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Summary: Kate Reddy lived my life
Review: I loved this book. It was as though she was living my life - I work in the finance industry, have 3 children, was the main breadwinner in the house, quit when I had my third, suffered through temptation. All of the stress, the helpful but clueless husband, the demanding bosses, the male jerks in the finance industry. The nervewracking childcare issues. It is all very true! Now I know my husband isn't the only one out there not to realize that when there are things on the stairs, they should be taken up the stairs. Kate is a bit edgier than I am, but darn this book was almost too realistic. I did enjoy the satirical style, it helped me see some of the humor in situations that I have lived through. It was a fun book that I was sorry to see end.
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Summary: Must Read for Working Mums!!!!`
Review: Alison Pearson's missive on the trials and tribs of the working mom is a total laugh-riot! I highly recommend it and believe that any working mom will be able to relate to this compelling and heart-warming book -- I laughed, I cried, my husband thought I was nuts. Some past reviewers seem to have taken this book as something of a criticism of the working mum. It is important to remember that this is a comic novel -- take it with a spoonful of cynicism and a generous helping of self-depricating humor. If you can't step back and chuckle at the absurdities of the juggling that go on in the working mum's life, including your own, than this book is not for you. For me, it was a mirror image of my family's zany life, and a great escape hatch!
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Summary: A great book!
Review: While some working moms may feel that this book was meant to push the message "a working mom is a bad mom" I don't believe that was the message at all! I believe the writer meant to emphasize the message that we working moms put entirely TOO much pressure on ourselves trying to "do it all" and worrying what everyone else thinks of us. Do our kids look at us differently if we don't bake homemade bread and pies? I think not! I am a working mom in a very male dominated job, and I saw a LOT of myself and my coworkers in this book. I laughed out loud when Kate mentions that she learned to handle her boss and coworkers as she does her toddler and that as long as she lets her boss think he came up the ideas, things get done the way she wants them to. I also agreed with her when she mentions that everyone thinks it is wonderful when one of the male coworkers takes time off for a child's play, but when she does it, they feel she is "slacking off" I have felt the same feelings. I hope everyone enjoys this book as much I did!
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Summary: I very much related!
Review: I liked this book very much. One reviewer called it "a slow read" and I consider that a compliment. I enjoyed the humor and sharp observations so much that I slowed down to catch them all. I gallop through many books and it's like wolfing down food. Kate isn't a workaholic so much for extrinsic rewards as for her own intrinsic needs. I find her a sympathetic character. I read parts of the book aloud to my husband, always saying, "I don't feel COMPLETELY like this," while knowing I feel doggone close. I cracked up on page one as she "distressed" mince pies, and then on the next page when she observed, "Women used to have time to make mince pies and had to fake orgasms. Now we can manage the orgasms, but we have to fake the mince pies. And they call this progress."
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Summary: Get real!!!
Review: Honestly, I don't understand the "holier-than-thou" tone taken by some of the negative reviews. This book is about ONE FICTIONAL working mother and the characterisations are tongue-in-cheek. Who'd want to read a book about a working mother whose life is in balance and guilt-free? Zzzz!! Working mothers sniping at each other are worse than the "muffia". If anything, Kate Reddy should give comfort (in a schadenfreude way) to real working mothers who are doing the best they can and that is pretty darn good.
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Summary: Unrealistic
Review: I was initially excited to read this book. I am a working mother who is married to an Englishman and loves English books. I am not a violent person but, after a few chapters, I wanted to smack Kate and tell her to grow up. If I were her husband, I would have left long ago AND taken the children with me. She is obviously self-centered and career obsessed. I never once got the feeling that she enjoyed being a mother. Then we are supposed to believe she just gives it all up (not until after pulling a juvenile stunt at the office) and is "Mary Poppins" all of the sudden? There were a few incidents that made me laugh or cry but overall the rest did not make up for them.
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Summary: Best book of the season
Review: I fell in love with all of the charactors of this book...espically the children. Allison Pearson is one the best authors that I have read in a while.
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Summary: Kate is great, but you have to have a sense of HUMOUR
Review: I am surprised by the number of readers who have given this book negative reviews on this forum! I can only guess that this is due to a need to "vent" after reading it, if one is offended or bored by Kate's constant criticism of herself, her chauvinistic, workaholic co-workers, and the "Muffia" of stay-home "mums" whom she simultaneously despises and envies. I found this book hilarious, sad, realistic, and unrealistic all at the same time, in different places. As a mother who has worked mainly part-time, I could definitely relate to Kate; to the Muffia; and even to Richard, Kate's somewhat lazy but patient and loyal husband. Mums, regardless of your work/stay-home status, if you have ever experienced the horrible, guilty, "torn in half" feelings associated with daily separation from your young children, or if you have ever stayed up all night with a sick child or been horribly sleep-deprived, then you may like this book as much as I did. Then again, you may not. (It also helps if you have a healthy understanding of British humour.)
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Summary: A good read
Review: A funny, and sometimes poignant, tale of a working mother struggling to balance her home life and career. It was a pleasant read, though the format was sometimes choppy--just like real life.
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Summary: Maternal angst goes with the territory
Review: I find it interesting that this book has elicted such positive and negative reviews from moms. I truly think most of the humour in this book is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it's just too over the top to be taken so seriously. Whether you have been a full/part time working mom, or a stay-at-home one, who of us has not felt guilt about whether we were being the best mother to our children. Maternal angst goes with the job of motherhood. The anger directed toward this book seems to be focused on the fact that "Kate" didn't have to work, had nannys and cleaning women and was still struggling. As mother's we all have different stories, and while certainly not the most common scenario, this is just one of many. Good mothers come in all manner of packages, as do bad (remember Jack's comment about his stay-at-home mom that played bridge and drank martini's all day?) This book is a quick, funny and poignant read. No, it's certainly not indicative of most women's motherhood experience, but remember.... it's fiction!
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