Review: The Rural Diaries is a loving celebration of life and family

Hilarie Burton Morgan invites readers into her life with The Rural Diaries

It isn’t often that celebrities bare their lives and their souls to fans, but Hilarie Burton Morgan takes fans on a journey with her book The Rural Diaries: Love, Livestock and Big Life Lessons Down on Mischief Farm. She doesn’t hold back as she moves through the highest of highs and the lowest lows of her life with actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and the result is a charming memoir that leaves readers with smiles and a reminder to celebrate each moment.

It wouldn’t be accurate to call The Rural Diaries escapist literature. It’s far too raw and personal for that, but to read it is to be so drawn into the story that the reader feels as though she’s there with Burton Morgan.

The story begins with the six seeds that would grow into what her future life would become. The loss of a dear friend, meeting Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Los Angeles and Gus. These are but a few (I’m not going to spoil it for you, of course) but these are some of the events that shaped her life and put her on a trajectory to become the woman she is today.

Burton Morgan writes with frank honesty. Just as she stripped the walls of her cabin and later her farm home, she strips away the frills and the window dressings of being a celebrity so that the reader comes away from the book feeling like she is an old and very dear friend.

Her story is inspiring and powerful. There are lots of laughs and lots of tears, and she embraces them all, adding them to the colorful fabric of her life. The anecdotes are fun. Jeffrey Dean Morgan asking if he can buy alpacas. Donkeys. (Lots of donkeys) Gardening. Adventures with Gus. It’s a love letter to her family, and it’s a love that shines bright and true.

The Rural Diaries is a quick and very accessible read. It’s easy to become absorbed in the story, and the photos included are not to be missed. (I just have to say, find someone who looks at you the way the Morgans look at each other in their wedding photo)

I started reading The Rural Diaries as soon as my copy arrived, which was a little late because of the pandemic and the subsequent shipping delays. The timing ended up being perfect, because by then Friday Night In with the Morgans was already airing on Friday nights. If you read The Rural Diaries then you’ll recognize names from the Morgans’ Rhinebeck, New York community. The show is as much a love letter to their lives as the book is, and that makes it even more special.

The Rural Diaries is available now at a bookstore near you.