of the protagonists, a gay power couple, going from successful New York life to farmers in the historic Beekman Mansion in the New York countryside. Their various struggles with this dramatic transition, juggling jobs in the city, the realities of farm life, and their own relationship, are both humorous and tragic. I found parts of the book repetitive, but actually, never boring. A romp. And better for it's being an intriguing, true story!
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Story
Novella Carpenter loves cities - the culture, the crowds, the energy. At the same time, she can't shake the fact that she is the daughter of two back-to-the-land hippies who taught her to love nature and eat vegetables. Ambivalent about repeating her parents' disastrous mistakes, yet drawn to the idea of backyard self-sufficiency, Carpenter decided that it might be possible to have it both ways.
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Hmmm.
- By THoward on 09-30-09
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The Dirty Life
- On Farming, Food, and Love
- By: Kristin Kimball
- Narrated by: Kristin Kimball
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Kristin Kimball left New York City to interview a dynamic young farmer named Mark, her world changed. On an impulse, she shed her city self and started a new farm with him on 500 acres near Lake Champlain. The Dirty Life is the captivating chronicle of the couple’s first year on Essex Farm, from the cold North Country winter through their harvest-season wedding in the loft of the barn.
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I have mixed feelings about this one...
- By Maria on 01-01-20
By: Kristin Kimball
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Ordinary Love and Good Will
- By: Jane Smiley
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser, Suzanne Toren
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Ordinary Love, Smiley focuses on a woman's infidelity and the lasting, indelible effects it leaves on her children long after her departure. Good Will describes a father who realizes how his son has been affected by his decision to lead a counterculture life and move his family to a farm. As both stories unfold, Smiley gracefully raises the questions that confront all families with the characteristic style and insight that has marked all of her work.
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Superb Novellas
- By Sharey on 01-29-21
By: Jane Smiley
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Flat Broke with Two Goats
- A Memoir
- By: Jennifer McGaha
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jennifer McGaha never expected to own a goat named Merle, or to be rescuing opossums from her barn and calling it "date night." When Jennifer discovered that she and her husband owed back taxes - a lot of back taxes - her world changed. Now desperate to save money, they foreclosed on their beloved suburban home and moved their family to a 100-year-old cabin in a North Carolina holler. Soon enough, Jennifer's life began to more closely resemble the lives of her Appalachian ancestors than the life she experienced in her middle class upbringing.
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Not worth reading
- By Karen on 06-04-19
By: Jennifer McGaha
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Gaining Ground
- A Story of Farmers' Markets, Local Food, and Saving the Family Farm
- By: Forrest Pritchard
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One fateful day in 1996, after discovering that five freight cars' worth of glittering corn have reaped a tiny profit of $18.16, young Forrest Pritchard vows to save his family's farm. What ensues-through hilarious encounters with all manner of livestock and colorful local characters-is a crash course in sustainable agriculture. Pritchard's biggest ally is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and rejects organic foods for sugary mainstream fare.
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Loved it! I wanted it to go on further
- By Sweetbay on 01-12-14
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Blood, Bones & Butter
- The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef
- By: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Hamilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Before Gabrielle Hamilton opened her acclaimed New York restaurant Prune, she spent 20 fierce, hard-living years trying to find purpose and meaning in her life. Above all she sought family, particularly the thrill and the magnificence of the one from her childhood that, in her adult years, eluded her. Hamilton’s ease and comfort in a kitchen were instilled in her at an early age when her parents hosted grand parties, often for more than 100 friends and neighbors. The smells of spit-roasted lamb, apple wood smoke, and rosemary garlic marinade became necessary to her.
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A Little Prickly--But Yummy
- By Mel on 03-11-12
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The Good Good Pig
- The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish.
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Stunningly great reading of great writing
- By Rayna on 11-26-16
By: Sy Montgomery
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Moral Disorder and Other Stories
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Susan Denaker
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Margaret Atwood is acknowledged as one of the foremost writers of our time. In Moral Disorder, she has created a series of interconnected stories that trace the course of a life and also the lives intertwined with it, those of parents, of siblings, of children, of friends, of enemies, of teachers, and even of animals. As in a photograph album, time is measured in sharp, clearly observed moments.
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good book, badly read
- By Nancy on 02-27-07
By: Margaret Atwood
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Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter
- By: Lisa Patton
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter is the story of a sweet Southern belle who leaves her beloved Memphis, Tennessee, to follow her husband's dream of becoming the proprietor of a quaint Vermont inn.
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very good story
- By Kay on 07-01-10
By: Lisa Patton
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My Good Life in France
- In Pursuit of the Rural Dream
- By: Janine Marsh
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One grey dismal day, Janine Marsh was on a trip to northern France to pick up some cheap wine. She returned to England a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. This was not something she'd expected or planned for. Janine eventually gave up her job in London to move with her husband to live the good life in France. Or so she hoped. While getting to grips with the locals and la vie Française, and renovating her dilapidated new house, a building lacking the comforts of mains drainage, heating, or proper rooms.
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Really funny, delightful, informative
- By mz on 10-02-18
By: Janine Marsh
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Killing It
- An Education
- By: Camas Davis
- Narrated by: Camas Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Camas Davis was at an unhappy crossroads. A longtime magazine writer and editor in the food world, she'd returned to her home state of Oregon with her boyfriend from New York City to take an appealing job at a Portland lifestyle magazine. But neither job nor boyfriend delivered on her dreams, and in the span of a year, Davis was unemployed and on her own. Disillusioned by the years she’d spent mediating the lives of others for a living, she had no idea what to do next. She did know one thing: She no longer wanted to write about the real thing; she wanted to be the real thing.
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Interesting story, important message, monotone performance.
- By Becker on 12-03-21
By: Camas Davis