Great non fiction by @stepville with so many similarities as a single mother that I often felt that I could’ve written it myself. Biggest difference is that I had a supportive family. This book is a story of survival, motherhood, the welfare system and the American working poor. In a country of plenty like the US, the working poor are marginalized for not being ambitious enough or being lazy. It is shocking to read how strangers treated Stephanie for using public assistance to help her provide for her young daughter. Equally shocking at the attitudes of others when Stephanie chose to dedicate resources to her own education in hopes that she could eventually become more financially independent. Overall, this book is a snapshot into the life of many in our country that want to work, want to get ahead and want better but have had bad luck and no support. Maid is ultimately a story of the American dream. Thanks to @hachettebooks @stepville and @netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I enjoyed reading this book. Stephanie Land is a very good writer. The book lagged about halfway through and I was ready for it to end.
There are just so many things you can say about cleaning a house and it seemed to get repetitive to me.
Overall, it was a good book.

I really don't love rating memoirs because I hate feeling like I am rating someone's experience. I find memoirs often are compelling stories that are clearly written by non-writers or that they are written well but I'm not in love with the experience. This book was the latter for me. Land is a good writer. I appreciate her thoughts and observations on her experience. But the story personally didn't draw me in as someone who has witnessed and heard many, many stories like this. It is worthy of being told? Yes. Was it my favorite perspective? No. I need to quote Roxane Gay's review here because she articulates exactly how I felt about this:

"Where I struggled with this book, was the lack of acknowledgment of white privilege and how that made the arc of her narrative possible, save for a cursory moment where the author acknowledges the challenges immigrants might face that she did not." - Roxane Gay

Some might say, yeah, millions of people might go through this but THEY didn't write a book about it but that does not acknowledge exactly what Gay says - white privilege makes this narrative even possible.

As someone who worked in social services for most of my life, I will say that I appreciated Land's description of having 7 different social service programs to stay afloat and how difficult and daunting it was to have to navigate those programs and systems. It is not easy to get public assistance and then to be shamed and judged for it is heartbreaking. Another thing Land does well is to personalize poverty to show it's not all people trying to scam the system (yes, they do exist) but shows poverty and assistance through the eyes of a single mom.

This was a fantastic, eye-opening read. Stephanie's transparency and gift with words provides a real glimpse into the failures of our systems for those living in practical power. Her resilience, love for her daughter and determination shines through on every page. This is a powerful book that everyone should read..

Land is a wonderful writer who takes you with her into a world of grit, determination and the will to get her life on track. Her deep commitment to her daughter, willingness to fight for herself keeps you rooting for her even as she struggles through hard physical labor, the vicious cycle of poverty and battling the constant paperwork to prove her 'need' for welfare and be considered a good mom. It was a privilege to read this memoir and see this invisible work brought to light.

While I struggled with some of the choices made by the author, this was an eye-opening read about a single mother struggling to get by. To me, the purpose of reading is to gain different perspectives and I felt I learned a lot from this memoir.

Loved how real and honest this book is. I want to give this book to every man that complains about food stamps and how people are abusing the system.

Personally I found the book to be quite a tedious read only because it seemed like it was going nowhere.

In Maid, you catch a glimpse of the messiness and vulnerability into other people’s lives. Land recounts the years she worked as a maid, juggling it all as a single parent and what she went through.

An eye-opening look at a different side of poverty. Despite being educated and, at points in her youth, ambitious, the author falls into poverty after leaving the emotionally abusive father of her child who is also her sole financial support. An unabashed look at how difficult, exhausting, and time-consuming it is to be poor, and at the outrageous expectations our current system puts on those struggling with poverty.

While caring for her infant daughter and working jobs in landscaping and housekeeping, Land must also fill out complicated forms and submit evidence to prove that she is poor enough to qualify for services, meet with social workers, and cope with the disdain of strangers who see her poverty as a kind of moral shortcoming. Through it all, she must manage to put gas in her car and get to and from work, and try to be a good mother, even though she is often hungry.

I grew up only a notch above this kind of poverty and remember well the stress that constant financial insecurity put on my parents and our family. I remember what it is like to watch my mother begging the repo man not to take our car from the driveway, because if he takes the car she cannot get to her night shift at the hospital. I remember what it is like to be a college student, taking a full load of classes n addition to doing a 20-hour-per-week work study job, with two dollars left to feed myself for the next three days, and rationing those two dollars out with one large bag of potato chips per day, my sole sustenance until I got paid again.

