Citizen Reading: 29 August 2016
Friday Book Lists: 2 September 2016

Labor Day 2016: The Reading List

So in past years I have also done some lists of great books about work. Last year I was late with the Labor Day list, and I didn't want to do that again, so here we are. Happy Labor Day! Start celebrating now and take a few days off.

The list below sums up the work-related books I read over the last year. Links go to my posts about the books, when available. Must-reads are in bold.

NONFICTION

Alison Stewart, Junk: Digging Through America's Love Affair with Stuff. I'm calling this one at least partially a work book because there's a ton of stuff in it about junk removal people, professional organizers, etc.

Dan Lyon, Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-up Bubble. Memoir of a baby boomer's time in a marketing/tech company.

Steve Osborne, The Job. Cop memoir.

Kevin Hazzard, A Thousand Naked Strangers. Paramedic memoir; pretty wild stuff.

Burt Reynolds, But Enough About Me. Actor's memoir, with a lot of behind-the-scenes info from Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, and more television and movies.

Jacob Slichter, So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star. Musician memoir, from the drummer of Semisonic.

Robert Kolker, Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery. This one is actually True Crime, but I'm calling it a work memoir because wow, there's a lot of sad details in it about women working as "escorts."

FICTION

Menna Van Praag. The Dress Shop of Dreams. Kind of strange/magic realism about a dress shop where the seamstress can work magic for her customers (through her dresses).

Melissa Jacobs. Love, Life, and Linguine. A restaurant consultant finds her chef boyfriend cheating on her and moves home to resurrect her family's failing restaurant. Chick lit.

Amy Reichert. The Coincidence of Coconut Cake. Milwaukee chef Lou receives a caustic review from new British restaurant reviewer Al--but yet somehow sparks fly. Chick lit.*

Go forth and do not labor, at least for a few days. Ah, Labor Day. No family obligations, no gift requirements, no religion, no celebrations of war. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

*Yeah, I read a lot of chick lit (when I can find it). You got a problem with that?

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