Rating: 
Summary: She hit a nerve, that's communication....duh......
Review: Before I learned here why I should have hated this book, I loved it and only wished it was longer. Barabara didn't write this book to be literature, figure it out, she wrote it because NOBODY CARES ABOUT THIS STUFF ANYMORE AND NOBODY IS WRITING ABOUT IT OR READING ABOUT IT, they are too busy caring what celebrities are screwing other celebrities.I have lived in both worlds. One of the reviewers basically said, she should get a family or friends then high rent would not have been a problem. I have been through the roommate thing and would rather wander the streets than live with my family. Some families are not helpful and some people simply have no support system. I know. I was one. Men were my support system and I lived with some of them just to get by. She has courage and heart, and wrote her truth. Most importantly, she wrote a book that is readable about a subject that usually reads like an encyclopedia.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, please do have another piece of brie ...
Review: This is hardly the hard-hitting journalistic exposé on the pitiful state of the poor that I was expecting from all the hype around this book but rather is a masterful exploitation of the same. The hardships of the poor is now hard cash for a shallow, hypocritical and surprisingly shrewd business woman, and although at one level I grudgingly admire her business sense, I cannot help but also feel that I was cheated out of a real story. The author spends no more than 2 or 3 weeks in each "lowly" position, bailing at the first sign of trouble, merrily traipsing off to a different city &/or falling back on her tidy little nest egg of hard cash & a fully functioning car, among other things, to tide her through the hard times. All luxuries that the really poor cannot afford. Heck, I am not poor, and neither are my friends but none of us have the luxury of running away from a job just because our employer calls for a mandatory drug screening. Nor do we consider lounging out in ridiculously overpriced hotel rooms, while in-between positions, a necessary part of job search, and $11 burgers & wine are duly considered treats rather than everyday fare. While the rest of the world learns to cook and brown-bags our lunches, the author practices poverty by dining out. This book just managed to make me really angry at such a deliberately callous treatment of a vital subject. The pretentious tone of the author didn't help matters either. Apparently, living among the poor did not make her understand or relate to them more but gave her the right to be condescending and supercilious while incessantly complaining about all the hardships she had to endure. What's really funny is that Ms. Ehrenreich's hardships are the kind that make you wonder just how sheltered a life she has been leading up until now. Her so-called hardships are more of an affectation rather than reality; it's the kind that socialites may pay to endure for a day so they can have something new to talk about the next time they meet other equally spurious and purposeless elitists at the Four Seasons for lunch. I can quite imagine Carrie Bradshaw writing crap like this, but then Carrie Bradshaw & her cosmopolitan-sipping gal pals never claimed to be hard-hitting journalists or snuck off with my hard earned $$ under the false pretense of providing me with a greater insight into the pathos of the poor. In summation, this is the armchair theorists view of real life. In fact, it's almost sarcastic in it's detachment from reality. Almost, but not quite. Read this to see the world through the rose-colored glasses of the uber-privileged whose hardships mostly consist of correctly guessing the vintage of the wine accompanying the gourmet black truffles and escarole salad, or if you are rolling in the green yourself, enjoy a slight glimpse into the murky abyss that the rest of the world lives in. Or just save yourself the anguish of having to sit through this snippy drivel masquerading as literature and send me your money; I will write you a better story. ;) ... Vaya con dios!
Rating: 
Summary: Re-enforces the truth
Review: If Ehrenreich does nothing else, she at least reminds us to empathize with those who struggle to survive without any other aid. As any enlightened human being already knows, surviving on a minimum wage, without affordable housing or health insurance provides a near impossible hurdle for many to overcome. Especially if one is a single parent. In this case, Ehrenreich breaks no new ground here. With this book, she is already preaching to the choir. However we all still need preaching. For this truth needs constant re-enforcing. Placing herself in the position of a maid, waitress, nursing home worker and retail clerk, the author re-discovers the hard truth: that working at a low wage becomes a monotonous and often degrading cycle that becomes difficult to break. Sometimes people do not always choose to be poor (an attitude often shared by liberal and conservative thinkers alike). Recent administrations, both Republican and Democratic alike have championed the number of jobs they have created and the welfare reforms they have enacted.Unfortunately most of those "created" jobs do no pay a living wage. The truth remains that there are no simple solutions to the age old issue of working class poverty. Still NICKEL AND DIMED reminds its readers to empathize with the workers burdened with making everyone else's lives easier. These are the people who make the food cheaper, clean the toilets and wipe the aged bums- jobs that are all noble in so much as they provide necessary services and are deserving of the same services and opportunities everyone else enjoys in a free society. A good fast read that ultimately re-affirms the truth. May we all continue to search and work for a solution.
