Rating: 
Summary: Read it for the humor
Review: Kate Reddy is a hedge fund manager in London who lives her life in a series of emotional quagmires: she loves her job, but resents it for taking her away from her kids. It doesn't help that the Testosterone Club (A.K.A. the men in her office) unload all the crappy work onto her while enjoying 2 hour booze lunches themselves. But Kate is determined to show up the guys, and also give her kids everything she never had, including enough money to have their needs met and then some (Kate makes more money than her husband Rich). The other side of this dilemma is the guilt Kate experiences for not being Claire Huxtable when it comes to her family. If she arrives home after the kids have gone to bed, she goes into the hamper to smell their clothes, then cries into the hamper. She pounds store bought mince pies for her daughter's Xmas carol concert, and dusts them with powdered sugar to make them look homemade. She's grateful for the other working Mom that arrives noisily, and even later than she did for a school concert thereby redirecting the scowls away from her. Frankly, I never understood how Kate didn't collapse from chronic fatigue, since she averages about 2 hours of sleep a night. Something's gotta give, but what? Reorganizing her priorites and time isn't working. And the loads of guilt and barbs she receives from Rich's outdated Mother and sister Cheryl (a stay-at-home Mom herself)isn't helping, either. Should she quit her job? Or wait until both kids are in school full-time?Like many reviewers, I vascillated between loving Kate for her witty insights, and wanting to smack her very hard for not realizing how good she has it. Plenty of us work full-time without the assistance of nannies, cleaning women, and an understanding, helpful husband who changes unbearably foul diapers without having to be bribed. What this book does, however, is bring the "having it all" plight into clear focus, and questions why (in this day and age) the same familial standards are not expected from men. Many women will see themselves in Kate, others may sneer at her for complaining when she has more help than most of us. If you read this book for the sheer enjoyment of it's witticisms, you won't be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Damn Good Read
Review: I heard that Nicol Kidman was going to be staring in a film version. Well read the book anyway. I read this entire book on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. I could not put it down. I love the author's honest inner struggles. This is a great example of the new cold war, working moms vs. non working moms. Perhaps if we had affordable and quality childcare in this country women would not be faced with these issues. Perhaps if Corporate America really cared about family values the we would be facing these issues. But until then I say this book is a good start. Art imitates life and it surely does in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Quick Read
Review: Having heard so much hype about this book, I had to buy it and check it out for myself. I could immediately relate to the heroine, Kate, and overall, thought the story was a good one, if a bit on the "lite" side. I did enjoy the story though, and thought the plot twists were funny and surprising.
Rating:
Summary: Hurray for parenting humor!
Review: As a fellow parenting humor author, I think there can never be too many great family humor books around and this is one of them.
It kept me laughing throughout(which is hard to do!) and I could relate to almost everything in it. Kudos from one writer to another!
Rating:
Summary: My one fiction read this year - soon starring Kidman?
Review: I end up reading a couple of works of fiction per year. For the 2004 calendar year to date, it's this book by Allison Pearson, which I found to be charming and clever. Unlike some reviewers, I found all the events contained in here believable. Pearson really has her finger on the differing attitudes of co-workers regarding a woman and man's involved parenting. Protagonist and narrator Kate Reddy puts up with a constant barrage of inquisition, rolled eyes and backoffice plotting each time parenting needs infringe on her growing work responsibilities. Meanwhile, she notes with contempt that a Scottish co-worker is "almost knighted on the spot" when he takes early departure from a meeting to attend one of his kid's school recitals ("Oooh, you're such a hands-in parent" coos one admirer). The web is rife with reports that Pearson's book been optioned for a movie with Nicole Kidman as Reddy, directed by Anthony Minghella (who oversaw her in 'Cold Mountain'). That might work, although 'English Patient' auteur Minghella seems a serious touch for this book. And I guess I had an image of Emma Thompson in my head, thanks to her similar role with two small kids in Richard Curtis' recent "Love Actually." [Thompson has the comedic chops to pull this off as well.]
Rating:
Summary: Highly Recommended
Review: My short list of recommendations of new literature is rather predictable: "My Fractured Life" (RENT-generation book of hope, glory and despair as a modern version of "Catcher in the Rye"); "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" (uplifting modern version of "It's a Wonderful Life"); "The Secret Life of Bees" (an uplifting story of racial equality and spiritual healing of a young girl coming of age in the South); and "The Lovely Bones" (life observed from the view of a girl who has been murdered). Right on the cusp though is this more nontraditional book, "I Don't Know How She Does It". "I Don't Know How She Does It" makes a strong statement and in a beautiful voice. It is both funny and sincere, much like the quick wit of "My Fractured Life". It may be an untraditional choice for a must read recommendation, but it sincerely ranks along side the other outstanding ones.
Rating: 
Summary: I Don¿t Know How I Finished It
Review: This book is better birth control than an afternoon at the Park Slope Food Coop (habitat of the undisciplined bobo brat). The endless hassles and humiliations that make up Kate Reddy's days juggling high-powered career, kids and husband gave me a case of heartburn and elevated blood pressure just from turning the pages. Pearson's zany plot twists verge on sadism, even if the character's decision to sell her soul so completely for cash renders her unsympathetic from the start. For a certain tiny, VERY privileged slice of society, the horrors of Kate's life may approach reality. But, like hemorrhoids or cockroach mating habits, are such mundane yet unpleasant subjects worth reading about if they're not rendered by a master? This is only middling work, and I can't imagine a harried mother would want to spend her free time reliving the worst moments of her life. Quick, someone, tie my tubes!
Rating:
Summary: best read in years
Review: Incredibly funny, clever. Filled with sarcastic humor that might seem too sharp for some but was thrilling to me. Thank you Ms. Pearson for some of the most enchanting moments I have had reading a book in years. Recommend to working moms, those who are on the verge of becoming a working mom and those on a the other side from working moms.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful & Intelligent Read
Review: I finished this poignant tale today and am reeling at just how good it was. Set in modern day London, the main haracter Kate is trying her hand at being Super Woman, but as she and some of the rest of us have figured out, there is no way that we can do it all. Every woman who has tried in vain to master being the perfect mother, home keeper, career woman and of course, wife will relate to this remarkably well crafted story. Although the book is unique in its own right, there are traces of Bridget Jones at the end of each chapter where Kate goes through her Must Remember list. Pearson did such a masterful job in defining all of her characters down to the smallest detail, that it became hard for me to even like the over-achieving Kate until halfway through the book. Then, as the history of her own childhood became clear, the pieces came together deftly and I realized why she was trying so hard. The fierce and starving heroine Scarlett O'Hara once said, "As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again." Kate never wanted to be poor again, and at great cost she finally realizes that having money isn't the only wealth we need to have a happy home.
Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: My mother bought this book for me and although I don't have any children, I thought that it might be worth a read since it was hyped as such a best-seller. In the end, I thought it wasn't bad - certainly there was really never a dull moment - but the characters aren't believable enough, and it's actually really stressful to read!! You find yourself being strung out on the daily panic of the main character as she struggles to be all things to all people, letting her family fall apart while ignoring the obvious choice which only she can make - to chill out!! Entertaining enough, but definitely not a way to unwind at the end of the day!
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