This is bookring material! I bought it one day, and finished it by 3am the next. I want this one back so that I can pass it around to some friends who refuse to tip the waitresses.

This is currently on its journey as a bookray.

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I picked this one up today on a whim. I don't normally read nonfiction, but something about the title of the book really caught my eye.

I remember back in the 80s reading about and hearing so much about America's "working poor." Then came the 90s, and almost no mention of these people was ever made. Did they all disappear? Did they all get wonderful jobs? Nope. In this book, the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, goes out on assignment. Her job is to figure out how millions of Americans get by (or not) on poverty-level wages. She leaves the comfort of her home to take on low-wage jobs, to live in whatever housing she can afford, and to experience life as so many other people have to live it every day.

The humor and honesty of this author's endeavor are captivating. On page 52 she writes about moving to Maine to continue her research. She says, "Maybe, I reasoned, when you give white people a whole state to themselves, they treat one another real nice." Maybe ya had to be there, but I've been laughing at this for 5 minutes. There are parts of this book that had me rolling; other parts really made me stop and think. Overall, the book made me call my parents today and thank them for toiling at all those crappy jobs just to get me to adulthood.

From the back of the book:
Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them, inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone proseper, on six to seven dollars an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity--a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategems for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor.

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Bookring started 5/12/03. Mailed to kbgoffe on 5/17/03.

• kbgoffe (Oregon)
  
• Shendoah (California)
  
• spark (California)
  
• jkate (California)
  
• caligula03 (California)
  
• ladyofunicorns (New Mexico) Current reader As of Feb. 19, 2004---book to soon be on its way again!
  
• mellion108 (Michigan) Back home to me!

My husband picked up the mail today, well actually yesterday technically, on his way to work. The bad thing about this good deed is that he doesn’t get home from work until after 1am. So I did really receive this book on the 23rd.

I just read the back cover out loud to him and he is intrigued. Thank you so much mellion108 for making this available to so many of us to read! As soon as I finish another bookray I am reading I will be able to start this one. Thanks!

I made the mistake of taking this to bed the night of the 26. Wrong! I was almost done reading it and there was no way I could put it down. Once I finished it I could not stop thinking about it. Tuesday morning dawned with me only getting about 2 hours worth of sleep. So in since this can be taken as a complement to the author since I could not stop.

I agree with her end feeling, shame. I don't want to say too much as there are so many others to read this book. It is hard to stop thinking about. It certainly makes you realize that although my husband and I are not well off, we are rich compared to so many.

Thank you mellion108 for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Release planned for Thursday, May 29, 2003 at Mailing to fellow bookcrosser in Beaverton, Oregon USA.

This book is off to continue it's journey. Enjoy Shendoah, it will give you a lot to think about.

Got it in today's mail. I got through the introduction before my 2 year old started screeching for release from her cage, er crib.

I'm about 1/2 way through and desperately glad I'm no longer waiting tables.

OK, not so much Shame. Plenty of Relief. Relief that I am no longer waiting tables to put myself through school. Gratitude. that my husband makes enough in the expensive Silicon Valley that I don't *have* to work, because really, I suck at keeping my mouth shut and have a minor problem with authority. I'm great at being my own boss, I'm great at cusotmer service, I suck at not telling the boss he's an idiot if he thinks he can skip this or do something that way. Diplomacy is NOT my thing.

Guilt. After the chapter on working for The Maids, lots of guilt. I'm thinking I'm going to ask my housekeeper if I can tip the girls that actually do the cleaning of my house. He pitches in, but the girls do the work. My house is cleaned around the lunch hour. I've always let them use my microwave, or fill up their water bottles from the purifier. I hire them because I detest scrubbing. So maybe I'm going to make a bit more effort to pick things up before they come so they don't have to pick up my mess along with cleaning up my mess. Of course I"m heading into a summer remodel, so things will get worse before they get better, so maybe an extra tip is due anyway.

Reafirmation. As to why I don't shop at Walmart. Besides, the parking lot at Target is less of a Suicide Zone parking wise.

Off to spark in the next day or two. depending on when I get to the PO.

The picture is of the hills around my house around March, when they were still green

Released on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at Postal Release in USPS, postal release USA.

