Rating: 
Summary: Witty, hilarious and oh-so-true!
Review: I could not put this one down! How very true are the basic observations Allison makes about the dilemma of working motherhood! We all love our kids more than anything else, but in order to preserve our sanity, we all go out and work our tails off until we can't fully enjoy either. My two favorite things: the ever-powerfull Muffia and the ever-patient husband with a memory for no more than three things. Tops. P.S. Last night, I read one more book than usual to my kids AND snuggled up very close to my hubby. And today, I was 10 minutes late for work. Not on purpose.
Rating:
Summary: Funny, and real world
Review: I see a lot of negative reviews here, but I think this book is hilarious and very real. It may seem to some like it has a feminist agenda, but if you have ever worked in a high-pressure business (as the heroine does) you will have experienced some of the frustrations of trying to compete with men who have stay-at-home wives, or have tried to ignore sexual jokes during meetings, or rushed from work to school to home. I loved reading about a woman a little like me, who is over 20 and is trying to DO IT ALL. It is not preachy, just very funny and very true - and the revenge she exacts on a particularly vile coworker at the end of the novel is WONDERFUL. Does she make the right decision at the end of the story? You read it and decide for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and real
Review: Laugh out loud funny. Stab in the heart real.Any working mom will see herself -- both the parts she loves and the parts she secretly hates.
Rating: 
Summary: I Don't Know Why She Wrote It
Review: Having read the critical reviews which raved about this book, I must say I alternated between being amused by the witty style and good dialogue to thinking, "And how exactly is this supposed to be about an average working mom?" Kate Reddy is a London-based hedge fund manager, married, two kids aged 6 & 1, with a nanny and an incompetent cleaning lady. Her job requires her to jet all over the Western world at the drop of a hat, work late hours, miss all those important "mom times". She spends most of the book whining about how she wants to spend more time with her husband and kids, meanwhile she is enjoying the power and status her job gives her. Where I had a problem is feeling like she was a sympathetic character. I, too, am a working mom. I also work in a very male dominated field, where taking time for your kids if you are a woman means you are weak. I have three kids to her two, one with special needs. My husband is like most modern men, far less incompetent than those we see in sitcoms or read about in books like this one. He can actually hold down the fort for weeks at a time if need be and does all sorts of things around the house, all the time, without being asked, and does them well(!). No, he is not a saint. He's just a partner, not an idiot. I kept wanting to give Kate a swift kick in the [rear] and say, "Quit whining, you have NOTHING to feel sorry about! What about the millions of us who cannot afford a nanny, have to drop the kids at school and day care, do the shopping, clean the house, cook, pick up after pets, take care of the garden, and somehow still find time to be a wife, and not just a working mom!" If she's such a hot shot in the City, surely Kate could find something else to do that would allow her to put her kids to bed at night. Get off the fast track if your kids mean so much to you. And of course that's exactly what she does in the end. She quits work. Couldn't find a happy medium there, could you, Ms. Pearson? Ah, but then in the end Kate is contemplating buying a company and . . . I am certain millions of us who work not just to afford the finer things in life but to be able to have a house in a decent school system, a car that is reliable, and be able to pay for the music lessons, ballet, martial arts, etc., kids want to do, would LOVE to be able to step off the treadmill and be there for the kids more than we're able. Then there are those of us who enjoy what we do, want to do it, but are able to not be so obsessed with our work that we actually have time for our kids. This book was hailed to be a must-read for every working mom. Personally, it made me realize what a great job I have done of making sure the first things come first--and they aren't things found at my office. If you're looking for a book that makes you want to slap the heroine, this is a great one. If you want to read some amusing dialogue and good writing, this works for that, too (that's why I gave it three stars). But if your working mom life is based in reality and you've already figured out that some things are more important than Success, you'll probably feel the same way I do right now--[cheated.] I was told Kate was the heroine for working mothers. I found her to be a spoiled brat.
Rating: 
Summary: trite, myth-propagating, unbelievable
Review: It's difficult to not give anything away about the book in order to back up the criticisms in the review title, but the character read as someone that couldn't possibly exist in the real world. A collection of stereotypes: the high-powered career-woman and the stay-at-home-mom, smashed impossibly together.