Later, as an adult, I lived in an upscale Northern California community where well-educated stay-at-home moms with exceptional child care providers, housecleaners, and complete financial stability often complained about how "busy" they were without any sense of irony. These were compassionate women who volunteered for social causes and gave a great deal to their community, but who often had blinders when it came to acknowledging the extreme benefit of their economic privilege. Distanced by two decades from my own poverty, I too have probably fallen into this trap at times. Maid is a reminder that while, for you, twenty dollars may be nothing, for someone else who works brutal hours in physically and mentally exhausting jobs, twenty dollars may be the difference between shelter and homelessness. Twenty dollars may mean they can feed their children enough calories that week to protect them from hunger. It is also a reminder that an enormous segment of the poor population works much harder than the rest of us, for far less pay.

Maid is a must-read for middle class and upper middle class Americans who believe that the poor are poor because they don't work hard enough. It takes far more time and back-breaking effort to live in poverty than it does to live in comfort. Maid shines a much-needed light on the harsh, day-to-day realities of poverty in America.

This book is raw, emotional and a must read. It’s a good look into how the system makes it hard to survive. So many privileged people assume that those seeking government assistance are lazy and living lavishly. This book shows you the truth regarding the struggle of a hardworking single mom. Additionally, I found this to be one of the most inspiring reads. I thoroughly enjoy nonfiction, so to say this book is in my top 10 is a large compliment. I loved this book. Highly recommend!

Stephanie Land is a single mother with no safety net....for financial support or emotional support. It’s an eye opening memoir of the cycle of government assistance, poverty, and always one incident away from homelessness. Most of us live with safety nets. 10 bad incidents can occur-a fender bender, being laid off, a child with a fever-and don’t even have to think too much about it. Stephanie writes a beautiful story of clawing her way out of a lonely existence. While she is grateful for government assistance, the cycle that one can easily get in is tremendous. I never realized how the programs are set up so that people cannot save for money to be able to pull themselves out of it. Just being able to have a savings account is such a peace of mind.
She is a maid for a cleaning service and throughout her story she describes the houses and people she cleans for. I thought it was a fantastic way to write of her experience.
I recommend this book!

In Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive, we meet Stephanie Land, a single mom to her daughter, Mia, trying to keep a roof over their heads and maintain some form of stable life. This is easier said than done as Stephanie is met with numerous challenges including little support from her family, Mia’s father, and other relationships, as well as multiple jobs with low paying wages that rarely allow those performing them to get ahead.

Maid is a mix between Stephanie’s own challenges and observations in her work, of the lives of the residents whose houses she cleaned. It wasn’t difficult to follow, I just wasn’t sure what direction this was headed in for awhile. It was almost as if there were 2 separate stories in this one book.

I felt anxious for Stephanie in her current circumstances - How would she be able to survive another financial blow? How could she only take $6 home from a cleaning job that her employing company charged $25 for? How could Mia be sick again, and why isn’t she getting any better? If Stephanie made $50 more a month, she could lose her government assisted funding so, what was the point of trying to get ahead? It was stressful to read about these numerous struggles. Yes, stressful for me, as a removed, third-party reader so I can’t imagine the stress Stephanie felt, living it.

It’s often easy to criticize a situation and note what you would do and how you would handle things differently, but in this case, I didn’t feel this way to the extent I have with other memoirs I’ve previously read. Stephanie made some questionable decisions but I appreciated that she acknowledged many them (for example, staying in a relationship too long because she enjoyed the idea of it, though she knew it was already “over”) rather than denying them, or seeking sympathy because of the consequences of those choices.

Maid is an interesting story and a reminder of the struggles many people face today. While it wasn’t my favorite memoir, overall, I enjoyed reading it. I admire the determination Stephanie maintained and hard work she put in, in order to create a better life for herself and for her daughter.

Maid -Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive -by Stephanie Land

5 stars for Maid by Stephanie Land. This book will give you some perspective, for sure. I found the read to be quite enjoyable - and informative, while still being interesting!!

Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley, who provided a digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The title of Stephanie Land’s memoir, <i>Maid: hard work, low pay, and a mother’s will to survive</i> pretty much says it all. This was a powerful and eye-opening look at what’s it’s like for a single parent, without resources or a support system, struggling to provide for their child. In this case, it is the struggle of the author as a young woman who becomes pregnant after a short relationship with a man who does not want to be a father. She details her efforts to navigate various government assistance programs and the accompanying rules and roadblocks as well as juggle the demands of motherhood and a household with low paying jobs and questionable child care for her toddler. She is very upfront about the emotional toll of the constant worry which included loneliness and despair.

