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I Don't Know How She Does It (Abridged): The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother Audiobook
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Publisher Description
For every woman trying to strike that impossible balance between work and home-and pretending that she has-and for every woman who has wanted to hurl the acquaintance who coos admiringly, "Honestly, I just don't know how you do it," out a window, here's a novel to make you cringe with recognition and laugh out loud. With fierce, unsentimental irony, Allison Pearson's novel brilliantly dramatizes the dilemma of working motherhood at the start of the twenty-first century. Meet Kate Reddy, hedge-fund manager and mother of two. She can juggle nine different currencies in five different time zones and get herself and two children washed and dressed and out of the house in half an hour. In Kate's life, Everything Goes Perfectly as long as Everything Goes Perfectly. She lies to her own mother about how much time she spends with her kids; practices pelvic floor squeezes in the boardroom; applies tips from Toddler Taming to soothe her irascible boss; uses her cell phone in the office bathroom to procure a hamster for her daughter's birthday ("Any working mother who says she doesn't bribe her kids can add Liar to her résumé"); and cries into the laundry hamper when she misses her children's bedtime. In a novel that is at once uproariously funny and achingly sad, Allison Pearson captures the guilty secret lives of working women-the self-recrimination, the comic deceptions, the giddy exhaustion, the despair-as no other writer has. Kate Reddy's conflict --How are we meant to pass our days? How are we to reconcile the two passions, work and motherhood, that divide our lives? --gets at the private absurdities of working motherhood as only a novel could: with humor, drama, and bracing wisdom.
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"Great fun with a rather obvious message. Read this when it was first released, before it became 'famous' and have kept it to re read. Will be interesting to see how I feel about it now."
— Maggie (4 out of 5 stars)
Awards
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One of the 2002 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Fiction
I Don't Know How She Does It Listener Reviews
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" funny read for the working mother. sometimes I think that we all wonder how WE do it. "
— Jelaine, 2/15/2014 -
" Bridget Jones if she were married and had a child. Funny, poignant and well-written. I taught this in an intro American Studies class and the students responded well to it. "
— Nicolas, 2/13/2014 -
" This is not just the anthem for working mom's but women in every situation ! Right on! "
— Tinker, 2/10/2014 -
" I found Kate annoying. I think juggling a family, a career, and a social life is one of the hardest things to do but I know plenty of men and women who do it successfully. Unfortunately, Kate sacrificed her marriage and her kids for her job (not so successfully juggling.) She barely has time to talk to her husband but can find time for an affair? Gross. I think the author tried to portray Kate as a feminist but failed miserably. Feminists don't have to hate men and blame all of their shortcomings on them which is what Kate was constantly doing. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie but it was actually better than the man-hater of a book that this is. "
— Emily, 2/2/2014 -
" Just in time for the movie! :) "
— Missy, 1/20/2014 -
" not so great....how this woman stays married and stays employed is beyond me...but I've yet to finish this little ditty that reminds me (in format especially) of Bridget Jones. "
— P, 1/10/2014 -
" Good, but rather depressing to read as someone who wants to work and be a mom. "
— Clare218, 12/11/2013 -
" This book made me seriously think about my plans to work full-time while having children - is it unrealistic? This book, while often depressing and anxiety ridden, gave me much to think about and made numerous good points about motherhood, marriage, and life in general. Maybe I should've read this in ten years and not now while I am still optimistic about being able to do it all. "
— Julie, 12/6/2013 -
" It started out scary for this currently preggers reader, but the ending was a bit of a bummer. It's probably more realistic than am ending in which the working mom can have it all, but I think I'd rather believe that it's possible and read books that will help me agree with that fantasy. "
— Courtney, 11/30/2013 -
" Read this many, many years ago. It was funny, and in a way, relatable. Thought my life might follow a similar path. "
— Sarah, 11/16/2013 -
" This was supposed to be my "fun" book after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. It started off fun and light but then ended up more serious and less funny by the middle. Really struggled to get to the end as I feel it got a bit preachy. "
— Ana, 4/23/2013 -
" This book exhausted me just reading it. No wonder it took me so long to read it. Just reading the life of Katy Reddy was exhausting. Sheesh..... I really dont know how she does it ; ) "
— Heather, 11/29/2012 -
" felt like someone had taped the running monologue in my head. "
— Nancy, 11/12/2012 -
" Really not very thrilling. Good enough to finish, but may be because it's an easy read ... "
— Vicki, 10/19/2012 -
" Laughed out loud a lot but overall the plot felt kind of disjointed and the ending seemed like a rush job. I'm curious to see how they'll adapt this book for the movie. I just can't see Sarah J. Parker doing anything other than Carrie, which is unlike the main character of this novel. "
— Stefanie, 3/17/2012 -
" It's hard to pick a rating for this one, because the first 285 pages of this book repeatedly made me want to throw it across the room, but the last 50 pages were great. The writing was very good, with lots of pithy sayings and clever turns of phrase. "
— Beth, 3/11/2012 -
" Another great Chick Lit read from Jasmin. The dilemma of the working mother and finding balance in her life. "
— Maegan, 2/25/2012 -
" I had a hard time getting this book to stick at first, it gets good about halfway through, then I couldn't put it down. Maybe it was just the british thing, glad the movie wasn't british, no offense, movie was just ok, too. "
— Gretchen, 11/20/2011 -
" read it before, since the movie is out I thought I would indulge in a chick book..it's not my favorite. Perhaps the movie will be better? "
— Melanie, 10/30/2011 -
" Short review, not as good as I had hoped. Pushed my way through some if it. "
— Karen, 9/5/2011 -
" She doesn't "do it,"....life. She misses her whole life with her family while at her job. This book was frustrating for me to read. "
— Molly, 8/16/2011 -
" I had to force myself to finish this book. I might try again now that I'm a mom. "
— Marie, 7/27/2011 -
" At first I was laughing out loud and thought I had stumbled into a real gem. . . then it got to be too much and I was actually depressed by Kate's life and marital problems. <br/> "
— Luci, 6/28/2011 -
" not as good as i think i love you but very enjoyable "
— Lori, 6/25/2011 -
" Gave me a headache to read! She was so darn busy, it was hard to keep up with her in the book. I will be seeing the movie, still though. "
— Carolyn, 5/31/2011 -
" I couldn't finish this one. It made me feel alternately stressed out about my own to-do list and job, and guilty for working at all. *spoiler alert* When she started having the affair that did me in. I actually still want to see the movie, but I wasn't going to waste precious reading time. "
— Ari, 5/31/2011 -
" A sad tribute to working mothers. Pathetic. Some mildly humorous parts were the only redeeming feature of this book. "
— Allison, 5/20/2011 -
" Wish there was a try to read button...After hearing the author on NPR I thought I would really enjoy this book. However, only 25 pages in all that registered was blah, blah, blah, blah. What a disappointment. "
— Rebecca, 5/18/2011 -
" a good read, but a little sexist towards both men and women in different ways. "
— Natasha, 5/10/2011
About Allison Pearson
Allison Pearson, an award-winning journalist and author, is a staff writer for the London Daily Telegraph. Her first novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It, became an international bestseller and was made into a movie starring Sarah Jessica Parker. Pearson is a patron of Camfed, a charity that supports the education of thousands of African girls. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and their two children.
About Emma Fielding
Emma Fielding has narrated numerous audiobooks and earned two AudioFile Earphones Awards. She is an award-winning actress who has appeared in numerous television shows, films, and plays. A graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, she has worked for the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has also appeared on Broadway, in Private Lives, and in the West End, in Rock ’n’ Roll.