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Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love [Hardcover]

Jessie Knadler
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 3, 2012 0425245683 978-0425245682 1

Jessie Knadler was a New York City girl, through and through. An editor for a splashy women's magazine, she splurged on Miu Miu, partied hard, lived for Kundalini yoga, and dated a man-boy whose complexion was creamier than her own. Circling the drain both personally and professionally, Jessie definitely wouldn't have described herself as "happy"; more like caustically content. Then one day, she was assigned a story about an annual rodeo in the badlands of Eastern Montana.

There, she met a twenty-five-year-old bull rider named Jake. He voted Republican and read Truck Trader. He listened to Garth Brooks. He owned guns. And Jessie suddenly found herself blindsided by something with which she was painfully unfamiliar: a genuinely lovable disposition. In fact, Jake radiated such optimism and old-school gentlemanliness that Jessie impulsively ditched Manhattan for an authentic existence, and an authentic man. Almost overnight, she was canning and sewing, making jerky, chopping firewood, and raising chickens. And all the while one question was ringing in the back of her head: "What the !#*$ have I done with my life?"

A hilarious true-life love story, Rurally Screwed reveals what happens to a woman who gives up everything she's ever known and wanted-job security, money, her professional network, access to decent Thai food-to live off the grid with her one true love (and dogs and horses and chickens), and asks, is it worth it? The answer comes amid war, Bible clubs, and moonshine.


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Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love + Barnheart: The Incurable Longing for a Farm of One's Own + The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love
Price for all three: $39.47

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jessie Knadler's story about leaving the glossy office buildings and late nights of Manhattan to take a chance on love and create a new life in rural Lexington, Virginia sounds like something out of a movie. But as Rurally Screwed shows, the most unexpected life events and happiest endings—not to mention the hottest cowboys—don't just appear on the silver screen. Jessie takes a lively, self-deprecating yet thoughtful approach to her particular fish out of water tale. I laughed, winced and nodded my head in agreement more times than I can count. But most importantly, she shows that risks have their rewards, that it is possible to leave the worst of one's old life behind without abandoning the best of oneself." --Anna Holmes, founder of Jezebel.com


“Jessie Knadler’s memoir, Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love, is more than a fast-paced ride through the rodeo scene of relationships from Manhattan to Montana, but an examination of American life, the things we take for granted, and the things we ought to cherish. Reading about Knadler’s search for inner peace helped this reader find some too.”--Siobhan Fallon, author of You Know When the Men Are Gone


“Hilarious, romantic, and real. Jessie Knadler’s writing made me feel every single emotion of her journey from the big city to the deep country—only I didn’t have to kill a single chicken or ride an actual horse. Although I may have fallen in love with her husband a little bit.”--Lara Naaman, Writer/Producer, Good Morning America


“At once brutally honest and over-the-top hilarious, Rurally Screwed is the most engaging and relatable book about marriage I've ever read. And I've read most of them. Knadler takes readers on a journey from her stalled life as a New York City single girl to the wilds of Virginia, where she settles down with a cowboy, eighty some chickens and a cellar stocked with moonshine. Along the way, she learns there's nothing romantic about chopping firewood and nothing easy about being married—but that after the sweat dries, the rewards of both are pretty awesome. Anyone who is married, has ever been married, or is considering one day getting married, has to read this book.”--Paula Szuchman, co-author of It's Not You, It's the Dishes


"This book is really a love story. It’s about falling for an unexpected person, learning to love a new place, and when life gets tough, figuring out what the heart really wants. I started out laughing and ended with a lump in my throat. And because the tale is told with such humor and searing honesty, you’ll grow so attached to Jessie and Jake, you’ll be tempted to move off the grid with them.” —Amy Spencer, author of Bright Side Up

About the Author

Jessie Knadler is a writer whose articles and stories have appeared in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Glamour. She is the coauthor of the preserving cookbook Tart and Sweet. Her blog rurallyscrewed.com has been featured in Newsweek and French Elle and on Jezebel.com. She lives with her husband, her daughter, and a bunch of chickens in Lexington, Virginia.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1 edition (April 3, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0425245683
  • ISBN-13: 978-0425245682
  • Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #277,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

