What happens when two New Yorkers (one an ex-drag queen) do the unthinkable: start over, have a herd of kids, and get a little dirty?
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Jun 20, 2010
Jackie
rated it: 
I am soooooo in love with this book! Josh is an ex-drag queen and writer turned advertising maven, Brent is "Dr Brent" on The Martha Stewart Show. They've been together for almost 10 years and seem to thrive on the big city lifestyle despite their 700 square foot apartment--until they take a wrong turn on a drive and discover The Beekman Mansion. It's HUGE, 200 years old and in need of a whole lot of work--but they want
it. Dreams of leisurely weekends away from the city as gent More...
it. Dreams of leisurely weekends away from the city as gent More...
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Nov 08, 2011
Robyn
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Here's a good way to tell whether you'll enjoy this book. Read this quote from the first chapter: "we would spend the night in a budget motel, preferably just off a major highway--not because we couldn't afford a cozy inn, but because cheap hotels reminded Brent of vacations from his youth. They reminded me of Fleet Week, so it worked out well for both of us." If you don't know why the quote is funny, or if you don't find it amusing, this is probably not the book for you.
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Oct 14, 2011
Richard
rated it: 
Oh no you don't! No sighing, sneaking past this review, and saying how good it is! Sit there and READ this.
Josh and Brent, two of the most annoying perfectionist queens Manhattan has ever sucked into its lapidary drum of the effete, are bare-naked and warty as all get-out in this hilarious, touching, brutally honest memoir by the tall one. (Josh.) And he memoirs the way it feels to be human, alive, selfish and self-absorbed and sweet and lovable better than most. He's honest about ho More...
Josh and Brent, two of the most annoying perfectionist queens Manhattan has ever sucked into its lapidary drum of the effete, are bare-naked and warty as all get-out in this hilarious, touching, brutally honest memoir by the tall one. (Josh.) And he memoirs the way it feels to be human, alive, selfish and self-absorbed and sweet and lovable better than most. He's honest about ho More...
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Aug 06, 2011
Jennifer
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Brief Description: The subtitle pretty much sums up the book: “How Two Manhattanites Became Gentleman Farmers.” After stumbling upon the rundown but filled with potential Beekman Mansion near Sharon Springs, NY, Kilmer-Purcell (former drag queen turned advertising guru) and his partner Dr. Brent Ridge (who at the time was working as “Dr. Brent” for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia) impulsively decide to purchase the mansion and the surrounding 60 acres and become weekend farmers. Their experience
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Aug 02, 2011
Deb
rated it:
I liked this book and read it in almost 1 day. It was especially fun because I had just done a 6 day bicycle tour right in the area where the story takes place. I could really visualize the farm and the town in this beautiful but depressed area.
However, after thinking about it for a day or two, I can't help but feel a bit of contempt for the writer and his partner. They bought an extremely expensive mansion in the country so that they could raise their own food and then they got i More...
However, after thinking about it for a day or two, I can't help but feel a bit of contempt for the writer and his partner. They bought an extremely expensive mansion in the country so that they could raise their own food and then they got i More...
Jul 16, 2011
As soon as I read about The Fabulous Beekman Boys on a friend blog, I so much wanted to see the reality. But here in Italy it was on a cable network and it was a little expensive to pay for a year subscription just to see 10 30 minutes passages. So I set down to buy the DVD as soon as it was available… just to discover they didn’t deliver it in Italy (actually in Europe) since it was available only for US. I even tried to buy it on streaming when I was in Mexico, and no, actually it’s not even a
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May 20, 2011
Cyndy
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After my eye-rolling at the dramatic stream-of-consciousness that was Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and my inability to believe the events in Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle, I gave up on reading memoirs for quite a while. However, when a blurb on a blog for an upcoming book crossed my screen describing a gay couple (one of whom is a former drag queen) moving to the country and becoming gentlemen farmers, I was unable to keep myself from adding the book to my ever-growi
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May 07, 2011
Trish
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I had this book in my library and, without reading it myself, lent it to a family member to help her through a difficult surgery. She never returned it, but when I read Dawn Rennert’s review of her pilgrimage to Sharon Springs on her blog She is Too Fond of Books, I went to get it back that very day. I'm so glad I did. It would have been perfect for the sick family member, had she read it, but she didn't and I did. It was perfect for me, too. What a wonderful, funny, painful, knowing memoir of
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Dec 10, 2010
Sabino
rated it:
A great book written in the most friendly, warm and straight-forward style to present the reality of life, in this case of the author and his partner's life.
