45 Things To Do Before You're 45: A Novel Audiobook By Julia Tuffs cover art

45 Things To Do Before You're 45: A Novel

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45 Things To Do Before You're 45: A Novel

By: Julia Tuffs
Narrated by: Isy Suttie
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About this listen

"This isn’t how I pictured my life, you know? It was going to be fabulous. I was going to be fabulous.”

Meet Charlie; unfulfilled and perimenopausal, Charlie’s suburban life is a far cry from the Manhattan glamour she once dreamed of. Her husband is incapable of talking about anything other than his latest Ironman challenge, her sex life consists of fictional encounters with Hollywood stars, her kids need constant man-management, and to make things worse, her optician has just prescribed her reading glasses.

Oh, and she can’t stop crying at TV adverts…

In the hope of re-discovering her sense of self, Charlie begins writing a list: 45 things to do before she’s 45.

  1. Eat an oyster
  2. Take up parkour
  3. Read War and Peace
  4. Take ecstasy
  5. Try stand-up comedy
  6. Go to a sex club

Determined to complete them all, Charlie embarks on a chaotic odyssey through her own spectacular midlife crisis, challenging herself to become the person she wants to be. But what happens if we’re not that person? How do we learn to let them go? Or does something else have to give?

Uproariously funny and deeply human, 45 Things… is an all-too relatable story of what it means to be alive and how much living we all still have to do.

Narrated by the inimitable Isy Suttie (Peep Show), 45 Things... is the perfect listen for fans of Dolly Alderton, Caitlin Moran and Marian Keyes.

"There is so much to relate to. I can guarantee that if you're a woman and over thirty, you'll be nodding and laughing along!” – Laura Pearson, author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

©2024 Julia Tuffs (P)2025 Audible Ltd.
Contemporary Family Life Romantic Comedy

What listeners say about 45 Things To Do Before You're 45: A Novel

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Housewife view

If you ever wanted to understand how housewifes become alcoholic, read it. Somehow, it's easier to blame the one that doesn't work. Why?

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

What a ride - brace yourself

This book is about a self absorbed woman who actually puts herself second in the roles of mother and wife. She complains a lot because she’s a bored housewife with no personal accomplishments or ambitions and who resents her family for being absent and needy, and leaving her with all the shit in the house. Ok - that’s the surface.
Underneath are all the things we never get to discuss, process, or is ever accepted in society: she’s perimenopausal and having terrible hormone changes, she’s getting terrible anxiety, she is getting less and less sleep, she’s drinking more and is generally also having a mid-life crisis. Through this process she makes terrible and selfish decisions…but she gets a grip on the end, right? (Read and find out)

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

not so great

The first few chapters were good and actually had me looking forward to following this dysfunctional but mildly funny mother as she navigated her list. However, it took too many chapters just to actually make the list, and even more chapters with in-depth discussions about her period and sexual fantasies before many items on the list were addressed. By the end of the seventh chapter, I realized that I had essentially stopped paying attention to the book, which is usually a bad sign for me. At that point, I decided to move on to something I truly enjoy. Unfortunately, this book wasn’t it for me. The audio, though, was excellent.

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    3 out of 5 stars

what was this supposed to be?

This book started pretty funny and then got really weird. Felt like reading 2 different styles and story lines. I suppose it came together at the end, but not without a struggle to get through the middle. Based on the first few chapters, I thought it was a light hearted and funny read about being a middle aged woman. It did not end up being that.

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Cutesy

Like an ode to sex in the city written in the format of a gooey novel.

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I thought it was relevant and funny

Great narration. Love the righting style. Very funny and relevant to being in your mid forties.

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1 person found this helpful

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Bored after an hour.

story pacing extremely slow and failed to catch my interest. gave up at 1h14m. bored married woman doesn't want to be bored anymore, ends up boring listener. Narrator did a good job with what she was given. moving on.

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Crass/stupid/vulgar if you like slap stick humor you might like it

The attempt to be funny is just over the top stupid and vulgar & crass. While likely trying to make the main character relatable it goes too far and makes her seem like a pathetic lazy vulgar lush.

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    3 out of 5 stars

45 going on 15

This felt like Bridget Jones having a midlife crisis at 45. Or, given the focus on sex and bodily functions (especially periods), this felt like Samantha Jones from Sex in the City having a midlife crisis and letting her friends brainstorm a bucket list to ensure Charlie has really lived. Only, many of the items are juvenile; they’re the types of things that seem cool to a teenager (sex, drugs and low key criminal shenanigans).

It was fine in small doses, but 10 hours of Charlie talking about her lady bits, leaking (the number of times she talks about her period and leakage cannot be underestimated), and fantasizing about sex with famous actors wore me out.

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3 people found this helpful