July Books

Two quick books to write about this month.  

The first one was Maid by Stephanie Land is on my 2021 Reading List.

 

This is a true story of a single mother who works as a maid in people's homes.  She starts the book explaining how she is moving out of a homeless shelter with her daughter.  She gives us some background about her family and her ex-boyfriend, father of her child.  Then she talks about the various jobs she holds, the types of homes she cleans, and how she provides for her daughter.  

I found this to be an interesting read and reinforced by belief that poverty is a very difficult thing to climb out of.  The various systems she describes are so hard to coordinate and make it hard to make real changes in one's circumstances.  It's an American book but I'm sure the same circumstances exist here, although I'm not really familiar with it all.  

We don't have a cleaning lady. It wasn't something I grew up with and I've never really felt comfortable having someone in my house, cleaning up after us.  I am the first to say cleaning is not my my strong point but I can still do it (and so does Dave) so I've never felt like I need someone to clean for us.  I think I would feel embarrassed about it although I know it would probably be fine, but reading her stories about her client's messes and private lives, I don't think we'll be hiring anyone soon.

The second book I read this month was Whisper Network by Chandler Baker.

This is one of Reese Witherspoon's picks and I can tell why it is a popular choice.  It tells the story about the in-house legal department at a large company based in Dallas. We know someone has died at the beginning but we aren't exactly sure who or why.  It is like Big Little Lies where we go back before the death, meet the characters and then get notes from the investigation/discoveries throughout  and collect more clues.  The subject matter is about workplace harassment and sort of the Me Too movement. 

I liked it and it was a quick read.  I appreciated the in-house counsel stuff, since that's what I do!, and I also work in a very male dominated industry.  I have been very fortunate to not have experienced harassment but I continue to promote gender neutrality and reducing stereotypes where I can.  

I am reading Barack Obama's book now and it is a tome so I hope I can finish it in August!