How Hard Can It Be?

By: Allison Pearson

Narrated by: Poppy Miller

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of I Don't Know How She Does It comes an audiobook about starting over and facing life with a sense of humor.

This program is read by acclaimed actor Poppy Miller, who stars as Ginny Weasley in the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Allison Pearson's brilliant debut novel, I Don't Know How She Does It, was a New York Times best seller with four million copies sold around the world. Called "the definitive social comedy of working motherhood" (The Washington Post) and "a hysterical look - in both the laughing and crying senses of the world - at the life of Supermom" (The New York Times), I Don't Know How She Does It introduced Kate Reddy, a woman as sharp as she was funny. As Oprah Winfrey put it, Kate's story became "the national anthem for working mothers."

Seven years later, Kate Reddy is facing her 50th birthday. Her children have turned into impossible teenagers; her mother and in-laws are in precarious health; and her husband is having a midlife crisis that leaves her desperate to restart her career after years away from the workplace. Once again, Kate is scrambling to keep all the balls in the air in a juggling act that an early review from the UK Express hailed as "sparkling, funny, and poignant...a triumphant return for Pearson."

Will Kate reclaim her rightful place at the very hedge fund she founded, or will she strangle in her new “shaping” underwear? Will she rekindle an old flame, or will her house burn to the ground when a rowdy mob shows up for her daughter’s surprise (to her parents) Christmas party? Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?

©2018 Allison Pearson (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Few sequels beat the original, but How Hard Can It Be? does so hands down. Kate Reddy's comeback as a pushing-50 'Returner', re-entering the workforce after a spell on the mommy track, is zesty, razor-sharp, and hilarious.... Get ready for Kate!" (Tina Brown)

"Written with Allison’s trademark wit and lacerating insight, How Hard Can It Be? is an honest, hilarious look at being a woman of a certain age. Anyone who, like me, adored Kate Reddy in I Don’t Know How She Does It, will be delighted to revisit her fierce and honest take on the figurative and literal bumpy bits of middle age. This book is smart and sharp and funny, funny, funny." (Aline Brosh McKenna, screenwriter of The Devil Wears Prada and co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend)

Not a Bad Book but Not For Me

This will be the first audiobook I don't finish. Not because it's poorly written or a bad story but because I'm the wrong audience. It's about a pre-menopausal woman dealing with difficult teenagers struggling with her finances and in a low point in her marriage; consequently she is facing some serious self-esteem problems due to all of the above.

I'm Not In That season of my life yet so I just can't relate. Her parenting style is completely different from mine so again I can't relate. Basically this is not a bad book, I'm just the wrong audience.

great listen

I enjoyed this sequel. The first book, how does she do it, with great. Forget about the movie. This is a very enjoyable book especially as the characters and readers have grown in age.

Resonates! Laughed out loud!

So much fun! It’s so great to know I’m not alone! Love Kate Reddy. Performance is also amazing!

Fantastic Book, Loved it, Loved it

This is by far the best book I have read in the last 10 years and I read lot. Well written with so much witt and every working mother can identify with Kate. I read it so many times and listen to it over and over again. I do wish I can write like that. I highly recommend it. I even bought few copies for my girlfriends.

Roy!

Slow to get into at first but lots of chuckles and thought provoking moments. There are some surprises & romance that isn’t too cliché but I particularly appreciated the parenting situations and lessons learned. Oh so relatable and a fresh take. Perfect narration. Great listen 👍👍

Satisfying Contemporary Back to Work Rom Com

I liked the story, engaging main characters, contemporary teen-raising and career issues and problems. Very similar in good ways to the "Why Mummy ---" series of another author. However - it really seemed too long by an hour.

Lovely follow-up to “I don’t know how she does it “

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel following the life of Kate, who at the end of the first book had left her high-powered job as a fund manager in London to raise her two children outside of the city. On the verge of fifty, she’s confronted with many issues, from menopause and age discrimination to the savage world of social media her teenage daughter must navigate. Despite exploring these serious issues, the book is lighthearted and humorous. Wonderful narrator as well.

A Pleasure!

It's so rare to hear a realistic portayal of a "woman of a certain age" that is real and true. This book manages that and more. Kate is relatable and funny and any mother will be able to relate to her story.

return now

such a hard read, about a middle aged woman being middle aged and struggles with enabling others to walk over her

Why...

...does nearly every heroine in a chick lit novel have self-esteem issues? Good story, but the constant self-doubt and self-denigration is wearing thin.