This is a book hard to put down, once you start reading you just don't want to stop. And you will laugh until you fall off the chair/sofa or wherever you are sitting/laying down reading the book, and you will also shed some tears, as you are put into the shoes of this fantastic author, in several chapters of this book! This is a More...
This is a book hard to put down, once you start reading you just don't want to stop. And you will laugh until you fall off the chair/sofa or wherever you are sitting/laying down reading the book, and you will also shed some tears, as you are put into the shoes of this fantastic author, in several chapters of this book! This is a More...
Nov 26, 2010
Jeff
rated it:
After finishing “I Am Not Myself These Days,” I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Josh’s follow-up, a book that brings him from dancing with fish in his “tits” to kanoodling with goats in a barn.
How did two Manhattanites become gentlemen farmers, indeed? Would they be able to make the transition? Would the change better help them realize who they are as human beings? As a couple? Would they, as a couple, even survive the change? And, what would Martha (yes, THAT Martha!) think? Thes More...
How did two Manhattanites become gentlemen farmers, indeed? Would they be able to make the transition? Would the change better help them realize who they are as human beings? As a couple? Would they, as a couple, even survive the change? And, what would Martha (yes, THAT Martha!) think? Thes More...
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Nov 26, 2010
Beth
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Josh and Brent already have very busy lives in NYC when they stumble upon a renovated historic mansion with 60 acres and a big red barn in apple-picking country that just happens to be for sale. Instead of "dropping everything and starting over" as you might expect from the book's byline, they continue their demanding jobs as an advertising agent and doctor on Martha Stewart Living, respectively, and drive over 3 hours to work their "farm" on the weekends. The description o
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Oct 18, 2010
Jennifer
rated it:
I admit that I am a sucker for books in the "farm" genre. If someone leaves behind an urban/suburban existence to try out farming, I want to know about it. But, I am slowly beginning to realize the following: when I buy this type of book, I am providing financial support for someone else's dream and not my own. I should be saving my money for my own farm, right? Instead, I'm a sucker. The authors of these books want us to buy their dreams for them. This author actually writes th
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Sep 01, 2010
Kathleen
rated it:
A former drag queen turned advertising executive and his partner, the doctor on call to comment for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, tire of Manhattan bustle and purchase a weekend place to become gentleman farmers. Hilarity ensues.
There are goats that get diarrhea on their way to a Martha Stewart shoot and evil zombie cluster flies that infest the mansion. The triumphs and tribulations all gardeners experience are magnified when Josh expands his garden plot to nine times its ori More...
There are goats that get diarrhea on their way to a Martha Stewart shoot and evil zombie cluster flies that infest the mansion. The triumphs and tribulations all gardeners experience are magnified when Josh expands his garden plot to nine times its ori More...
Aug 13, 2010
Richard
rated it:
Oh no you don't! No sighing, sneaking past this review, and saying how good it is! Sit there and READ this.
Josh and Brent, two of the most annoying perfectionist queens Manhattan has ever sucked into its lapidary drum of the effete, are bare-naked and warty as all get-out in this hilarious, touching, brutally honest memoir by the tall one. (Josh.) And he memoirs the way it feels to be human, alive, selfish and self-absorbed and sweet and lovable better than most. He's honest about ho More...
Josh and Brent, two of the most annoying perfectionist queens Manhattan has ever sucked into its lapidary drum of the effete, are bare-naked and warty as all get-out in this hilarious, touching, brutally honest memoir by the tall one. (Josh.) And he memoirs the way it feels to be human, alive, selfish and self-absorbed and sweet and lovable better than most. He's honest about ho More...
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Aug 10, 2010
Grady
rated it:
One of the Year's Best Books
What more can be said about THE BUCOLIC PLAGUE that has already been so well stated by all reviewers? Josh Kilmer-Purcell is not only a gifted writer, able to blend beautiful prose with microscopically descriptive situations - both of high comedy and of sensitive insight into the many facets of relationships among human beings (and humans with animals!) - but he is more. He is able to look at the world in which we live from so many vantages that this book More...
