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Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance
Stephanie Land shares her experiences living below the poverty line, with a young child, cleaning houses. As you might expect, it's a grim life, living paycheck to paycheck, with all the niceties that many of us take for granted.

I'm sure I am going to sound hard-hearted but there were many things about this story that bothered me. I was sad Land didn't focus on the things she did have during her short time in poverty. She received child support. She received free college tuition. She received f
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Ellen Librarian
Jul 28, 2019 rated it liked it
The author has an interesting story and she told it well but I kept having the feeling she left out parts of it that would have made her less sympathtic. That isn't to say that I thought she didn't deserve any of the public assistance she got. What I liked best about the book was how well it demonstrated how hard it is to get by in the U.S. even if you have a job. In the richest country in the world, a working mother can barely feed herself and her child on her wages plus food stamps. It's an ea ...more
Kent Winward
Aug 11, 2021 rated it really liked it
A too familiar story. . .
Megan
Jan 06, 2019 marked it as to-read
Beth
Feb 12, 2020 rated it really liked it  ·  review of another edition
Curlysue
Jan 17, 2019 marked it as to-read
Terri
Jan 21, 2019 marked it as to-read
Shelves: memoir-women
Sharon
Jun 03, 2022 rated it it was amazing
Alisa
Feb 27, 2019 rated it really liked it
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Mar 05, 2019 marked it as to-read
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Apr 20, 2019 marked it as to-read
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May 12, 2019 marked it as to-read
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Jul 16, 2019 marked it as to-read
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Aug 15, 2019 marked it as to-read
Bookchick
Nov 18, 2019 marked it as to-read
Tanya
Jan 06, 2020 marked it as to-read
Lex
Jan 10, 2020 marked it as to-read  ·  review of another edition
Laura
Apr 25, 2020 marked it as tbr-recent
Shelves: friend-love, memoirs
Charlene Oleah
Nov 30, 2020 marked it as to-read
Anika
Oct 16, 2021 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Lisa
Jan 19, 2022 added it
Shelves: 2022-book-club
Jenna
Aug 23, 2022 marked it as to-read
Jessica
Nov 02, 2023 rated it really liked it
Viviana Martinez
Nov 08, 2023 marked it as to-read
Theresa Wright
Aug 14, 2024 marked it as tbr-library  ·  review of another edition
Toni
Aug 22, 2025 rated it liked it
Laura
Sep 20, 2025 is currently reading it