As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
In contrast to recent books by Michael Lewis and Dinesh D'Souza that explore the lives and psyches of the New Economy's millionares, Ehrenreich (Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, etc.) turns her gimlet eye on the view from the workforce's bottom rung. Determined to find out how anyone could make ends meet on $7 an hour, she left behind her middle class life as a journalist except for $1000 in start-up funds, a car and her laptop computer to try to sustain herself as a low-skilled worker for a month at a time. In 1999 and 2000, Ehrenreich worked as a waitress in Key West, Fla., as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, Maine, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, Minn. During the application process, she faced routine drug tests and spurious "personality tests"; once on the job, she endured constant surveillance and numbing harangues over infractions like serving a second roll and butter. Beset by transportation costs and high rents, she learned the tricks of the trade from her co-workers, some of whom sleep in their cars, and many of whom work when they're vexed by arthritis, back pain or worse, yet still manage small gestures of kindness. Despite the advantages of her race, education, good health and lack of children, Ehrenreich's income barely covered her month's expenses in only one instance, when she worked seven days a week at two jobs (one of which provided free meals) during the off-season in a vacation town. Delivering a fast read that's both sobering and sassy, she gives readers pause about those caught in the economy's undertow, even in good times.

Copyright 2001 Cahners business Information, Inc.

With flavors as interesting as Cranberry Mint Cheesecake, Apricot Streusel Cheesecake, White Cassis Cheesecake, and Honey Fig Cheesecake, you'll use this book as much for ideas as you will for the recipes. Reynolds and Chanin love flavorings and extracts, and they begin by recommending their favorite producers and then use almost every flavor made by them. With the "Bonus" magic Formula Which Will Allow You to Experiment and Concoct Your Own Personally Flavored Baked Cheesecake, you can add any of the flavors they haven't already, and you'll never have to make the same flavor twice. Reynolds and Chanin are imaginative and are sure to get your creative juices flowing with decadences such as Southern Peach Cheesecake, made with peach extract and preserves, coconut flakes, and chopped pecans, and crowd-pleasers such as Jamoca Cheesecake, made with instant espresso, coffee-flavored liqueur, chocolate, and walnuts. These are not the flat-topped, custardlike cheesecakes that belong on fine-dining dessert carts, but rather the rich, dense, lightly browned New York-style cheesecakes that gave the dessert its American-icon status. Don't worry about the cracks, Reynolds and Chanin reassure us--the baked sour-cream topping is the perfect foil. With 23 tips to encourage us, such as Think Positive, Use Plastic-Wrap Mittens to Press Down the Crumb-Crust Mix Around the Pan, and Never Bake Cheesecakes at the Last Minute, novice bakers should feel confident and will be amused by the authors' lighthearted tones.

The second master recipe is The magic Formula Which Will Allow You to Experiment and Concoct Your Own Personally Flavored Nonbaked Cheesecake. It comes at the end of a chapter of recipes for nonbaked cheesecakes such as Holiday Ginger Pumpkin Cheesecake, Banana-Split Cheesecake, and Caramel Nut Cheesecake. These nonbaked cheesecakes call for sweetened condensed milk and an acidic fruit juice, which makes them to set up the way Key Lime Pie is set. They also contain a "fruit protector" (ascorbic acid and corn sugar) called Fruit Fresh.

The final section of the book is "Other People's Cheesecakes," and it serves to remind us that even if you already have our own favorite cheesecake recipes and techniques, you can never have too many. --Leora Y. Bloom

From Library Journal
Reynolds is the host of a nationally syndicated talk show and a cheesecake lover Joey Reynolds Cheesecakes are sold in Florida and New York. Chanin, also known as "Mother Wonderful," is a professional baker and the author of several other cookbooks. Here they present dozens of recipes for cheesecakes baked, nonbaked, lower-calorie, and "mini." Most of them are really variations on a master recipe; each recipe chapter, in fact, concludes with a "Magic Formula," the template for that type of cheesecake. For larger baking collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed business Information, Inc.