Maid, Stephanie Land
Maid, Stephanie Land
24 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
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Maid
Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

Bestseller

Author: Stephanie Land, Barbara Ehrenreich

Narrator: Stephanie Land

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Hachette Books

Published: 01/22/2019


Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES, HAILED BY ROLLING STONE AS "A GREAT ONE."
  "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work."

-PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List

At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet.

Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being told: of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.

Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit.
 

About Stephanie Land

Stephanie Land is the author of Class and the New York Times bestseller Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, which inspired the Netflix series Maid and was called “a testimony…worth listening to” by The New York Times. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and many other outlets. Her writing focuses on social and economic justice and parenting under the poverty line. She is a frequent speaker at colleges and national advocacy organizations. Find out more at @Stepville or Stepville.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Roxane on July 30, 2018

This book is going to garner a range of reactions when it’s published. What this book does well is illuminate the struggles of poverty and single-motherhood, the unrelenting frustration of having no safety net, the ways in which our society is systemically designed to keep impoverished people mired......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on September 03, 2021

I appreciate the emphasis on what it’s like to be in poverty, from the logistical struggles to the emotional turmoil that comes with being financially burdened. Not to mention the stigma that gets associated with people who depend on government assistance and the homeless. My upbringing has fostered......more

Goodreads review by karen on November 14, 2019

oooh, goodreads choice awards semifinalist for BEST MEMOIR & AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2019! what will happen? ********************************************** fulfilling book riot's 2018 read harder challenge task #14: A book of social science this one might be more memoir than social science, but it's ehrenreich-a......more

Goodreads review by Yun on April 25, 2020

Maid is Stephanie Land's memoir of her arduous and often back-breaking journey to claw herself out of poverty and to find a place of belonging and financial stability for her and her young daughter. It details her desperation to take on any menial jobs available to make ends meet while being a singl......more

Goodreads review by Susan on July 11, 2018

First, this book is most certainly NOT in the category of Evicted, one of the most well-researched, measured and thoughtful books published on the subject of chronic poverty in America. I wanted to like this book, and feel that the subject matter is critically important to expose and discuss. Yet.........more


Quotes

"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work." President Barack Obama, "Obama's 2019 Summer Reading List"

President Barack Obama, Summer Reading List (2019)Forbes, Most Anticipated Books of the YearGlamour, Best Books of the Year
Time, 11 New Books to Read This JanuaryVulture, 8 New Books You Should Read This JanuaryThrillist, All the Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2019USA Today, 5 New Books Not to Miss
Amazon, Best Books of the MonthDetroit News, New Books to Look Forward to in 2019The Missoulian, Best Books of the MonthSan Diego Entertainer, Books to Kick Off Your New YearPeople, Perfect for Your Book Club
Boston.com, 20 Books to Look Out for in 2019Hello Giggles, Best New Books to Read This WeekNewsweek, Best Books of 2019 So FarCNN Travel, Books You Should Read This SummerMental Floss, Summer Reading ListBookTrib, Books That Will Make You Look Smart at the Beach!

"More than any book in recent memory, Land nails the sheer terror that comes with being poor, the exhausting vigilance of knowing that any misstep or twist of fate will push you deeper into the hole."—The Boston Globe

"Stephanie Lands memoir [Maid] is a bracing one."—The Atlantic

"An eye-opening journey into the lives of the working poor."
People, Perfect for Your Book Club

"The particulars of Land's struggle are sobering, but it's the impression of precariousness that is most memorable."—The New Yorker

"[Land's] book has the needed quality of reversing the direction of the gaze. Some people who employ domestic labor will read her account. Will they see themselves in her descriptions of her clients? Will they offer their employees the meager respect Land fantasizes about? Land survived the hardship of her years as a maid, her body exhausted and her brain filled with bleak arithmetic, to offer her testimony. It's worth listening to."
New York Times Book Review

"What this book does well is illuminate the struggles of poverty and single-motherhood, the unrelenting frustration of having no safety net, the ways in which our society is systemically designed to keep impoverished people mired in poverty, the indignity of poverty by way of unmovable bureaucracy, and people's lousy attitudes toward poor people... Land's prose is vivid and engaging... [A] tightly-focused, well-written memoir... an incredibly worthwhile read."
Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist and Hunger: A Memoir

"An eye-opening exploration of poverty in America."—Bustle

"Marry the evocative first person narrative of Educated with the kind of social criticism seen in Nickel and Dimed and you'll get a sense of the remarkable book you hold in your hands. In Maid, Stephanie Land, a gifted storyteller with an eye for details you'll never forget, exposes what it's like to exist in America as a single mother, working herself sick cleaning our dirty toilets, one missed paycheck away from destitution. It's a perspective we seldom see represented firsthand-and one we so desperately need right now. Timely, urgent, and unforgettable, this is memoir at its very best."—Susannah Cahalan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness