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Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage
Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage
Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage
Ebook159 pages5 hours

Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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When an American woman and her British husband decide to buy a two-hundred-year-old cottage in the heart of the Cotswolds, they’re hoping for an escape from their London lives. Instead, their decision about whether or not to have a child plays out against a backdrop of village fêtes, rural rambles, and a cast of eccentrics clad in corduroy and tweed.

Americashire: A Field Guide to a Marriage begins with the simultaneous purchase of a Cotswold cottage and Richardson’s ill-advised decision to tell her grandchild-hungry parents that she is going to try to have a baby. As she transitions from urban to rural life, she is forced to confront both her ambivalence about the idea of motherhood and the reality of living with a spouse who suffers from depression. Then, just when she is finally settling into English country life, she is struck by an attack of non-alcohol-related slurring that turns out to be a symptom of multiple sclerosis. Her indecision about moving forward with motherhood is brought to a head when her neurologist tells her that pregnancy may actually decrease her risk of developing full-blown MS.

Part memoir, part travelogue—and including field guides to narrative-related Cotswold walks--Americashire is a candid, compelling tale of marriage, illness, and difficult life decisions.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 23, 2013
ISBN9781938314315
Americashire: a Field Guide to a Marriage

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Rating: 3.7857142857142856 out of 5 stars
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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I won this book in a blog contest. I really wanted it, too, because Ms. Richardson lived my fantasy: an American woman in a Cotswolds cottage. There's more, of course: the English husband, the wonderful characters, the wine bar, and the birth of lambs. There's even more than that: the things she and her husband must deal with give Richardson's story depth to go along with the delight. If you are an Anglophile like me, I highly recommend this book.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Interesting, but overall unsatisfying. Excellent descriptions, lovely settings, treading the fine line between being amused at and mocking English traditions (of centuries, decades, or bare years' establishment). But the main characters - the author and her husband - are a little too self-absorbed, in a modern, psychiatric style, to keep my interest, and also a bit too wishy-washy. It also begins with them intending to have children (or at least, declaring their intent to do so) and to settle in rural England, away from the stresses of urban life in London. By the end of the book, with many twists and turns and interesting diversions, they have firmly decided _not_ to have a child, and according to the author bio in the back of the book they also didn't stay much longer than depicted in rural England. So...why exactly should I read this? It was mildly enjoyable; I'm glad I read it. It's much better than most "literary" novels, in that there were relatively few unpleasant things happening and most of the characters were pleasant as well. But I have no interest in reading it again. Free book received through BookTrib.com.

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Americashire - Jennifer Richardson

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