How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Look, I was doing OK. I got through the oil spill on the road that is turning forty. Lost a little control, but I drove into the skid just like the driving instructors tell you to and afterwards things were fine again, no, really, they were better than fine.
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it's left to Kate to go back to work.
Companies aren't necessarily keen on hiring 49-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.
When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her 50th birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?
Hilarious and poignant, How Hard Can It Be? brings us the new adventures of Kate Reddy, the beleaguered heroine of Allison Pearson's groundbreaking New York Times bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It.
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Allison Pearson. (2018). How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel. St. Martin's Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Allison Pearson. 2018. How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel. St. Martin's Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Allison Pearson, How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2018.
MLA Citation (style guide)Allison Pearson. How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel. St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2018.
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Look, I was doing OK. I got through the oil spill on the road that is turning forty. Lost a little control, but I drove into the skid just like the driving instructors tell you to and afterwards things were fine again, no, really, they were better than fine.
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it's left to Kate to go back to work.
Companies aren't necessarily keen on hiring 49-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.
When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her 50th birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?
Hilarious and poignant, How Hard Can It Be? brings us the new adventures of Kate Reddy, the beleaguered heroine of Allison Pearson's groundbreaking New York Times bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It.- seriesId
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- reviews
- premium: False
- source: USA Today
- content: Entertainment Tonight's Summer Reading Preview
"Fiercely funny and keenly observant....couldn't be more timely or delightful....Allison Pearson can induce gales of uncontrollable laughter."
- premium: False
- source: The New York Times Book Review
- content: "Filled with smart insights...Kate makes good company. You can't help rooting for her."
- premium: False
- source: The Washington Post
- content: "With laugh-out-loud zingers on nearly every page...How Hard Can It Be? is witty, current and a good reminder that age can be a trump card, even if you need reading glasses to see the deck."
- premium: False
- source: Time
- content: "Hugely entertaining."
- premium: False
- source: Wall Street Journal
- content: "Ms. Pearson writes with great wit and verve."
- premium: False
- source: Booklist (starred review)
- content: "Brilliant, funny, and tender....Tackling sexism, growing older, and understanding one's needs when catering to those of so many others, Pearson writes realism with all the fun of escapism."
- premium: False
- source: Publishers Weekly (starred review)
- content: "The winning follow-up to Pearson's bestselling I Don't Know How She Does It is anchored by heroine Kate Reddy's authentic, intelligent, and consistently funny British voice....Pearson maintains a humorous tone throughout, wresting laughs from her lead's lowest moments and greatest triumphs. Pearson also hits the right notes in conveying the cluelessness and powerlessness parents feel raising teens obsessed by gaming and social media."
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April 1, 2018
Seven years have passed since London financial executive Kate Reddy found what seemed the perfect balance of family and work in Pearson's popular I Don't Know How She Does It (2002).Those years have not been kind. Since Kate left her high-powered position to move to the countryside with her family, her formerly adorable kids have grown into bratty teens. Ben is a typically noncommunicative 14-year-old; more alarmingly, in trying to keep up with the popular mean-girl crowd, 16-year-old Emily recently took a "belfie"--selfie of her naked backside--which has gone viral. Kate's husband, Richard, once appealing and supportive, has become a bicycle fanatic with no time for his family. Laid off from his architectural firm, he has been retraining to become a counselor, yammering about mindfulness while Kate supports them all with part-time financial consulting gigs (and also manages Richard's ailing parents). Urgently short of money, the Reddys have recently relocated to an impractical fixer-upper in "Commuterland" as Kate begins searching for a job back in London. Meanwhile, her 50th birthday, complete with perimenopause, looms. Like the other job-seeking women in her "returners" support group, she quickly learns that age and experience are not assets in the marketplace. Ironically, she ends up back at her old firm, which has changed name and ownership; fortunately, there's no one left who remembers her, since she has to prove her competence in a temporary position while pretending to be an acceptably youthful 42 with help from "lunchtime lipo." Kate proves herself indispensable, of course. She also reconnects with rich American dreamboat Jack, to whom she did not succumb years ago out of apparently misplaced loyalty to Richard. A caring mother, sister, daughter, and daughter-in-law, Kate thrives because she is smarter, wittier, prettier, and more competent than everyone else. She is also self-congratulatory, even when supposedly self-deprecating, and merciless to her enemies, even one encountered in the waiting room of a therapy center for self-harming teens.An aspirational fantasy in which the heroine not only survives, but flourishes through every crisis known to middle-age women in the higher income brackets.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from April 23, 2018
