The Rural Diaries

Hilarie Burton Morgan spent years acting in New York and Los Angeles. The work gave her a comfortable life, but it left her unsatisfied in spirit and in feeling. After the birth of her first son, she and her husband, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, buy a working farm in Rhinebeck, New York, and start over.

This is a memoir of the move from city to country, told by the woman who made it. She learns to chop wood, make dandelion wine and build chicken coops, and she works out how to run a farm while raising a small child. Along the way she gets to know her new neighbors and learns to raise alpacas.

The book also follows the couple as they buy Samuel's Sweet Shop, the town's candy store, and set about reviving it. Alongside these lighter episodes, Burton writes frankly about the ups and downs of her marriage and about secondary infertility.

Practical material runs through the memoir: recipes built on fresh ingredients, plus tips on home renovation and gardening. The tone is warm, candid and often funny, with an appreciation for small-town life and hard physical work. It suits readers curious about homesteading, celebrity memoir or leaving a career behind for something different.