Despite a bit of confusion which came primarily from sketchy details in her backstory (such as her relationship with family members and her two significant others, Jamie and Travis), it did not change the facts of her circumstances. <i>Maid</i> was both engaging and enlightening. It shares a very important message, albeit of just one individual, in building awareness as well as poking holes in stereotypes of people whose circumstances, in this case economic, differ from our own. The author’s work ethic and tenacity as well as her love for her daughter are undeniable. Fortunately, it also gives hope as she was able to persevere through these difficult years and move toward her dreams.


FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land is an authentic, reflective, and sobering look at a woman’s struggle to support herself and her daughter while living paycheck to paycheck and trying to navigate the difficult challenges, and ever-shrinking resources, of the American social safety net. Ms. Land’s direct language and descriptions of her experiences result in a memoir that is as thought-provoking as it is moving. For readers who enjoyed Educated by Tara Westover and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.

This is an eye-opening memoir that details the day to day struggles the author, Stephanie, and her young daughter, Mia, endure. The author has a very little support system, a very strained relationship with her family, and she heavily relies on the aid of public assistance. Initially, I found myself feeling annoyed with what I took to be a defeatist tone, but I soon developed an empathetic response toward the author. Her vulnerability and endurance throughout the pages became inspiring. The reader soon experiences the cyclical churn of public assistance, the judgement from strangers, and the daily struggle to be a good mother in such difficult living conditions all from Stephanie's vantage point. Not only did this book make me feel so grateful for my own path and opportunities, it also reminded me that we can still find joy in simplicity. I recommend this book if you are a fan of memoirs. It's an easy read, and while there are emotional twists and turns, there are also moments of tenderness and warmth.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Books for my ARC. I have given an honest and unbiased review in exchange.*

I really loved this memoir, but it was not at all what I expected. While throughout much of the book Land writes about her time working as a maid, this book was more of a heartbreaking and honest description of her life as a single mother on the fringes of poverty. She did a great job of conveying what it feels like to be a financially struggling single parent and she so accurately depicted the constant worry, fear, loneliness, guilt, shame, and exhaustion that goes with it and I related to this on such a personal level. I thought this book was beautifully written and her words brought back a flood of memories and emotion. This was a quick yet important read and I highly recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the NetGalley and Hatchette Books for providing an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to love this book. I wanted to be passionate for the struggles of Stephanie Land. But that was not the case. The positive- she's a good writer. She's talented and despite not enjoying her as a person I didn't want to quit reading her book! I hope she writes more.

That said, I found her entitled and her self-pity knew no bounds. While I appreciate that she did not want to find herself in this country's welfare system- let alone long term- her constant bad decisions kept her there (picking the wrong men, not saving when she did have money, etc). Her assumptions about people with employer-provided health insurance are so off base it's offensive (she thinks it's affordable!). The fact that she called herself a full time working mom when she worked 25 hours a week is an exaggeration. When she did work those 25 hours she complained that she only saw her child for 3 hours a day. Welcome to working parenthood! Constantly complaining about the commute- last I checked most people are not paid for the time it takes them to drive to work. Physically can't clean more than 6 hours a day? She was young! Fit enough to get pregnant and carry and baby and she made limitations on her own physical work. I just couldn't find it in myself, a bleeding liberal, to pity or respect Stephanie- she had enough of both for herself.

The tenacious memoir of the author’s struggle with poverty and single motherhood is told in Maid.

Stephanie has dreams of going to college and becoming a writer. Those dreams are shattered by an unexpected pregnancy and an abusive baby’s daddy. With experience only as a barista in an economic downturn, Stephanie is forced into a shelter, subsidized housing and minimum wage part-time work as a Maid.

Stephanie’s inspirational story is heartwarming. Despite overwhelming odds, she continues to move forward. I particularly liked her stories of the houses she cleaned especially the ones she nicknamed the porn house and the hoarder’s house. They provided some much needed comic relief.

If you need motivation to change your life, Maid’s inspirational story can help see how even seemingly insurmountable problems can be pushed through with hard work. I hope to see another book from Stephanie in the future. 4 stars!

Thanks to Hachette Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.