The winning follow-up to Pearson’s bestselling I Don’t Know How She Does It is anchored by heroine Kate Reddy’s authentic, intelligent, and consistently funny British voice. When Kate’s architect husband is laid off and begins training as a therapist, the 49-year-old stay-at-home mother of two tries to return to the workforce. After a disastrous job interview confirms she has aged out of her field—she was formerly a jet-setting power player at an influential London brokerage firm—Kate starts lying about her age and is hired to market the very hedge fund she created years ago. Meanwhile, her daughter just texted a belfie (a “selfie of your bum”) to a friend, who posted it on Facebook; her son won’t look up from his phone; and she hasn’t had sex with her husband in months. Further muddying the waters is a man from her past, who reasserts himself in her life just as her marriage stagnates. Pearson maintains a humorous tone throughout, wresting laughs from her lead’s lowest moments and greatest triumphs. Pearson also hits the right notes in conveying the cluelessness and powerlessness parents feel raising teens obsessed by gaming and social media. Readers will cheer on Kate as she becomes a kick-butt woman of a certain age. 250,000-copy announced first printing.
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Starred review from March 1, 2018
In the sequel to I Don't Know How She Does It (2002), Kate Reddy, now staring down age 50, has been out of the London finance game for several years, taking care of growing kids and aging parents and doing freelance work when she can find it. But now that her husband quit his job to pursue cycling and mindfulness, she's rehabbing a fixer-upper in the suburbs, and her kids' material needs only seem to grow. Someone has to pay the bills. After some maneuvering (ahem, lying about her age) Kate lands an entry-level position at the fund she once ran. And to complicate the already-too-complicated, charming American Jack Abelhammer is back and ready to invest. Kate is by far the best part of a book that has loads of great parts. She's brilliant, funny, and tender as she observes the new foreignness of her marriage, her teenage children, her workplace, and her own self (now being tormented by Perry and the Menopauses, the whimsical maestros behind her hot flashes and mood swings). Tackling sexism, growing older, and understanding one's needs when catering to those of so many others, Pearson writes realism with all the fun of escapism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
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Starred review from April 1, 2018
In this side-splitting follow-up to I Don't Know How She Does It, Kate Reddy is nearing 50 when she returns to work for her former employer after a seven-year hiatus, during which time she raised two kids, moved the family into a fixer-upper, and stretched the family's earnings after her husband suffered a midlife crisis. Kate is menopausal with all its symptoms, her kids are buried in social media and teen angst, the marriage is stale, and eldercare issues demand her attention. Lying about her age to get hired at the firm where no one remembers her, fixing bodily flaws to seem younger, worrying excessively about her kids, and juggling relationships nearly overwhelms Kate. She excels at work though, where she fends off sexual harassment while scoring huge new accounts and ultimately encounters the man she nearly had an affair with a lifetime ago. The electricity is positively sparkling. VERDICT Pearson (I Think I Love You) features menopause as nearly its own character in this laugh-out-loud yet all too realistic romp through midlife concerns about aging, sexual appeal, careers for older employees, and family care issues. Spot-on for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]--Gloria Drake, Oswego P.L. Dist., IL
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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April 1, 2018
Ever wonder what happened to Kate Reddy, star of Pearson's celebrated look at working motherhood, I Don't Know How She Does It? (Sarah Jessica Parker starred in the movie.) In this sequel, husband Richard quits his job, so Kate creatively polishes her resume, joins a Women Returners group, and lands a job at the hedge fund she founded. One of the publisher's big books of the year.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Look, I was doing OK. I got through the oil spill on the road that is turning forty. Lost a little control, but I drove into the skid just like the driving instructors tell you to and afterwards things were fine again, no, really, they were better than fine.
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it's left to Kate to go back to work.
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