I so looked forward to reading Class after enjoying Land's Maid a few years back. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with several aspects of this book. I didn't like the use of curse words (they were sprinkled throughout; if they had been more, I would have stopped reading). I didn't feel the need to hear all the graphic details about her sex life. I still rooted for the author throughout her trials and tribulations, but felt like she brought on more herself in this book. She was whiny throughout the book, and made poor decisions at times. I was glad that she was able to finish college, but didn't blame her professor for not recommending her for the master's program due to her circumstances. The writing is outstanding; I just didn't feel as much sympathy this time around. I did enjoy reading more about poverty, and the difficulties associated with it. Thank you to Netgalley for this fee ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc. It was written well and in order of the events that happened which made it easy to follow. It’s hard to criticize the story itself since it is the authors real life experiences and it feels wrong to say she should’ve did things differently when I’ve never been in a similar situation, and it’s how she decided to handle it. It was eye opening to abusive relationships, hardships with money, and trying to survive with the government’s systems.

A couple of years ago, Stephanie Land wrote Maid, which was the story of her struggling to make ends meet as a single mother by working as a housecleaner. It was made into a Netflix series that was very successful, so a lot of readers will be familiar. This is sort of a follow up, in which the author describes her experience of finishing her bachelors degree at the University of Montana, contending with many, many obstacles, mainly poverty, but also abusive relationships, housing and food insecurity, university red tape, and the constant judgement of teachers and peers. Very authentic, compelling memoir by someone who has lived through some very hard times and describes it well.

It's been a couple of weeks since I finished this, and at the time, I would have given it a 3.5 rounded down to 3, but after sitting with it, it warrants rounding up to 4 because of the way the story and themes have stuck with me.

I never read Maid, but I watched the Netflix series and loved it. This picks up where Maid left off, following Land to college in Montana. Class is a title that references not only her college journey but navigating a system and society that judges those below the poverty line.

Many of the negative reviews seem to criticize the choices the author makes. Sometimes I too was frustrated with her choices, from my relative place of privilege. Instead, Class should be appreciated for being a peek into a world that many of us would not otherwise have insight into.

I'm not sure this second memoir by Stephanie Land (follow up to her best seller Maid) was necessary. I didn't find the descriptions of her social life and college experience interesting, and honestly, I don't understand many of the personal choices she made that seemed to make life harder for herself. However, I think it's important to read about the experiences of others even if you can't relate to them or disagree with them. The book does bring up important questions about the necessity of higher education and who has a right to it that causes the reader to think. I'm just not sure the topic needed an entire book.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to Atria Books and Stephanie Land as well.

Synopsis- “ Maid was a story about a housecleaner, but it was also a story about a woman with a dream. In Class, Land takes us with her as she finishes college and pursues her writing career. Facing barriers at every turn including a byzantine loan system, not having enough money for food, navigating the judgments of professors and fellow students who didn’t understand the demands of attending college while under the poverty line—Land finds a way to survive once again, finally graduating in her mid-thirties.

Class paints an intimate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood as it converges and often conflicts with personal desire and professional ambition. Who has the right to create art? Who has the right to go to college? And what kind of work is valued in our culture? In clear, candid, and moving prose, Class grapples with these questions, offering a searing indictment of America’s educational system and an inspiring testimony of a mother’s triumph against all odds.”

Review- I found it difficult, at first, to get into this book which I believe to be a me issue. I don’t typically read memoirs, but I’m happy I stuck with this one. Land shines a spotlight on poverty, single motherhood, abuse and the mental toll that is crippling for millions. Her descriptions of judgment she felt and faced because of her socioeconomic status with being a single mother, the anxiety and shame was palatable. Land does a tremendous job at having her voice heard throughout the novel, when she felt courage… I felt that too.

Stephanie Land is such a brilliant memoirist. I’ve lived an extremely fortunate, privileged life, and I think it’s especially important for people in my shoes to read stories like hers. I felt guilty during so many moments in this book, and that’s important. This sort of book should make you fell uncomfortable if you’ve had an easy life in many ways. I’ve never had to go hungry, owed money on student loans, or seriously worried about my financial standing. I’m so lucky and I did nothing to deserve this. Stephanie Land struggled for decades and did nothing to deserve her fate as well. And yet contrary to what some reviewers say, she does blame herself for her lot in life. There’s a particularly devastating scene in CLASS in which a pregnant Stephanie Land wants to go to a food kitchen after a rough morning with her kid, only to convince herself she’s unworthy. That broke me wide open. Stephanie Land is very hard on herself, and no one should feel the way she did that day.

