Judith O’Reilly agrees to move with her husband to northern sheep territory in England — away from her job, friends and beloved city of London. This is how she becomes Wife in the North.
The book is written journal style, and after reading several chapters, I thought that it seemed to be a lot like a blog — covering topics from food, to friendship, to nursing babies and disciplining preschoolers. And then I discovered that it had indeed started as a blog. 
Judith O’Reilly began the blog to chronicle her move to the North of England, to help her husband live out his dream. When she gets there, she’s frustrated by her house, the neighbors, the bullying that her son endures at school, her husband’s absence while he’s working in London, the responsibilities of a new baby and a new home and a new life.
I find that when I read now, certain themes resonate with me — such as friendship, marriage, and the many roles that a woman serves as she navigates through her life, and in this memoir O’Reilly covers these. If you enjoy reading personal blogs, and specifically stories that illuminate a different lifestyle than you are living, I think you’d like this.
I found myself shaking my head at her, just as I would my sister or a friend who keeps complaining the same complaints over and over — “Instead of fussing at your husband for leaving the car empty, why don’t you fill the gas tank yourself?” But sometimes as a woman juggling all the balls that we do in the air, there are things that we rely on others to do for us — our friends, our husbands, even our children. O’Reilly captures the reality, frustration and incongruity of this perfectly.
You can read an excerpt of the book HERE.
You can enter to win your own copy by leaving a comment here. The FOUR winners will be announced next week.
We usually announce a winner in each column of the previous week’s book, but the contest from last week is still going on. You can enter to win all of the Harry Potter books in hardcover, plus the anniversary edition of the Sorcerer’s Stone HERE. The winner will be announced October 6.
congratulations – hope you enjoy it (and yes it’s all true.)
great snuggle up book for me for fall :)hot apple cider and this book i can’t wait 🙂
All true is it ? or just a story……
sounds like a good read
The book sounds very cool! I would love to win! Thanks so much for the giveaway!
Sounds like a book I would really like.
I would love to read this book.It just shows
how we keep going and despite frustration that
we need to get certain things done and it
just happens to fall right in our lap,so we
do it and move on
CharlieGurl57@aol.com
Please enter me into the contest. Thanks!
That sounds like a great book.
This book sounds really good. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to live in the North of England. Thanks for having the contest!
I love to read and find new authors that I have never read before! Thanks for the contest!
chrisandamyward(at)comcast(dot)net
would love to win!! thanks for the chance!!!!!!
the title caught my eye actually as i live in NY state UPSTATE in the North…i would love to read this!
please count me in
This is a new subject for me. I am really interested. Thanks.
Sounds like a great book..I would love to read it…
Sounds like a great book. Please enter me.
I would love this prize. Please enter me. Thank You
This sounds like a great book!
Looks like a good read aas the days grow shorter. Thanks for the chance to win!!
PLEASE COUNT ME IN ON THIS AWESOME GIVEAWAY 🙂
I would love to read this!
commenting for entry please 🙂
cherylfrancisco@hotmail.com
Sounds like a great read!
Sounds very interesting. Would love the chance to read it. Thank you!
I think I would enjoy this book. I especially like the fact it is in journal style.
jceko77@yahoo.com
Sounds like a great read! Thanks for the great giveaway!
This sounds like an interesting read! Count me in please!
great book would love to win
This is the first time I am seeing this book and I had a good laugh! The good old boys on the farm are always teasing me about being a city girl
I would love to read
Count me in to win!
I haven’t heard of this book, but it sounds really good! I’m always up for a new read, or a new suggestion. =) Count me in!
keeerried216[at]aol[dot]com
I love reading books by new authors…..new to me, I mean! This book sounds really interesting, too!
Thanks so much!
Michele R.(CA)
luvkittysmeowmail@gmail.com
This book sounds really intriguing! I read the excerpt and would love to read the book!
I would love to win this book.
I’d really enjoy reading this.
rsgrandinetti@yahoo.com
This sounds really good. Thanks!
I love reading.
This book sounds very intriguing and I would love to read it.
Thanks for the contest.
Please enter me 🙂
Sounds like a great book!
sounds like a great book
Sounds like a interesting book enter me in this contest
Looks like a great read! Thanks for the giveaway!
Sounds like a really good book!
Sounds like an interesting read, especially because I am a sucker for blogs!! Thanks for the giveaway.
I moved to the “north” of Australia many years ago (Arnhemland, Northern Territory) as an employee of tribal Aboriginals. It was both a cultural shock and an exciting adventure. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. So, this book would be a treat to read.
I would love to win this!
Sounds like a book I would be interesting to read, thanks
I would love to win, thanks.
Sounds like a really interesting book. Would love to win a copy!
That sounds like a great book. I will definitely be putting it on my wish list. Thanks!!!
