Rating: 
Summary: It stressed me out
Review: This book stressed me out..... I spend most of the time hoping she would get her act together so she (and I) could relax. As a working mom it depressed me... and I truly could not relate to her.
Rating: 
Summary: Started off good...
Review: I thought I would enjoy this book. And I did at first. However, I started to hate it after a while, finding it extremely depressing. We follow the life of Kate Reddy, a working mom with a marriage that is on the rocks, and who is finding herself drawn to another man...who lives across the Atlantic. I found most of Kate's life boring, especially the bits about her job because I had no idea what Kate's job was. Perhaps I'm a bit to young to try and understand exactly what Allison Pearson was trying to say about working mothers. However, to me, it was like she was saying it couldn't be done if you wanted to be great in both arenas.
Rating: 
Summary: Really Enjoyable!
Review: I paid full price for this book at an airport bookstore, and despite the disconcerting expense, the book did a stellar job of distracting me on my flight. Never fond of flying, I was quite comfortable and happy while traipsing through the life of Kate Reddy, British woman, wife, mother of a five year old daughter and infant son -- and investment fund manager.What I found most interesting was Kate's imperviousness to her family's misery, and her own, as she routinely misses the children's milestones and avoids intimacy with her husband, all the while refusing to cede any authority or control that comes with the title of "Mom." While the story unfolds in a jolly and humorous style, it's apparent that no one is happy, and she herself is merely another rat in the rat race, nowhere near as fulfulled as she thinks. I found myself rooting for her to quit her job and stop the grief she was foisting on everyone. However, she claimed throughout the story that giving up her job -- her one source of control, satisfaction, self-hood -- would drive her mad. Maybe she just wasn't seeing that she was, in fact, ALREADY mad? So then I wondered, why doesn't her HUSBAND quit HIS job? The family was desperate for a full-time adult, and he earned somewhat less than his fund-managing wife. Wouldn't it be a natural solution for "dad" to stay home? However, the husband is poster boy for "Incompetent Dad/Husband" in the style of 80's TV sitcoms, where dads knew nothing, and families routinely outsmarted them. His fondest wish is for a woman who stays home, cleans, raises his children, and dons provocative lingerie after hours, although he's smart enough not to say so. However sadly obvious that the children are missing the thoughtful attention of their parents, the family never even discussed full time fatherhood as an option to solve their problems. Anyway, eventually Kate experiences an epiphany, and the story shifts from pathetically sad-yet-funny to proactively problem-solving. I appreciated the long overdue climax, and I would recommend this book to any woman who honestly and sincerely doesn't HAVE to work quite honestly in order to feed her children.
Rating: 
Summary: amusing writing and captures certain issues
Review: The book is quick witted and the author can turn a phrase - the kind that makes you enjoy language and this is worth reading - addresses issues people pretend aren't there - i enjoyed it simply for the author's writing but the main character K8 - was not very likable - was very unhappy and really rude to her nice husband -she didn't seem to like any women either - except the crude crass type that are the female equivalent of the males she claims to hate. She is rude to people in service and lower positions and the sales people who wait on her - she doesn't seem to be all that successful either - evidently makes a pile of cash but is incapable of controlling her assistant - male - and seems willing to let her firm use her as well - oh well the writing was clever in each sentence and this was definatly a book to capture many issues relevent to today - maybe i am a holly hobby but wasn't thrilled with the repeated theme that people who are "nice" or "had happy childhoods" will get trounced on in the big bad world of heavy competitors.
Rating:
Summary: success of this propaganda is inexplicable
Review: For starters, Helen Fielding did it better (the brit-breezy funny diary) in Bridget Jones. But what makes me and other women want to throw this book across the room (that's how I wound up reading it, I caught it on an enraged flyover in my office and needed something cheesy to read on the subway home) is the over-the-top setup that would be satirical if Ms. Pearson didn't keep bringing in the violins (heroine's sad childhood) and, the predictability of an ending that would make Phyllis Shlafly pround. Working woman, thou cannot mother! Ms. Pearson tells us. I thought this was a hateful little piece of tripe. Don't know how it got such kindly reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent with reservations
Review: This book is written by a woman with a remarkable command of metaphors. I wondered throughout the whole book if Allison Pearson wrote the book, or if her wonderfully talented husband, Anthony Lane, did. The book is witty and touched deeply into the subject of working woman. Being a career woman who left her own job to be home with her childre, Kate Reddy's observations of the sacrifices were right on. Two concerns: until the end I did not like this woman, she was truly an unlikeable person; also I wished the author would have started more sentences with pronouns. The use of verbs to begin a sentences ("Ran to store to get hosiery..")started to wear on me after a while.
