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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1869.Nickel_and_Dimed_On_Getting_By_in_America?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1158960262m/1869.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1869.Nickel_and_Dimed_On_Getting_By_in_America?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Nickel and Dimed: On Getting By in America</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1257.Barbara_Ehrenreich">Barbara Ehrenreich</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15024473?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>TO GET TO THE POSITIVE REVIEW, SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOWEVER IN CAPPS. Id heard a lot about this book, interviews of the author, etc. and recommended it a few times before even reading it. I was pretty disappointed for the first 200 pgs (223 pages in total) as early in the preface, ehrenreich admits that for her "experiment" in taking blue-collar jobs in the hope of affording blue-collar rent, she allots her self 1)a rental car throughout the entire experiment, 2)periodic visits to her house, 3)the buying of food outside of her budget whenever hungry, and 4)hospital visits outside of her budget whenever sick or injured. Oh, and 5)a laptop computer. By definition, no matter what she does from this point, she will not get close to poverty. Its like "Oh, Ill play poor, only without any of the inherent dangers." Furthermore, throughout her experiment, she does and assumes a number of naive things, such as 1) takes a unit in a trailer park for more than $100 more in rent per month than apartments available, for the pure experience. Also this move puts her 30 miles away from work, making her depend on her rental car. She consults with apartment search agents instead of doing her own hoofwork. She lives off a diet of fast-food that not only is unhealthy, but costs more than staples from the groceary store would. Her depiction of her life as struggling and her momentary delusions of proletariansism are pretty insulting to me, as Ive had some meager experiences in poverty. I could only imagine that the persistantly poor would either be downright offended, or view the book as an attempt at comedy. HOWEVER- in the last 20 pages, she points out all the mistakes she made, her incorrect assumptions and flaws of methodology. Then writes a concise and thoroughly foot-noted argument for the economic paradox that faces those at the bottom of the ladder. If only this material, supplanted and expanded, had been interspersed throughout the account, I would have enjoyed the book in its entirety. The fact that it became a NY Times bestseller suggests that a number of affluent people at least purchased this book, which is important. If even a third of those people read the book, then the merit of her experiment lies here. While a good read and a rich source of secondary sources for me, I would recommend this book only to anyone who is completely ignorant about poverty, or knows or is related to people who are completely ignorant about poverty. This is the books target audience, and to this audience it is extemely relevant. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/373179?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>