Nickel and Dimed

Ehrenreich set simple rules for her experiment: she would not use her education or savings to get ahead, and she would take the best job she could find and the cheapest housing available. In Key West, Florida, she waited tables at a family restaurant and then took a second job cleaning hotel rooms, discovering how exhausting it was to hold two jobs and how hard it was to find affordable housing near work.

In Portland, Maine, she worked for a house-cleaning company, scrubbing floors on her knees, while weekends were spent as a dietary aide in a nursing home. In Minneapolis she took a job at a large discount store, folding clothes and dealing with strict rules, and found that rents were too high to make the numbers work. Throughout she describes her coworkers with respect and warmth, noting their skill, resilience and health problems, and shows the hidden costs of being poor, such as paying more for motel rooms because there is no money for a deposit. The tone is personal and frequently funny.

Readable, sharp and memorable. About 256 pages in the Picador paperback, with an afterword.