Rating:
Summary: A guilty pleasure.
Review: I just finished reading this book and I have to say I loved it, with qualification. I realize many women me included do not manage international money funds, and have small children. However I do have kids and and I do work in office so there was still much I could identify with. However, Pearson's book is not deeply serious fiction, nor I think was it intended as such. There seems to be particularly British genre (Jilly Cooper, the Bridget Jones books) of light but clever writing that are highly enjoyable once you realize this is not "War and Peace", nor should you expect it to be Kate has great husband, two lovely kids, and a not bad nanny, and high powered job. Too bad she is stressed to the max trying to do everything. The book follows Kate through days so hectic they would give Pollyanna a migraine. Watch Kate pass off store bought goodies as homemade, mess up office wear with home (spit up on her suit and worse) and handle a rat in the kitchen when her in - laws are visiting and enjoy the fun. Tbe observations on women in the office are pretty on the money, especially the part about management viewing returning from maternity leave as favour not right. The child care hassles also rang a bell, believe me I could write a book myself on that topic. Richard, Kate's long suffering husband gets short shrift from Kate and the author. I did not buy into the idea that the husband is not really on your team. However,for those of us who do not buy Armani, or fly to New York weekly, enjoy the fantasy. It was crystal clear to me what Kate needed to do to fix her life, and she finally does see too in the end, maybe. Having said that the book gets big points for putting the whole working mom scene on the table and discussing it's often stressful realities as opposed the the eighties maxim that you can " have it all". And some times you have to step back, look at this scene and laugh, and get a perspective on this life. I would call this one chocolate cake for thought.
Rating:
Summary: Good book with unfortunate slip-shod ending
Review: I really enjoyed this books' insights into the life of a working mom. I was stressed and exhausted while reading; it felt that real. The internal dialogue going on in this book is excellent and honest! Personally, I don't know how anyone could live a life like the one portrayed here. I was loving the book until the very end. I was irritated by the rushed, movie-like, big bang (which really wasn't that much of a bang!) ending. The author tries to close all the loose ends in the story lines, which I think is ridiculous. What starts out as a thought-provoking look at the life(s) a working mom has, ends up being a lukewarm re-hash of sticking it to someone. I fully admire the choice that Kate makes in the end; but I didn't need the final "closure" that the author tries to make. It felt weak and contrived and left me disappointed. What mom, stay-at-home or working, has neat and tidy, closed ends anyway? Four stars because the first 80% of the book is a fantastic portrayal of the inner-workings of an over-scheduled woman with no time for her kids, her husband or herself!
Rating:
Summary: Pass
Review: Don't buy this book. Not only is it poorly written, but I can watch the news to have mainstream culture demonize me and other women. I also was completly offended with the cushy background of the author and her purported tone that she spoke for so many women. Please!
Rating:
Summary: disappointed!
Review: I was looking forward to reading this book for my book club, and really tried to like it, but ultimately was disappointed. I was expecting a strong role-model character in a story told with "tenderness and humor," which was exactly what I needed after having finished reading some "heavy" literary fiction. I really wanted to sympathize with the main character, Kate Reddy (or "K8," as she annoying signs her e-mails), but found her to be a bit unlikable - how many working women today have the option to leave their jobs, as Kate considers? In this sense, I found her to be hard to identify with. The fact that there are some good one-liners that working women (with or without children) could perhaps use as "slogans" in the workplace, in no way makes up for the lack of likable characters and weak plot. When there appears to be some semblance of a story building, the reader is then suddenly swept back into another underdeveloped plot line, which makes one even more frustrated. I would have left this book unfinished if were not for the fact that I kept hoping it would improve (and was continually teased into thinking it would). Despite the positive reviews you may see, please do not bother to read this book unless you like disappointment!
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