Rating:
Summary: An eye opener? May be for top 5%
Review: After extensive study and field investigation, Barbara Ehrenreich came to a conclusion that the lower 95% of the population have always known: Starting from scratch aint easy. The only people who might be enlightned by this book are other self-rightous, liberal, elitist brats who have never punched a time card or bothered to stop and talk to the "underclass". Reportedly, her next book will be entitled "Fat and Ugly: (not) Getting Laid in America." I can't wait to be enlightened.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: If you are in the mood to get angry and emotional, this is the best book in the world to read. Not only does it make you go completely insane, it teaches you nothing. The author of this book, has no idea as to what she is saying--she is a total hypocrit. She really knows how to provoke emotions such as anger but unfortunately when she does, the hate is aimed towards her. The book teaches you nothing about the situation of poverty. Rather you learn about how the author has a PhD every five lines of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Book Review
Review: Barbara Ehrenreich does a well done job writing this book. She shows how living on minimum wages will get you nowhere. Barbara talks about how getting two jobs is the only way to live indoors. She finds out that these low wage occupations require hard work and discipline.
Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed
Review: It is incredible to think of just how many workers are treated as unjustly as Ehrenreich was on a daily basis. Things need to change. In contemporary society we are capable of so much, and we have failed to utilize all of our resources. Knowledge is power, and Barbara Ehrenreich has proved it.
Rating:
Summary: Nickel and Dimed: A Book Worth Reading
Review: Nickel and Dimed is a fascinating book that unvails the hard life of living on low wages. Ehrenriech thoroughly covers all bases of living a live of nearpovertly. Excellent.
Rating:
Summary: You'll be short changed
Review: You'll be short changed of you dont read this book. Everybody in America should read this book. The people that work for you, that make your life more comfertable... read about how they live everyday and how difficult it is to survive today. This book makes you appreciate what you have. It is definitely worth your while.
Rating:
Summary: Spare Change
Review: Nickel and Dimed is about how Barbara Ehrenreich tries to survive on minimum wage, full time, in an investigative journey into 'poor America'. She allows herself a set amount ($1300), to get started, and promises herself that when she tuns out of money, she'll declare the project over, in defeat (which is her purpose). Ehrenreich starts out as a waitress in Florida, rents a trailer, and eats at fast food restaurants . She soon discovers that in order to eat and pay rent, she will have to work two jobs. Later, she moves on to Maine and accepts a job in a maid service cleaning vacation mansions. She is forced to rent a 'cottage' that is way out of her price range. After only a few months, she has to once again relocate because she isn't able to work two jobs full time, make rent, and eat. In her final attempt, she moves to the Twin Cities in Minnesota, where finding affordable housing is literally impossible. Her only option is to rent an overpriced hotel room, where she loses money every day as she searches for a job. After weeks of applications and orientations, Ehrenreich lands a job in Wal Mart. However, she only lasts about a month because she runs out of money paying for the hotel room; the job at Wal Mart only paid $7 and hour. For each job in each city, she works alongside poverty stricken people, struggling to make ends meet. Exhausted by long hours and insufficient pay, these people have no other choice but to work at jobs that exploit their labor. Ehrenreich describes many people who live in a one bedroom apartment or their car, with their families, work two jobs, have mouths to feed, and no time to look for a better job.
This book proved that surviving off minimum wage is rarely successful. The money that she earned was never equivalent to the amount required to live ( housing , food, car). Our social economy seems to ignore the life we have forced the poor to live. This book was successful in proving its purpose, and raises the question of why our country prevents hard working people from prospering.
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