I AM GOING TO MOVE OFF AND START A NEW LIFE WOULD BE FUN TO READ WHEN I START MY NEW JOB IN MY NEW STATE…..
Wife in the North sounds like a great book to curl up with during the winter.
This sounds like a good read. Thanks for the contest.
Thanks for the giveaway.
enter me!
This looks like a good read. Thanks for the opportunity to win it!
It takes a really good writer to be able to allow the reader to be able to put ones self in the book, thank you for a contest with such an awesome read.
Sounds like a great read!
I’m always on the lookout for a good book. I’m actually in library school right now, and I’m a little desperate for something besides a text book!
Sweet niblets!
sign me up!!
always like new reads!
Please enter me–thanks!
THANK YOU GOD BLESS
Looks good.
I would love to win!
Sounds like a good book to me:)Count me in on the fun.
I love books like this. Please sign me up.
I’d like to read this book.
Sounds great!
Looks great, count me in!!
Sounds like a great read. Count me in! Thanks for the opportunity!
Sounds like a fun read.
Count me in.
Please enter me.
sounds like a book I would relate to 🙂
Sounds like a very interesting book. My parents recently moved to Germany for my dad’s job. Luckily their kids are grown and on their own, but it has still been a struggle for them. I think this would be great for my mom to read.
enter me
enter me
This is the kind of book that sounds wonderful to read when the evenings are getting cooler and I am sitting in front of my fireplace. Please enter me in your delightful book drawing. Many thanks, Cindi
Thanks, looks like a great read.
Please count me in!
This sounds great!
I’d love to win this for when I get the chance to read again. It will happen, right?
Sounds like a good read…here’s a hopin’!
Good Luck to all
Count me IN….I’m always up for a new read!!! 😀 Thanks girls!
i am in
Wooo Hooo Make me a winner!
This book looks like a great read. Especially after the season changes curled up by a nice cozy fireplace.
cool count me in
this sounds really good.
What a wonderful prize!
I love to read–this sounds like a good read!! Thanks!
I read the excerpt and found myself wishing that I could have the book in hand and read it all. Thank you for the giveaway.
looks awesome! just the kind of book i like to read. thanks so much for the giveaway!
Great sounding book. I’d be interested in reading about sheep country.
This sounds like a really great read!
want to win this
If I don’t win, it will definately be on my “to read” list. Thanks for sharing, Judith. And thanks for another great giveaway, girls! 🙂
This book sure sounds different. But I definitely would like to read it. Please enter me.
ayancey@dishmail.net
Sounds like something I would enjoy reading. Thanks for the contest!
I would enjoy reading this. Please enter me. Thanks!
Looks like an interesting read.
Sounds like a great read – thanks for the chance to win!
good read
looks neat – thanks!
I love books written in journal or diary form!
It’s always been my dream to get a home in the country. I’d love to read this and find out why the author thought it was less than idyllic!
This sounds like a wonderful book. Thanks for the opportunity / giveaway!
very good thank you
Wow! This sounds great. Please count me in!!
I’d like to win this!
sounds great! thanks for entry 🙂
Sounds like something I would read.
This sounds interesting and different. Thanks for the chance to win it.
Sounds like a good read! 🙂
I love to read, and this sounds like a good read!
legacyofbrutalitysa{AT}gmail.com
Sounds interesting.
sounds like a good read
🙂 HIIII
This sounds like a fabulous book. I’d love to win it.
Would love to read this!
Well written review. I’d like to read this one.
Looks like another great prize to win.I just hope i do.
Please add me to the list.
i want it
This sounds like a very enjoyable read.
sounds like a great read – I am there!
I’m always up for a good read – sign me up!
can’t wait to win
sounds good
Sign me up i am ready for a new read…this one sounds great.
i’m in clear to my chin
I moved from Queens to S Jersey when I was in high school, then further out when I went to college. I would love to see how it comes out.
This sounds like a good book and I would love a copy to add to our library. My new husband and I were going to go to London on our honeymoon, but he could not get permission from his commander (in the military) to leave the country or stray far from base at all. Oh well. This book should be a good read. Thanks for offering it.
I’m one of those people who judges a book by its cover and I’m already obsessed with this one!
Sounds good.
This sounds like a great book!
Hmmm…my husband has a dream to move to the country, too. Would love to read how it all panned out in this case. Thanks for the opportunity!
That sounds like a great book.
Sounds wholly entertaining and I’d love to read it!
