Walking Taylor Home

Book: Walking Taylor Home by Brian Schrauger.
Finished: August 208
Pages: 270
A simply beautiful memoir of a father's fierce love for his cancer ravaged son, as he walks him "Home"
Here is my complete review.

Expecting Adam

Just finished, Expecting Adam, and I am sorry to say that this one was a bit of a disappointment. You can read my complete review, here.

Tisha

I just finished Tisha and you can read my review here!

Nickled and Dimed

By Kim L. Cross-posted at BoldBlueAdventure

Author: Barbara Ehrenreich
Rating: 5/5
Reason for Reading: Recommendation by Eva, In Their Shoes Reading Challenge

Poverty, especially in relation to Welfare is an uncomfortable topic. Get two people with different viewpoints going on the subject, and your carefully planned dinner party could quickly end in disaster.

Barbara Ehrenreich, who in normal life spends her time as a writer, decided to spend 3 months as a blue-collar worker to see what it was like to live on the wages offered by the likes of Walmart and other low-paying jobs of similar ilk.

The result is a fascinating first-hand account of the struggle to make ends meet on meager wages. Ehrenreich started as a waitress in Key West, then a maid and dishwasher in Maine, and finally as a Walmart employee in Minnesota.

She reports in the introduction that "The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly "unskilled". Every one of the six jobs I entered into in the course of this project required concentration, and most demanded that I master new terms, new tools, and new skills."

Ehrenreich reports on the exhaustion of standing on her feet for 8 or more hours in a row, the humiliation of mandatory drug tests, having her first paycheck held (as is the custom in many low-paying jobs), the managers who spend all their time looking over everyone's shoulder to yell at the smallest mistake, the seedy rent by the week motels she stayed at, and the complete and utter inadequacy of $7 an hour to pay for all of the lodging, food, clothing, and payphone expenses.

Read the rest

Funny in Farsi

Book: Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
Pages: 198
Finished: March 2008


First Sentence: "When I was seven, my parents, my fourteen-year-old brother, Farsid, and I moved from Abadan, Iran to Whittier California."

Last Sentence: "I won the jackpot with that story."

This was a charming, gentle memoir of the author's experiences growing up Iranian in America. She keeps the story light, especially in the beginning, as the first time the family came to America it was for only 2 years, in 1972, way before the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Life for them in America was, at the time friendly. They were a novelty as there weren't many Iranians in America then and many Americans didn't even know where Iran was! When they returned to America, Firoozeh was in 6th grade and things were different--this was on the cusp of the crisis. After the hostage crisis, they realized that they had lost everything in Iran--and her father's pension from the oil company which had employed him, was worth nothing.

Yet, this family retained their feisty, thankful, spirit and her memoir never dips into self pity. No, quite the opposite. Her family became quite proud Americans and never take the freedom they have found in this country for granted.

Each chapter was a separate story or event, and each one brought me to laughter--often times reading a chapter out loud to my family. I am thrilled to see that another book by this author is due out soon!
Definitely a book worth reading -especially if you like memoirs.

#1 completed!

I finished my first challenge book: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson. You can read my review here at my new book blog, Page After Page.

On to the next one on the list!