Rating: 
Summary: Agree with other Working Moms
Review: I agree completely with the raters with the subject lines, "I Don't Know Why She Wrote It" and "Heartbreaking". I am disgusted with the rater who stated that women who do work outside the home are trying to "run out". Give me a break. Maybe you are in the financial position to be able to stay at home with your children. I would love to stay at home with mine, but it is impossible given my situation. (...) Anyway, back to the book, I was impressed at the beginning. Many of her feelings were things I feel myself day to day. A million things to remember, both at work and at home. Not enough hours in a day to get them done. Wanting to do your best in both places. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the beginning chapters. But, as the book went along, I got more and more frustrated with Kate. How she didn't appreciate any time with her kids, like when they went on vacation and she was more unhappy being with them than she was when she was at work. How she was frustrated by their need for her. How she got into the cyber-relationship with Jack from America. How she said she put the picture of her kids in her drawer because it made her seem weak. How she didn't know any information about her children when people asked. It took her husband leaving and Ben falling for her to wake up. Then, like some others wrote, she had to quit work in order to be able to manage. Give me a break! I know many other working moms out there who hold it together way better than Kate, and still actually manage to be intimately involved in their children's lives. I realize I am not an international money manager, but my job is extremely demanding. I still know my children's weights, favorite foods, books, toys, etc.! I love to play with them when I get home from work. My son's pre-school is actually very close to my work, and I am able to go and visit when they have parties and outings. We even share an undisturbed 2+ hours together each morning and evening commuting to and from work/school together on the train. We can play, talk, read stories. It's wonderful. And, I bet, more quality time than some stay at home moms spend with their children every day when they have the whole day with them. As I believe the rater of "Heartbreaking" put it, Pearson's book is a slam against working mothers. The entire book seems to justify negative thoughts that people have about women who work. Let me give some of you people out there who actually think that a clue. I love my children more than anything in the world. There is never any question as to what is more important: my family or my job. It's a no brainer. Yes, I'm stressed out sometimes trying to hold it all together. Yes, I am sometimes awake until 2 AM getting work and chores done (yes, some of us actually do this stuff as well - we manage to clean our houses, feed our families, and raise our children). I am sure some things slip between the cracks - maybe vacuuming gets done 1-2 times per week and not 2-3. Does that make me a criminal - I think not. Read this book if you want some humorous quips about the life of a working mom, but by no means hold it against those of us working moms out there who really do manage to keep it together, at least where it counts!
Rating:
Summary: It's not my life but almost
Review: I read it in 2 days while on a business trip away from my toddler and disabled husband. Literally could not put it down. Eye-opening look at the pressures on working women. Her internal dialogue is my internal dialogue. Her guilt is mine as well. Glad for how it ended.
Rating: 
Summary: A guilty pleasure
Review: I didn't want to like this book. In fact, I didn't when I first read it. However, when I got into it, I couldn't keep from giggling. While Kate is far busier (and crazier) than most working moms I know, most of us can find some aspect of her life to relate to. I was clueless about many of the "British" things, but, then, the book wasn't written for me and there were universal Mommyisms to get past any language barrier. This book won't change your life and it won't win the Nobel Peace Prize...but it is a good read. Think of Bridget Jones after she gets a husband and kids.
Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking
Review: As a working mom, I had to pick up this book. It wasn't a waste of time. It was entertaining, both funny and sad. But the end left me very troubled. (Caution: as in some other reviews, this contains a spoiler.) No, I couldn't completely relate to Kate's life. We aren't that rich, and my job isn't nearly as demanding (thank goodness!). But there was a lot there that I could understand -- knowing that your husband would not even think to read a note from school, weighing what to say to your childcare help because that person is very valuable and you don't want to cause trouble, dealing with household horrors like rotting fruit and rodents because you just can't stay on top of the housework and nobody else is doing it for you, making lists that carry over the same items day after day because there aren't enough hours to accomplish everything. (Actually, I'd guess that most of these things are problems for at-home moms, too.) Yes, Kate could be frustrating, but who really has it all together? Kate was a workaholic and needed to be more honest and assertive -- at her office, with her household help, with her husband. She needed to take control of her life, which was obviously falling apart -- she drank too much, spent too much, flirted too much. Those of us who lack Kate's material comforts may feel that she was a whiner, but in the end, let the person with their act completely together cast the first stone. I found Kate's messy life refreshingly real. What troubled me though, and why I gave the book three stars, was the end. Kate's only way out was to quit her job (though she seemed to be on the way to creating a new one in the epilogue). Likewise, her two best friends were unable to make life work as full-time working mothers: one quit her job and started an at-home business, the other lost her husband and went part-time. Allison Pearson seems to believe strongly that you just can't be a mother and work full-time. Maybe she's right. The work world is mighty tough on mothers. But I'm an optimist, I guess, and Pearson's answer depressed me. Maybe I just can't accept reality.
Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Ever Read!
Review: This is definitely a great read. It's about time people took mothers seriously, even moms themselves. Motherhood is a very serious and very tough job; only the toughest survive. The weak ones run to work outside the home. Children NEED their Mothers and no Nanny or daycare provider will ever do a good enough job. All the readers who think this book is not for working mothers are only talking through guilt. I give this book 5 stars and am recommending it to everyone.
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