What more can be said about THE BUCOLIC PLAGUE that has already been so well stated by all reviewers? Josh Kilmer-Purcell is not only a gifted writer, able to blend beautiful prose with microscopically descriptive situations - both of high comedy and of sensitive insight into the many facets of relationships among human beings (and humans with animals!) - but he is more. He is able to look at the world in which we live from so many vantages that this book More...
Jul 26, 2010
Tattered Cover
rated it:
Jackie says:
I am soooooo in love with this book! Josh is an ex-drag queen and writer turned advertising maven, Brent is "Dr Brent" on The Martha Stewart Show. They've been together for almost 10 years and seem to thrive on the big city lifestyle despite their 700 square foot apartment--until they take a wrong turn on a drive and discover The Beekman Mansion. It's HUGE, 200 years old and in need of a whole lot of work--but they want it. Dreams of leisurely weekends away from More...
I am soooooo in love with this book! Josh is an ex-drag queen and writer turned advertising maven, Brent is "Dr Brent" on The Martha Stewart Show. They've been together for almost 10 years and seem to thrive on the big city lifestyle despite their 700 square foot apartment--until they take a wrong turn on a drive and discover The Beekman Mansion. It's HUGE, 200 years old and in need of a whole lot of work--but they want it. Dreams of leisurely weekends away from More...
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Jul 05, 2010
Colin
rated it:
In The Bucolic Plauge, Josh Kilmer-Purcell's latest memoir, he and his partner impulsively buy a farm in Sharon Springs, New York. Hilarity ensues.
I'm tempted to just finish my review right there, but I guess I should say more. Okay, so Josh Kilmer-Purcell wrote the book called I Am Not Myself These Days about his life as an alcoholic drag queen with a drug addicted male escort of a boyfriend. It still stands as one of my favorite books. I am pleased that he returned to memoir style More...
I'm tempted to just finish my review right there, but I guess I should say more. Okay, so Josh Kilmer-Purcell wrote the book called I Am Not Myself These Days about his life as an alcoholic drag queen with a drug addicted male escort of a boyfriend. It still stands as one of my favorite books. I am pleased that he returned to memoir style More...
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Jun 29, 2010
Lora
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Apr 25, 2010
Heather
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What you need to know about me is that I love to read but reading makes me sleepy. I usually fall asleep after only a couple of pages if I read at night, so the only time I get any appreciable reading in is on my daily train commute, which is really only 15 minutes each way. And I'm a slow reader. It's a testament to the quality of this book that I read it in only a couple of days, and that I stayed up late -- hours beyond when I went to bed, even -- to keep reading it. This book broke the sopor
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(2 people liked it)
Jun 22, 2011
Erin
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I adored every word in this book! While reading it, I wanted to rush over to Sharon Springs, make friends with these guys, and become part of their world, kind of like Ariel in Disney's Little Mermaid. This memoir was light-hearted, funny, sincere, and real, and was reminiscent to me of The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy by Robert Leleux . The Bucolic Plague inspired me to dream my own dreams, evoked nostalgic feelings in me for eras I never lived in, and caused me to stay up until 3 AM because it w
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Mar 31, 2011
Carin
rated it:
Memoirs of course are my thing. And while I do like memoirs about tragedy and difficulties, I like to intersperse them with more light memoirs with humor and less angst. The Bucolic Plague fit that perfectly.
Josh and his partner Brent drive by a mansion/farm in way upstate New York and fall in love with it immediately. They start going out every weekend to their country house, gardening, raising goats, and canning vegetables. But through the influence of Martha Stewart (Brent's boss More...
Josh and his partner Brent drive by a mansion/farm in way upstate New York and fall in love with it immediately. They start going out every weekend to their country house, gardening, raising goats, and canning vegetables. But through the influence of Martha Stewart (Brent's boss More...
