Weekend picks for book lovers, including 'How Hard Can It Be?' by Allison Pearson

What should you read this weekend? USA TODAY's picks for book lovers include Allison Pearson's comic novel How Hard Can It Be? and a history of milk from popular food historian Mark Kurlansky.

How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson; St. Martin's Press, 369 pp.; fiction

Here's a hot flash: The harried, hilarious protagonist of Allison Pearson's 2002 best seller I Don't Know How She Does It is back in a sequel. And this time, she's facing menopause.

How Hard Can It Be, you ask?

In Chapter 1, Kate Reddy is awakened at 2 a.m. by daughter Emily, who Snapchatted to a frenemy a photo of the tan line on her pert young butt, which quickly goes viral.

Husband Richard has lost his job and is in a two-year program to become a counselor, while pedaling a pricey bicycle and doing lots of yoga and therapy to recapture what’s missing in his life.

That leaves Kate to find a job while she juggles caring for her eightysomething mum and Richard’s parents, who are coping with his mother’s dementia. Kate’s fixer-upper of a home outside London is a money pit and she’s experiencing the aches and energy drain of perimenopause.

Amid these troubles comes the aptly named Jack Abelhammer, the charming client and soulmate Kate left behind along with her old job to focus on her family.

USA TODAY says ★★★½ out of four. “Pearson is fiercely funny and keenly observant … a must-read.”

Milk! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas by Mark Kurlansky; Bloomsbury, 333 pp.; non-fiction

The author of previous food-history masterpieces Salt and Cod takes a dip into milk and its long history and such questions as: Is milk good for you or not? Is untreated milk safe? Should mothers breastfeed?

USA TODAY says ★★★. “Jam-packed with big ideas and trivia tidbits.”

The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made by Patricia O'Toole; Simon & Schuster; non-fiction

This new biography of the 28th president reconsiders his achievements in light of the revisionism of recent years (was he a racist?) that has cast a dark light on his legacy.

USA TODAY says ★★★½. "Grim and often gripping, The Moralist goes a long way in explaining the America we're awakening to."

The Hellfire Club by Jake Tapper; Little, Brown, 327 pp.; fiction

Channeling his inner Brad Meltzer, Tapper pulls out a dossier’s worth of thriller tricks — conspiracy theories, secret societies, blackmailers, duplicitous cronies, whizzing bullets, dead bodies (lots of them) — in this potboiler set during the height of McCarthyism.

USA TODAY says ★★★. “CNN’s Jake Tapper proves he has the page-turning knack in his entertaining debut novel.”

Robin  by Dave Itzkoff; Henry Holt, 544 pp.; non-fiction

This in-depth biography of comedian and actor Robin Williams chronicles the cultural icon who took America by storm and who committed suicide in 2014 at age 63.

USA TODAY says ★★★½ out of four. “Engaging and intimate … a cautionary tale about the travails of fame and fortune.”

Contributing reviewers: Patty Rhule, Zlati Meyer, Matt Damsker, Jocelyn McClurg, David Holahan

WPXI