Fiona Stocker’s memoir depicts her and her husband’s emigration to Australia, living first in Brisbane before ‘upping sticks’ to Tasmania in search of the good life and slow living.

I was very pleased to receive an ARC - as a Tasmanian I had already heard a bit of hype around this book. Her memoir has a lot of humour and affection, it literally spills from the pages. I was giggling over the tale of Fiona and Oliver’s search for a rural property, and then the ‘unique’ features of their chosen home. And the scene where she was listing its faults to a group that included the wife of one of the builders was quintessentially Tasmanian!

It’s unnerving at times to read an ‘outsider’s’ interpretation of your home state and also relatively novel to be reading about places you know well. As well as being able to visualise the locations, I have family in the community Fiona writes about. There were moments when I held my breath fearing one of the local characters she was describing was going to turn out to be my brother-in-law! Fiona captures the idiom and eccentricities perfectly.

The humour is balanced by honestly about the challenges of living on the land and parenthood. All in all an enjoyable read and I look forward to the sequel.

In search of a different way of life, Fiona Stocker and husband Oliver upped sticks and moved themselves and their young family to rural Tasmania, to a house of dubious construction among five acres of land. It was the start of a number of adventures Fiona probably wouldn’t have predicted, including acting as midwife to a permanently disgruntled alpaca named Lorna (to be honest, I would happily have read a whole book about the alpacas alone. Alpaca Island Wife?) Along with alpaca-, chicken- and children-wrangling, there are some ferocious guinea fowl to contend with and a sheepdog with a propensity for rounding up humans.

I didn’t know much about Tasmania before but now I kind of want to live there, though I’m a bit worried about the snakes. And the spiders, which allegedly grow so large you can see the whites of their eyes as they watch you walk by. I’m not convinced spiders actually have whites of their eyes, but nor do I especially want to find out.

Fiona’s writing style is incredibly entertaining, humorous and engaging, and very honest about her own lack of knowledge and skill about the many and baffling practical jobs to be done. Luckily, husband Oliver appears to just know most of that stuff by some form of osmosis, in that inexplicable way some men, in particular, seem to have. (Having been brought up on a farm probably didn’t hurt.) I laughed out loud many times, not least when the Stockers’ old neighbours come to stay, having prepared as if for an Antarctic expedition (apparently Tasmania, with its more temperate climate, has a reputation elsewhere in Australia as a frozen wasteland.)

This was a lovely escapist (in the best sense of the word) read, with both the location and the personalities - of the family, their neighbours and animals - shining through. I look forward to the next instalment and yes I’d love to go and stay at Langdale Farm (they’re on AirBnB!) if only it wasn’t the literal other side of the world...

I loved reading this book about a young couple who pack up and move to Tasmania. I laughed several times as they try to navigate a new town, culture, climate, and parenthood. A great book from anyone who desires to travel or start a new life in a new place.

A really enjoyable memoir a city couple moving to Tasmania of all unusual places.Fiona Stocker has a wonderful style of writing warm funny with occasional serious moments.City couple adjusting to living with Alpacas and even a scorpion, A really charming read. #netgalley #unboundpublishers.

A fantastic memoir. Really interesting and quick read.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

I felt so honoured to be given an insight into the life of Fiona Stoker, husband Oliver, and their adorable children. Fiona’s memoir is an amusing account of how they moved to Tasmania and adapted to a new country, new climate and a totally new way of life.

The anecdotes are both informative and funny, Fiona has a way of making the most mundane tasks seem really amusing. However, by contrast, she describes the most outrageous occurrences as if they happen on a daily basis!

The Stoker’s new life meant that they had to build relationships with neighbours because of the remote rural setting. I like the way Fiona describes the quirky characters and the close sense of community. Everyone seemed to know each other and they pooled tools, resources, and knowledge to make the best of what was available.

I loved how Fiona described her husband Oliver’s tendency to start projects but never quite get round to finishing them. Something that I can certainly relate to! As an animal lover, the recollections of alpaca training and choosing the right hens (to name but a few) had me captivated and chuckling in equal measures.

I was in awe of the way that Fiona left everything behind, including family and friends and moved to a rural country she knew nothing about. It is something that many of us contemplate, but few have the courage to do so, and for that, I take off my hat to her.

I always like a city couple moving to the country memoir and this was a pretty good one. I have to admit, it taking place in Tasmania, a place I know little about, added to my enjoyment. It was comedic but had some serious moments. Great pick for anyone who dreams of living it all behind and starting fresh.

I dove into the pages of Apple Island Wife this weekend, hoping the memoirs of a woman making a new home for her family in rural Tanzania would distract me from our frigid Canadian winter. (It was adorable how she described how some individuals might consider Tanzania cold.)

This charming tale was a delightful telling of growth and discovery, stories of everyday life in a new setting, interspersed with droll humour. The account was amusing and educational (being from the North American corner of the world, there were some terms I was unfamiliar with!) While I enjoyed many of the aspects of the presentation, Fiona’s recounted insights into her husband’s interests (and her decided lack of interest in said pursuits) truly amused me – I too will never understand the appeal of a tractor pull or farm auction, no matter how many we attended as children.

Her colourful characterizations of the animals – pet, herd, and pest – as well as the lively description of her neighbours and the land were vividly well done. I could at once envision myself in the midst of the scenes she described. Wallabies, huntsman spiders, and snakes, oh my!

The chapters were not presented in a linear fashion. While I understood the general timeline as a whole, there was a part of me that wondered how old the children were, how many months or years had passed, or whether an incident happened before another if it was not explicitly presented in the writing.

It was relatable for any woman who has ever made a decision and questioned whether they were truly equipped for the change. She found the right balance in presenting how many of us struggle with wanting to be more than a mother or housewife and I was delighted with her term of domestic Chief Executive Officer. She acknowledges her strengths and her weakness with a balance of humility and humour.

Overall, this is a book that I highly recommend for a little glimpse into someone making a home for themselves in a strange-to-them environ. Settle in with a cuppa in a comfy chair – you’ll feel like your about to listen in while a close friend recounts amusing anecdotes of everyday life or the reminiscing of your favourite auntie. It was an intimate glimpse into the Stocker family’s venture into farm life and I, for one, cannot wait to read more.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley courtesy of the author and/or publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Published by Unbound Digital; Publication Date – December 4, 2018

#AppleIslandWife #NetGalley

I loved reading Fiona Stocker's memoir "Apple Island Wife." Tasmania is a mysterious-sounding island that not many people know about and Stocker brings it to life in her vivid account. This is an enjoyable, slice-of-life read that offers readers a glimpse into what it's like to live with alpacas and other colorful creatures, i.e. a scorpion.

This memoir showed how your life can change when you least expect it to and how going along for the ride can give you unexpected happiness, even if there are hard times on the way!

The anecdotes in this book — because it is a collection of stories, rather than a continuous narrative — are entertaining, but the narrator is pretty passive in most of them, letting her husband or children take the lead, which diminished my sympathy for her. There's also quite a bit of overlap and repetition in some minor details from chapter to chapter (which are possibly collected from the blog she mentions, so perhaps the repeated context was in the original post and just left in), and there doesn't seem to be rhyme or reason behind the order of the stories, both of which I found just a little bit annoying.

Still, Stocker manages to paint a pretty vivid picture of the rural lifestyle and especially the transition from city living, keeping in mind both the pragmatic and romantic aspects of it all.