Bored? Stressed out over recent events? Escape within the pages of a good book. 

Join the Campus Community Book Club as we read Maid by Stephanie Land. Our book discussion will be held online on Wednesday, July 8th from 12pm-1pm. To receive the link to join the meeting please register for this event or email mariannesciucco@sunyorange.edu. This is a Wellness Center event.

Book Description:

Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich.

 At 28, Land's plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer, were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, she worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly.

She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing but doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her “lucky” for receiving assistance while she didn't feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.

 Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them. "I'd become a nameless ghost," Land writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients' lives -their sadness and love, too- she begins to find hope in her own path.

Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the "servant" worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. Maid is Land’s story, but it's not hers alone. It’s an inspiring testament to the strength, determination, and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

Pages: 288

Genres: Memoir, Survival Biographies, Labor and Industrial Relations, Labor and Industrial Economics

This book is available through the Ramapo Catskill Library System in e-book and audiobook and for sale at most online booksellers.