How Hard Can It Be?

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This is a story that will be familiar to many women, the act of juggling so many commitments while trying to hold down a full time job at the same time. For Kate though, it's also about reaching this important milestone and discovering who she really is - who she'd like to be if she wasn't so concerned with making everyone else happy. I would have happily read about her experiences at the firm along with her struggles with menopause, memory, transatlantic friendships and unexpected support from a new friend.

Final Thought: I think that lovers of (the book) I Don't Know How She Does It will be happy with how this one turns out. I do like Kate as a character and I thought there were a few very loveable characters in this book. Some of the lingo was a little confusing, but nothing I couldn't handle. I think this book would be much better in movie form though so I hope that happens. How Hard Can It Be? is a funny, interesting look at sexism/ageism in the workplace, turning 50, and dealing with everything life can throw at you. Even though I'm 22 years younger than the main character, I found I could relate to her on many levels in my hopes and fears for the future. I think any woman could find something in common with Kate Reddy. An extremely likeable character, the witty prose of this book swept me up in laughs, and at some points wrapped me in sorrow too. It's a novel about the juggling act women do on a daily basis when trying to manage kids, home and work, all while struggling with personal changes and finding little help from those around you. I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Netgalley in return for an unbiased review (thank you!).The best part of this book was the absolutely horrible trashy novel the main character writes for the evil...ummm...woman. It's so horrible that all you can do is laugh, especially at all the words for penis she comes up with. "Skin flute, pork sword, love muscle..." In this side-splitting follow-up to I Don't Know How She Does It...the electricity is positively sparkling....Laugh-out-loud yet all too realistic....Spot on." — Library Journal (starred review) Meanwhile, dementia, class expectations, menopause, self-harming teens, and the stresses that can break a marriage get dealt with . . .and the book finds a balance between compassion, insight, and wish-fulfillment that finally pays off splendidly. That’s 400m people saying, on average, 1,500 words a day. Week in, week out. You’d imagine, then, that every single combination would have been used up years ago, and yet we can be certain no one has ever said: ‘I name this ship HMS Vulnerable.’ Or: ‘The thing I love most about my husband is his herpes.’ Or: ‘Look at that maniac in that Saab."

I was so happy to see Kate again! I LOVE her spunk and how her life looks so seamless to the outsider while in reality she is always struggling to hold it all together. She’s always one step away from a funny yet messy disaster. First off this book was really good and I laughed so hard because some of things I read I had to look around to see if anybody noticed me reading this book because right off the beginning they were talking about hardcore sex, handcuffs and porn. I couldn't believe some of the stuff that was in the book. It kept it really interesting and it sparked my interest to keep reading it to see what happens to the characters in the book.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." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Thank you to Allison Pearson and St. Martin’s Press for the print ARC. How Hard Can It Be will be published on June 5, 2018. I have now finished reading this book which was written by Jeremy Clarkson and I really liked the style of this book a lot Limited-edition Insanity sauce is ridiculous. It’s made in Costa Rica, from hot pepper extract, crushed red savina peppers, red tabasco pepper pulp, green tabasco pepper pulp, crushed red habanero peppers, crushed green habanero peppers, red habanero pepper powder and fruit juice. Well, that’s what it says on the tin. But I don’t believe it. I think it’s made from uranium, plutonium, fertilizer, sulphuric acid, nitric acid, hydrochloric acid and ammonia, with a splash of mace. I do not believe it’s a foodstuff. It’s a weapon."

The problem is I don’t even understand what it is I don’t understand. Emily may as well be talking in a foreign language. I mean, I’m on Facebook, I’m in a family group on WhatsApp that the kids set up for us and I’ve tweeted all of eight times (once, embarrassingly, about Pasha on Strictly Come Dancing after a couple of glasses of wine), but the rest of social media has passed me by. Until now, my ignorance has been funny—a family joke, something the kids could tease me about. “Are you from the past?” That was the punch line Emily and Ben would chorus in a singsong Irish lilt; they had learned it from a favorite sitcom. “Are you from the past, Mum?” It bothered me because it almost felt like she was shaming herself for wanting sex, when there is nothing wrong with wanting sex! How Hardcouldn’t be more timely or delightful, as Kate faces the hormonal and hiring cliff that is turning 50, a marriage moping into midlife, parenting in the social media era and an office culture that is ripe for a Me Too moment. ( How Hardalready has been optioned for TV by Big Little Liesexecutive producer Bruna Papandrea.) I think this book could have been a lot funnier than it ended up being. I thought it would make me laugh quite a bit, but there were only a few instances where I thought anything was particularly funny. I did love the short chapters though, and the fact that Kate calls her memory "Roy." All I could picture was this little old man shuffling around in her head finding her memories. She would often talk to "Roy" as well which was pretty funny.

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Also, I found myself not matching the intended "cohort parameters" for the readers of this book. This book elaborated in considerable detail about the discomforts of perimenopause and unpredictable menstrual cycles. I can accept that these are realistic issues for women, but I am an older white male conditioned to feel uncomfortable with too much such information. Kate’s situation with managing a house, teenagers, an absent husband, a career and the changes happening in her body and feeling invisible are so relatable!!! She is subsequently successful at getting a job at an investment company of which she used to be the owner, but nobody recognizes her because there's been a complete turnover in personnel since she left seven years ago. From that point on it's a story of a woman sandwiched between problems and demands from her children and aging mother and in-laws dealing with incipient dementia. Also, her husband is less than helpful, and she's dealing with pressures from work and needing to remember that she's pretending to younger than her real age. Laugh-out-loud funny and entirely relatable—you'll fall in love with Kate all over again." — Popsugar I was first interested in this book because I thought it might be able to be used in a "Next Chapter" book group for newly retired persons. I've concluded it's a novel for someone in the midst of the work-a-day word, not someone opening a new chapter in their life.

If you enjoyed Bridget Jones (well, you know, up to the point where she had some miracle baby at 50+ years old and the thing crapped the bed), this might be for you. I kept thinking this is how Bridget’s life would have turned out if she had married Daniel Cleaver. She would have remained a highly functioning dysfunctional crazyperson – he would have maybe pulled his act together up to the point where he had a midlife crisis and then everything would start to fall apart . . . hilariously. And if nothing else, we could ALL take a little comfort in the fact that . . . Then there’s India, which I can’t take seriously until its air force has some planes with fewer than three wings. Yes, they have nuclear missiles – but could they actually hit Islamabad with them? ‘I very much doubt it,’ said an Indian professor chum of mine recently. ‘I’m not even certain we could hit Pakistan.’" If I didn't know the author, I probably would have given it 4 stars because I wouldn't want you to know how much I enjoy entertaining and ridiculous books. I like to pretend that I am a serious reader* of serious books.

As you can probably guess, it is revealed that the indifferent husband is having an affair - with a 26 year-old fellow student. But that’s okay, because Kate has reunited with a client she fell in love with seven years before. (She nobly broke it off before anything happened.) Fast-forward to present day: they have an affair this time (that Kate breaks off again) so the cheating becomes a goose/gander sort of equation.