Just seen what you are doing here. Delighted to see this much interest – thankyou so much. In the UK, Wife in the North was in the top 10 non fiction reads for five weeks and was number 3 for a month, and it has been optioned for TV. It is the UK’s fastest blog to book (in fact, I only got the book deal because I was picked up by a copuple of UK political bloggers and then US political blogger Andrew Sullivan who took me from zero readers to 15,000 overnight. The book is fundamentally about what it is to be a wife and mother and daughter, it is about love and relationships and family. It’s funny but warning – it’s sad too, but then so is life. Anyway I am really hoping it works for US readers in the same way as it has worked in the UK. It is more than my diary – when I had the offer of a book deal, I decided I wanted to write a book which was about fundamental things which I wasn’t seeing elsewhere like how a mother feels when she loves a child, breastfeeding, postnatal depression, stillbirth, etc. I am hoping it is a book women connect with. Thanks again for the interest.
Best wishes
wifey
Thanks for the contest
love reading and this sounds like a good one
Count me in please!
I am all about memoirs. This one sounds delightful. Thanks!
Megret
I read the excerpt and loved it. Please sign me up! Thanks!
The theme of this book represents the dream that keeps me going. I have a recurring fantasy of running away from it all by going “up north” to either Canada, Newfoundland, or Nova Scotia. At this point, I’d settle for Northern Maine. My husband is on board with the whole idea, but with three kids under the age of three, and no $$$, it might be a while until we can set the plan into motion. I would love to read this book, and if I don’t win it, then I will look for it in my local library.
Alicia Webster
5webs@comcast.net
I love to read. Thanks for the chance.
I’m always looking for a new book to read!
The book sounds great.
looks very interesting- great review, please include me
That sounds like something I would like to read. Good review.
This single-mom of five needs a good read!
This sounds like a really interesting book. Count me in!
I would love to read this book. Count me in!
Sounds like a great book – I’d love to have a chance to read it!
Wife in the North sounds like a great read. I heard there is a movie out?
As someone who has moved multiple times (they only pencil us in, our realtives, in their address books) I’m sure “Wife in the North” will resonate for me. 🙂
Thanks for the drawing.
Lalycairn (at) gmail.com
Sounds like an intriguing read; enter me please! 🙂
sound like an interesting book.
ooh, me! I don’t live in the north, is that a requirement? 🙂
My husband’s considering moving us all back to England. Maybe if I read this first I’d have some ammunition. I wonder how many husbands read a page or two of a book left open at a strategic page?
Best wishes
Daily life and routines take on a whole new perspective when transplanted to a different environment. I love reading that kind of story. I’ve noted this for my “to read” list.
Thanks for the review.
I can’t resist a great book. Thanks for the chance.
I want to win!
That sounds like a good one!
I’ve been reading her blog for a few months…I’ve loved to get a copy of the book.
This sounds like a good read. Thanks for the chance to win!
This sounds like a very good read. I am in need of one as i just finished up with my most recent book and havne found another to read yet. I am sure i would enjoy this one.
This sounds very interesting. I can’t wait to read the whole book.
I must have that book 🙂 you see .. I am also a woman of the ‘North’ – a metropolitan girl deposited in northern Maine because of her husbands job. I went from a metro area to a town of 1200 and three convenience stores 🙂 I need to know there is someone else experiencing the same as me 🙂 – and loving it now – but oy-vay, what a road to get there!! 🙂
Looks like a good read. I am always looking for new reading material and authors so would love to try this one.
Sounds like a great book. Sign me up!
Sounds great!! I would love to read it!!
Sounds good to me.
Thank you for this giveaway!
This sounds great! Count me in!
wow
Count me in… I love to read!
I’d love to read this book! Thanks!
I started reading her blog way back when it was just a regular blog…so I’d love to see it in book format! Count me in!
I would love to read this book. Please enter me in the contest.
Just coming back from putting it on my paperbackswap.com wish list (just in case I don’t win it here *wink*)
Sounds like my marriage: a “cosmopolitan” Detroiter marrying a man from Michigan Upper Pennisula! LOL
Count me in!
This sounds like a fine book!
Looks like a fun read.
Sound like an exciting book to read
Please enter me!
HA! I would love to win! I am a CA girl that found myself trying to adjust on the East Coast two years after marriage. Then…when it was time to go to Hawaii I cried bitter tears. (Sick, I KNOW!) Tonight I cried because after 3.5 years we are moving…and this time to CA. I would love to read this!
It sounds great! Im always ready for a new book…esp. since I force myself to relax and read it- otherwise I stay too busy. Nothing like a good book to slow you down and steal away time for yourself!
i haven’t heard of this, but love to read. sounds good!
sounds like it could be interesting … and I love reading, so put me in the drawing!
Count me in!
Sounds fantastic. Sign me up!
I live in Northern Canada…not quite the same.
In theory, I would love to move to Northern England and live in sheep country. Maybe I’ll change my mind after I read the book.
That sounds like a great book. I will definitely be putting it on my wishlist. I also love the cover. I wouldn’t have expected to hear of a book about a wife living in sheep country inside a book with red high heels on the cover! Intriguing.