Be kind ye gods of postal service. This is on it's way to Spark

A friend of mine who is quite progressive saw me reading this book one day and said, basically, "what's the point of this book, really? Everyone knows the poor have it hard and Ehrenreich is preaching to the converted..." I was a bit stunned by this reaction. I learned much about the working poor that I really didn't know except in my assumptions. I had many low wage jobs when I was younger, but the difference which many people don't seem to recognize, is that housing was so much cheaper 20 years ago, one could live if not extravagantly, at least comfortably on $5 an hour and I never had to take a drug test or fill out a personality questionnaire and would have walked out of the interview if I had had to do either to get the job. I was also not a middled-aged woman with children at home to attend to. And I didn't have to have two or three low wage jobs to just live. And anyone who compares their youthful low wage job life with what Ehrenreich writes about in this book is totaly missing the boat. Not being able to live on one's income on such a massive scale is a fundamental shift in our country which never gets talked about. The issue of housing unavailablity is so important I do not understand why it is not talked about more. The fact that 60% of working people cannot make it on their wages is shocking. I intend to buy this book and send it to my relatives who have hard attitudes about the working poor. I think it might open their eyes and hearts a bit. The almost total secession of the wealthy from the mainstream in this country is also another hot button issue that doesn't get talked about enough either. In my high school, everyone was represented -- from the children of the neighborhood's wealthy, to the children of their hired help. In the public high schools of San Francisco, one would be hard pressed to find anyone anglo or even middle class. One would think there were no such people living in the city! This was a wonderful book, easy to read (though difficult to handle emotionally), often funny, never condescending to the subject matter. My only complaint is that I felt Ehrenreich rushed through her epilogue and I would have liked there to have been an update on some of the people she wrote about. I would recommend this book to anyone who really wants to know what America is like in the 21st Century. Book is on its way to another California bookcrosser...

Got today-will read ASAP!

This was an incredibly hard book to read-I've been unemployed for two years. I've applied to some of the jobs BE did-but I was too "overqualified" to even do these jobs. BE shows that there is a class distiction with the rich and poor, and it's a very big gap. The people BE writes about are smart talented people who just have hard breaks. And quite frankly, the new welfare laws aren't making it very easier on them. A mandatory read for people that are in politics right now.

Released on Tuesday, August 12, 2003 at To a fellow Bookcrosser in Pleasant Hill, California USA.

Off to Redwood Shores!

This book arrived safely yesterday at work. Unfortunately my son was sick so I had already left to pick him up at day care and take him to the doctors. He's just got a flu of some sort.

Anyway, I am adding this book to my TBR pile and will get to it as quickly as possible. You can see how I'm doing in my profile. :)

As an anecdotal piece, it's an interesting read but her experiences don't have enough data points to draw any formitive conclusions. I'm slightly ticked at her backhanded comments about what it must be like to work and live in California. I'm a Caucasian native born Californian who has worked more minimum wage jobs when I was younger than she did for her book. Not all the low paying jobs are taken up by latinos or people who speak accented English. The minimum wage scale runs the full gammut of folks in California.

OK -- enough about my California rant. Of the three states she visited (and come on, 3 of out 50 is hardly a good sample size to draw conclusions about all of the United States), I enjoyed the Maine chapter best. It didn't get hung up on her preconceived notions of race/ethnicity and instead focused more on the money issues that anyone working minimum wage has to face.

The best part of the book though, has to be the footnotes and bibliography. I think I've found titles to a good half dozen or so books that I would like to read as follow up to this book.

I think this book would have been stronger if she had backed up her own experience with interviews from the people she worked with or even interviews with people in similar positions. She could have had short half page to maybe 2 page max. vinettes of other people's stories ala the Chicken Soup series to back up her experiences -- or even counter point them. One story from each state would have flushed out the book nicely.

Release planned for Saturday, September 13, 2003 at postal mail in Santa Fe, New Mexico USA.

Mailing this book off tomorow morning to the next in the ring.

Received this in the mail and am adding it to my ring/ray tbr pile and as soon as I have finished reading it, I will make another journal entry and send it on...

I am making a bit more than some of these people but I realize that I am still in poverty even though I am single and no kids...I am paying about 96% of my paycheck to rent...doesn't include food or phone...

I also don't shop at Walmart, I almost took a job there when I first moved to New Mexico but I found out how much they were paying and I thought that was way too little for how much I am spending on rent...

I cleaned offices for about 6 months...never again....

I agree with spark, the author should have had some interviews of some of her coworkers. That way we would have had their takes on they way they live too.

The other was able to go back to her "normal" life. I wish I had that option and I am sure there are alot of people who feel the same way. I can't even save money to move from where I am...My friend paid for my minivacation over the holidays because I haven't had a vacation for about 6 years....just can't afford to. I am also debating whether to get a second job on the weekends...

Barbara Ehrenreich should have done more than just three states...I also really didn't like the way she kept bringing up that she was white and got better jobs because of it. I'm white too but I don't find that I get better jobs than the mexicans here in New Mexico....we are all on equal footing (except I can't speak spanish) here...

I hope that this book does help other people to see what the "working poor" go through...

This paperback copy has gone the way of the dinosaur! It is no longer. It has ceased to be.

I managed to find a hardcover copy of this book, so I'll continue the ray with that copy starting with lavatea. Check out the NEW ray! I hope this book travels far, far away!