College is often painted as a ticket to success and financial stability, but going to school is not easy for working class individuals who didn’t come from privilege like I did. The US sets so many people up for failure with its every man for himself mentality, and I appreciate Land for speaking out about this. I cannot even begin to fathom how hard her life has been. Her fatigue and lack of faith in the system and others flies off the pages in this book. But it wasn’t enough to stop her from pursuing writing, and I’m so glad she kept at it.

So much of this book made me sad. I cried of joy and sadness in equal parts - the bond with her older child brought me to tears, and the abuse she faced at the hands of multiple partners is heartbreakingly told throughout the memoir. People are quick to judge her for getting pregnant several times, even though she mentions the now well-known negative side effects of birth control. Stephanie Land had experienced some serious issues with BC over the years, and her accidental pregnancies were the result of gaps in contraception strength. Why should the onus be all on her not to get pregnant?

I was very taken by her first book MAID, which was a long time in the making, and though I’d love for her next book to be about her current husband Tim, who seems like a true gem, I know she unfortunately had even more bad experiences with partners after the birth of her second daughter, covered in this book. I don’t think we are going to hear about Land’s happy relationship for at least another book beyond CLASS, but that will make her happy ending, so to speak, that much more special when she finally shares that story in full.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free Advanced Reading Copy via NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.

One of the best books I've read in a long while!

This is a well written and thought provoking book about the struggles of a single working mom pursuing higher education. Unfortunately. I did not find it as compelling or memorable as her first memoir, Maid.

Big Sky Country is breathtakingly beautiful, with its bright summer days and cold winter nights. But living in Missoula, Montana—with its farmers markets, art scene, musical venues, and university—is challenging for a single mother without family support or a trustworthy vehicle to navigate the road to a better life.

Stephanie Land believes her way out of poverty is through education, and she is determined to get that college degree and become a self-sustaining writer. With staggering student loans and food stamps in her pocket, she depends on flexible but low-paying housecleaning jobs and roommates for childcare. Land manages to bargain for extras, like gymnastics classes during school breaks for her daughter, while subsisting at times on peanut butter herself. She even tackles child support and visitation issues with her abusive-but-absent ex. Still, the joys of learning and the precious moments of motherhood are ever-present even though it’s a hard life, with a few ice cream cones and dates in between.

Land’s experiences are not out of bounds for the rest of us. She grew up in a middle-class family, but a car accident and PTSD sidelined her. The value of education sustained her while hard work didn’t make ends meet.

Class continues Stephanie Land’s personal story, which started in her bestselling debut, Maid (2019). This time, however, she focuses on education instead of work. If you missed the first book (like me), you’ll be greedy to read Maid afterwards because Land is an exceptional writer with compelling, gritty, and accessible experiences.

Prerelease book provided by NetGalley and Atria/One Signal Publishers for review consideration.

I know that everyone has read and loved Stephanie Land’s MAID or watched the Netflix adaptation (and if you haven’t, you need to get on that) — and I’ve got good news! Land’s second memoir, CLASS, a continuation of what happens after MAID ends comes out on November 7 and is an enthralling adventure that continues @stepville’s story as she works towards higher education.

Land is an extraordinary writer and speaks to the challenges of poverty, single parenthood, and more in a way that resonates deeply. Do yourself a favor and add this this one to your TBR right now.

The forthcoming second memoir by Stephanie Land builds on her story told in Maid in a way that shines a light on the struggles that many people in our country face. While this book was mostly set in the mid to late 2010s, it really rings even more true now after a global pandemic and rising costs of living. All readers will walk away from Class with a greater sense of understanding and empathy.

As a fellow resident of Missoula, MT, I appreciated the way that Land describes the town and the challenges she faced here. It is always nice to have a real picture of all the places she writes about and know some of the people in her acknowledgements.

Finally, I really enjoy Land’s style of writing. She comes off as very real and relatable. I’d definitely recommend this book whether you’ve read Maid or not. Class stands on its own.

Class, like the author's first book, Maid, is a quick and engrossing read that examines the writer's experiences in poverty in the US, specifically while attending college and building an early career as a writer. She writes movingly about abortion, as well as about sharing custody with an abusive ex, and raising her small daughter. The moments with her daughter felt, to me, the strongest and most emotionally resonant; her daughter feels like a very real character, whereas I sometimes felt side characters felt a little too flat and one-dimensional in their being "bad" or a traitor. I'd read about Land and her children endlessly, though. There's so much heart.