Aug 15, 2010
Linda
rated it:
I expected this to be a light and somewhat frivolous read. I picked it soley because it was about purchasing a rural mansion that was only a mile or so away from the farm I grew up on and drove past every day on my way to school - at a time when the mansion had been neglected for decades. I was pleasantly surprised to find it an easy and facinating read. Then I was equally surprised when the story about the relationship between the two guys, and their efforts to keep the mansion as the econom
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Jun 07, 2011
Leilani
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I have passed by many a memoir about settling down in some charming country with a fixer-upper villa - they generally inspire nothing but annoyance in me. This book is different - it doesn't turn out to be about having it all. Instead it's about pursuing dreams, working through the really tough parts, and making adjustments when necessary.
The author has a brilliant lightly-comic tone, and I want to see & smell all the wonderful plants he describes so vividly. He also makes some pe More...
The author has a brilliant lightly-comic tone, and I want to see & smell all the wonderful plants he describes so vividly. He also makes some pe More...
Jul 16, 2010
Jenn
rated it:
I enjoyed this thoroughly--in fact, it was pretty hard to put down once I'd picked it up. I loved most, of course, the parts about growing their own food on the farm, cooking it and preserving it (I definitely want to try making their onion jam, and I'm dying to taste their cheese), and the shifting seasons in upstate New York (The first frost fell like a guillotine at the Beekman. . . . The sky had lost all of its summer milkiness, and the row of ancient sugar maples in the front yard glowed so
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Oct 17, 2010
Candy
rated it:
I first ran into this author in 2006 on MySpace (remember that?). He was listed as a friend of another author I followed, was a funny guy so I picked up his book, I Am Not Myself These Days, and just rolled with laughter. He had a funny way of describing his life, yet also was severely honest. It was nice to read something so real. I believe I may have exchanged a few comments with Josh via his blog there on MySpace (no really, people used to use it!) and he was a genuinely nice guy.
A More...
A More...
Jul 17, 2010
Peter
rated it:
Several times throughout this unconventional memoir, author Josh Kilmer-Purcell admits that he has a talent for making things appear sparkly - he is, after all, in advertising...that's his job.
He also has a talent for writing. He is able to draw the reader into his story with humor and exceptional descriptions. He's the kind of writer that makes writing a book look easy.
He and his partner Brent discover a farm for sale several hours outside of New York City and after fallin More...
He also has a talent for writing. He is able to draw the reader into his story with humor and exceptional descriptions. He's the kind of writer that makes writing a book look easy.
He and his partner Brent discover a farm for sale several hours outside of New York City and after fallin More...
Oct 02, 2010
Patrick
rated it:
I guess comparisons to the TV series Green Acres are inevitable. Sure there are colorful local folk but they are not rubes. The lead characters are both from rural heritages and not the befuddled city slickers that got their comeuppance by the locals on an ongoing basis like the moronic show. This is a heartfelt fish out of water tale with surprising depth of character and sincere earnestness. And lots of self-deprecating humor.
Author Josh Kilmer-Purcell is a Type A advertising execu More...
Author Josh Kilmer-Purcell is a Type A advertising execu More...
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Aug 09, 2010
Adrienne
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I am in love with their show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, and this book is a fantastic introduction into their life buying a farm in upstate NY. He unravels their decision to buy a mansion, a farm and the acquisition of 88 goats with grace and humor. Further, he blends the history of the mansion (which dates back to 1802) with the modern mindset that eggs do in fact come from chickens and that having chickens in one's backyard means fresh eggs. This book made me really think about consumer cul
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Jul 29, 2010
cubbie
rated it:
mixed feelings. was very excited about the book before i read it-- stared at it at the bookstore for a couple of shifts before deciding to get it-- i rarely impulse-buy new books. and... it wasn't bad. it was charming and fun, engaging and interesting. it makes me want to visit sharon springs and be friends with each person in the book, except maybe martha stewart. but my pcness winced at various parts, and the franticness and desperation of the pace of their life reminded me of the desire
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Jul 08, 2011
Aspen
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When did I say I was getting tired of New Yorker with a substantial off-farm income moves to the country and tries farming stories? This is another one; what makes it a little different is that the author deliberately decided not to take himself so effing seriously. When their off-farm income dries up, the couple had to decide whether to sell their charming Connecticut historical farmhouse or try to make a living at the business they had started there. They decided to capitalize on their learnin
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