Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Ni ckel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage. Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let... (more)

Esperanza Rising: Esperanza Renace

by Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza thought she'd always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico--she'd always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, & servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers. Esperanza isn't ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life... (more)

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do

by Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel records the voices of America. Men and women from every walk of life talk to him, telling him of their likes and dislikes, fears, problems, and happinesses on the job. Once again, Terkel has created a rich and unique document that is as simple as conversation, but as subtle and heartfelt as the meaning of our lives.... In the first trade paperback edition of his national bestseller, Pulitzer... (more)

In Dubious Battle

by John Steinbeck

Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America’s greatest writers and cultural figures. We have begun publishing his many works for the first time as blackspine Penguin Classics featuring eye-catching, newly commissioned art. This season we continue with the seven spectacular and influential books East of Eden, Cannery Row, In Dubious Battle, The Long... (more)

Germinal

by Emile Zola

The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola?s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity?s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his... (more)

What to Expect

What to Expect When You're Expecting

by Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Eisenberg Murkoff

Introducing a completely Revised & Updated Third Edition of America's bestselling pregnancy book, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING. Two years in the making, it's a total revision and update. Responding to the many queries and letters received from readers, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING, 3rd EDITION address health and medical questions as well as lifestyle concerns. Incorporating the most... (more)

Spiritual Midwifery

by Ina May Gaskin

Here is the 4th edition of the classic book on home birth that introduced a whole generation of women to the concept of natural childbirth. Back again are even more amazing birthing tales, including those from women who were babies in earlier editions and stories about Old Order Amish women attended by the Farm midwives. Also new is information about the safety of techniques routinely used in hospitals during... (more)

A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember

A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember

by Iain Levison

Iain Levison can find work but not fulfillment. The frustration of dead-end, deadhead labor induces a kind of pink-slip payback syndrome as the realization sets in that his college degree will gain him little by way of psychic wages on the job. He is adrift in a workaday world where one human is as good as the next and all are expendable. Meaningless promises abound, "like when they were telling us <at... (more)

Fast Food Nation

by Eric Schlosser

Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Eric Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. Schlosser's myth-shattering survey stretches from California's subdivisions, where the... (more)

Out of This Furnace

by Thomas Bell

Out of This Furnace is Thomas Bell’s most compelling achievement. Its story of three generations of an immigrant Slovak family -- the Dobrejcaks -- still stands as a fresh and extraordinary accomplishment. The novel begins in the mid-1880s with the naive blundering career of Djuro Kracha. It tracks his arrival from the old country as he walked from New York to White Haven, his later migration to the steel... (more)

America Is in the Heart : A Personal History (Washington Paperbacks, Wp-68)

America Is in the Heart : A Personal History (Washington Paperbacks, Wp-68)

by Carlos Bulosan

First published in 1946, this autobiography of the well-known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant laborer following the harvest trail in the rural West. Bulosan does not spare the reader any of the horrors that accompanied the migrant's life; but his quiet, stoic voice is the most convincing witness to those terrible... (more)

Baby Blues.

by Rick Kirkman, Jerry Scott

The fourth heartwarmimg collection from the creators of the popular Baby Blues strip, which appears in more than 200 newspapers daily, reintroduces the McPhersons, a mid-thirties career couple who are finding parenthood more rewarding--and frustrating--than they'd expected.

The jungle

by Peter Kuper

Peter Kuper’s Classics Illustrated adaptation of Upton Sinclair's whistle-blowing novel on the conditions at the Chicago slaughter houses in the early 20th century is brought back to press in a beautiful larger size hardcover. One of his best and most poignant works.

The Jungle

by Upton Sinclair

For nearly a century, the original version of Upton Sinclair's classic novel has remained almost entirely unknown. When it was published in serial form in 1905, it was a full third longer than the censored, commercial edition published in book form the following year. That expurgated commercial edition edited out much of the ethnic flavor of the original, as well as some of the goriest descriptions of the... (more)

At work : the art of California labor

Work is at the core of human existence: it is sustenance, security, survival. Through work we find fulfillment, dignity, and affiliation; conversely, we risk criticism and dissatisfaction and, at worst, degradation and alienation. Not surprisingly, the story of labor—which comprises passionate struggles and triumphs as well as dehumanizing forces—has figured largely in the arts. _At Work: The Art of California... (more)

Airframe

There's Danger in the Skies

by Michael Crichton

The twin jet plane en route to Denver from Hong Kong is merely a green radar blip half an hour off the California coast when the call comes through to air traffic control: 'Socal Approach, this is TransPacific 545. We have an emergency.' The pilot requests priority clearance to land - then comes the bombshell - he needs Forty ambulances on the runway. But nothing prepares the rescue workers for the carnage they... (more)

Dear Canada : Days of Toil and Tears The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford (Dear Canada)

Dear Canada : Days of Toil and Tears The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford (Dear Canada)

by Sarah Ellis

Two Sides to Everthing: The Cultural Construction of Class Consciousness in Harlan County, Kentucky (S U N Y Series in Oral and Public History)

Two Sides to Everthing: The Cultural Construction of Class Consciousness in Harlan County, Kentucky (S U N Y Series in Oral and Public History)

by Shaunna L. Scott

Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign

Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign

by Michael K. Honey

The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade. Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers were chewed up like garbage in the... (more)

Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth

Easy Labor: Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth

by Kathryn Alexander, William Camann

THE FIRST COMPLETE, COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO PAIN RELIEF DURING LABOR AND DELIVERY Far too many expectant mothers find themselves unprepared when labor begins and natural techniques don’t effectively manage the pain. This indispensable guide provides reassuring, proven approaches to combining medical and natural techniques to ensure the most comfortable pain-free labor possible. In Easy Labor, you’ll discover •... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: labor

On (Not) Getting by in America

by Barbara Ehrenreich