Land, as she writes it, didn't experience abject poverty (government assistance, etc) until adulthood and was raised in a two-parent home where both worked and one achieved a master's degree. I think this context is important because I think experiencing poverty as a young person and as an adult can be different lenses--not a failure of the book, just something to chew on while reading... or at least something I chewed on, as I grew up in chronic poverty myself. I wasn't surprised by the ever-frustrating and fundamentally unfair guidelines and requirements for various assistance programs, for ex, but I grew up with that as my norm.

Many readers who find Class educational are, perhaps ironically, going to be people who didn't (or don't) live in poverty, and that's okay. It's still beneficial to read, and an important work, and one that will open eyes and humanize low-income people, and specifically, low-income single mothers, who face deep malignment. Again: It's a valuable book, and a smart and important one. But it's also a book about poverty written by someone with privilege, including whiteness, and having been raised not in poverty. There's a paragraph that acknowledges Land's white privilege, which is great, but I think it could have used more interrogation.

I think some plot points could have used a little more pressing down, too; much of the narrator's plight hinges on relocating to another state for college, but they don't realize how expensive out-of-state tuition will be until they get there, because... they didn't know about residency requirements? Or that you don't need to attend an undergraduate program in order to apply for an MFA later? Or that gov benefits vary based on the age of the folks living in the home? These details don't change the most important takeaways of the book (we need more support for families, less shame, etc), but they puzzled me. I just wanted to get a little closer and understand, not to blame, but to feel more intimacy with the protagonist and "get" why some of these issues seemed to come out of left field for the protagonist at the time.

Those things are not reasons not to read the book, nor to discount the writer's struggles, but they are factors that stayed with me as I read. This narrative is deeply personal and singular--it focuses so tightly on the writer's personal experiences, I began to crave some research, data, or even interviews, in the vain of Anne Helen Peterson's CAN'T EVEN. The critical feedback Land recounts receiving in a writing workshop is that a piece she submitted was "relentless," and I think that can be applied to this book, too; it's the feeling of one thing after another, and that works, imo, because that's the experience of poverty. But I can also see how weaving in other experiences/research/etc can provide some breathing room and context.

I think this book will do very well, and I think many readers will learn from it, and come away with a much deeper and nuanced understanding of how very hard it is to be poor in this country. That's a win. I'm simply not the ideal reader for this one, but it's a worthwhile read, especially if you're financially privileged.

I read this after watching Maid on Netflix. So I was comparing the two for the first part of the book. This book is about a single mom with a strong determination to set out and succeed at what she has always wanted to be. While doing all that she has to do it basically all on her own. This book reminded me that some have to work extra hard and have a lot of challenges just to succeed at their goals for their life.

Stephanie Land, writer of the highly acclaimed Maid writes her second novel Class about her dream to become a writer and her struggle to get there. Class is moving, honest and raw. Land describes the difficulties that a single mother faces when trying to make something of herself and her career by going to college even though she is still below the poverty line. Heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, Class is a moving memoir about one mother’s journey to becoming who she wants to be.

I just reviewed Class by Stephanie Land. #NetGalley
[NetGalley URL] I feel like this book was just as good as the first one "Maid". I would definitely recommend.

I didn't find this book nearly as compelling as Maid and had a hard time finishing it. If you're unfamiliar with the struggles of the working class, it could be a real eye-opener; if it's an all too familiar story to you, as it was for me, it could be a potentially triggering slog.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy that I received in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first read by Land, although I have heard all about her first memoir: Maid. This showed me a new perspective on poverty from a single mother, struggling to take care of her daughter, while working and pursuing a college education. She provided a first hand experience of what it’s like to be food insecure and how sometimes the “system” isn’t much help. There were some glimpses where I felt Land almost came across selfish (don’t hate!) when she would say things like, “I had no tolerance for friends I heavily relied on and trusted who let me down when I needed them most.” Overall it was funny at times, sad at times, and definitely opened my eyes to a class of poverty, which I think was the main intent.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Stephanie Land’s second work focuses on her living student life in English undergraduate studies, raising her daughter, falling in love, and going through a second pregnancy all while dealing with social inequality, economic troubles, and the aftereffects of trauma. These aspects of her life also collide with her desire to find her literary voice and her happiness.
Land writes her story from the perspective of a fiction novel, enabling readers to read about her journey as though it were real-time narrative. Her story of single parenthood is inspiring and in essence, Class is about confronting life’s challenges and reveling in the victories.

I LOVED reading Class and Stephanie's journey of the learnings and pitfalls of juggling college and work AND supporting her daughter. Her storytelling is flawless and so engaging that you always feel you know her and are part of her life somehow. I'm so glad and happy about the success 9f Maid, and I'm sure this book will resonate with readers just as much as Maid did!! Highly recommended!