I found the book to be well written and interesting and with much more substance that I expected. SistyUgler  |  14 reviewers made a similar statement
I read the book in 3 days and laughed out loud and did a little crying as well. P.I.  |  11 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I purchased the Kindle version of this book on a whim. I knew that the author was a blogger, so I checked out her site. She seemed funny, quick, sarcastic and smart. I thought the book would provide for some light plane reading as I readied for a long trip. While the book is indeed witty, it is so much more. It really speaks to any woman who has made big changes in her life for a man and keeps looking back over her shoulder questioning herself, her decisions, her partner, her "new" life. The depths and insights in this book begin to unveil themselves in the final 50 pages. The book made me laugh for 100 pages, made me think (really hard) for 50 pages and made me cry for 20 pages or so. In the end, I felt that I could really relate to the author even though I reside in suburbia, have not ridden a horse since I was 10 and my gardening is limited to herbs on the patio. Mostly, this is a funny insightful book about life's big decisions, our changing identities as the years march on and how we can learn to accept ourselves at each stage.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent through and through! April 4, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a story that will make you laugh out loud, smile and chuckle to yourself in some parts, and then it will make you cry, or shed a tear, bringing on feelings of sympathy, gratitude, love and understanding, in other parts. It tells you all about what it's like to live in a small, close-knit, country town and what the people who live there are like. Funny scenes and honest reflections on marriage, love and friendship infuse this story with character. But most of all what you'll take away from it is a sense of appreciation-- for the simple things in life. For someone who is creative, strong, bold and ballsy enough to put herself and her love's life out there for everyone to read. If you know Jessie's blog rurallyscrewed.com, then you already have an idea what's in store, but if your'e new to this, prepare to be hooked!!!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars I just didn't like her... October 2, 2012
Format:Hardcover
I made myself plow through this book till the end--no pun intended--and with every page I kept asking myself,"what's keeping me from enjoying this book?" Well, the reason became pretty clear. The author may be too hard on herself. The book is intended to try and share her perspective on her radical shift in lifestyle with her reader, I get that. Problem is that she chose everything to which she was "subjected". Her misery was completely self imposed so the book comes across as one long whine. Trying to be generous, I kept reminding myself that from the start, the author did not describe a personality type that I would find it easy to click with. Her conviction that her thoughts, attitudes and values are completely superior to anyone else's became tiresome. There is never any real explanation of WHY the author feels she is so much more enlightened than every other character, just a giant ode to ego from page to page.I just couldn't like her and I couldn't get interested in what she thought about things and why she thought that way. It stayed that way until the very last chapter, actually the last HALF of the last chapter. That's when the writer allowed us to see a person with some values, and for the first time in the entire book, she became someone interesting to read. Reading the last chapter, I became intrigued. I wanted to know how a couple of scenarios would play out, her preparations for another life-changing event were engaging and I wanted to know how she would cope with some big challenges. I LIKED her and I don't understand why she waited til the last ten pages to show the reader someone who can capture our attention.

Maybe that is her whole point, that it took her so long to allow herself the personal growth that she had obstinately been blocking, even though she had sought it. Her navel gazing was so persistent that she almost lost the opportunity. Perhaps that's the message she tries to get across "If the life you have is so devoid of what you're looking for, don't keep carrying the baggage that makes it that way. Open yourself to the new journey that you chose and give it a chance." Not sure, but the reader should keep on soldiering through, the last chapter reveals a person that I would enjoy knowing.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this Book!
This book was so fun to read. I am a middle aged adult with a new Kindle and this book gave me ample opportunity to look up definitions for new words, but it was still easy... Read more
Published 1 month ago by lakehurricane
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!
A great story of self discovery. We should all spend more time examining ourselves, rather than blaming "life" for what happens to us.
Published 2 months ago by Mike5150
5.0 out of 5 stars A great read !!!!
What a great escape - I really enjoyed reading this book.

We should all be able to find the cowboy in us.
Published 2 months ago by Eileen Falk Chomlek
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, compelling
This is a romance and a tale of country love and living. I am not a romance reader, but I really enjoyed this book. Her story is improbable, but believable. Read more
Published 2 months ago by kathy
5.0 out of 5 stars True Love
This is a delightful story, well written and very descriptive. A real life, true love story of Jessie and Jake, two people with totally different interests. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Old Sailor
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun to read "Chick non fiction".
Funny and endearing, not too heavy in any way. Ended up liking the author but she's not going to win the Pulitzer and she obviously isn't going for that.
Published 2 months ago by sheri
2.0 out of 5 stars Mildly OK
My interested was peaked by author's appearance on Katic Couric. I found the premise interesting, but the content just doesn't ring true in my mind. Read more
Published 3 months ago by turniptruck 1
5.0 out of 5 stars great
I received this book in no time and I can't wait to start reading it. I saw her on Oprah and am very intrigued.
Published 3 months ago by Marisa
4.0 out of 5 stars Quick, interesting read
You don't have to live in a small town to appreciate Jessie Knadler's Rurally Screwed. Although the book follows Jessie from big city to small farm, her journey is much more... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mary
5.0 out of 5 stars Life at the farm....
It brought me title waves of memories as I was raise in a farm in Brazil.
Great book! More of it Please.
Published 3 months ago by Ada B
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Rurally screwed my life off grid....Title and even description is...
Jessie's pretty clear in the preface to her book that "off the grid" is meant metaphorically, describing how out of her element she felt after leaving Manhattan for a decidely rural existence. Just finished reading this book, and it is an absolute delight.
Mar 29, 2012 by Theresa Johnson |  See all 3 posts
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