false <![CDATA[I Don't Know How She Does It]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169247489m/39045.jpg 39045 27 Allison Pearson's debut novel, <I>I Don't Know How She Does It</I>, is a rare and beautiful hybrid: a devastatingly funny novel that's also a compelling fictional world. You want to climb inside this book and inhabit it. However, you might find it pretty messy once you're in there. Narrator Kate Reddy is the manager of a hedge fund and mother of two small children. The book opens with an emblematic scene as Kate "distresses" a store-bought mince pie to make it appear homemade. Her days are measured in increments of minutes and even seconds; her fund stays organized but her house and family are falling apart. The book is a pearly string of great lines. Here's Kate on lack of sleep: "They're right to call it a broken night.... You crawl back to bed and you lie there trying to do the jigsaw of sleep with half the pieces missing." On baby boys: "A mother of a one-year-old son is a movie star in a world without critics." On subtle office dynamics:<blockquote>The women in the offices of EMF [Kate's firm] don't tend to display pictures of their kids. The higher they go up the ladder, the fewer the photographs. If a man has pictures of kids on his desk, it enhances his humanity; if a woman has them it decreases hers. Why? Because he's not supposed to be home with the children; she is.</blockquote> There's inherent drama here: Kate is wildly appealing, and we want things to work out for her. In the end, the book isn't a just collection of clever lines on the theme of working motherhood; it's a real, rich novel about a character we come to cherish. <I>--Claire Dederer</I> 2101859 2002 I Don't Know How She Does It total:2081|5:228|4:585|3:818|2:348|1:102| 2081 6732 2702 342 1 4 true false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 17 10:17:37 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 17 10:30:03 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Feb 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 18:51:41 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 17 17:40:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sun Dec 30 08:24:07 -0800 2007 Sun Dec 30 08:33:39 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 05 17:53:04 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 05 18:20:37 -0800 2008 Bridget Jones's Diary for the mommy set, this book is almost too clever to like. But I liked it. Still, as a card-carrying underachiever, I couldn't always relate much to Career Kate. Too tidy ending(s) tempt me to shelve this with fairytales.

I liked the Mary Poppins referen...more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 16 13:23:28 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 07:23:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Jan 02 13:24:36 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 13:27:04 -0800 2009 The Nanny Diaries. Funny chick lit, but with a very heavy twist, these two books made me sad for the reality they represe...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Oct 21 13:49:50 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 13:49:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false true Thu Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 19:32:14 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 20:01:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 13:15:59 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 13:41:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 13:26:07 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 13:33:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 10:42:38 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 21:05:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Nov 20 20:15:21 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 20 20:34:03 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Mon Sep 03 16:52:25 -0700 2007 Tue Sep 04 08:24:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Wed Feb 20 18:45:05 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 18:46:33 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Tue Oct 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 19:09:55 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 20 10:58:08 -0700 2009
I really liked this book. I do not live Kate's life, but I certainly recognized bits of it...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Jul 21 08:34:44 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 08:35:38 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Thu Jan 08 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Apr 22 17:37:12 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 17:44:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Wed Mar 26 04:33:11 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 04:38:03 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Tue Sep 08 17:50:21 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 17:59:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 14:23:56 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 14:23:56 -0800 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=39045