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Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder
2 reviews
ashwaar's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
Nomadland is another fascinating, niche, non-fiction book I read recently filled with interesting takes on society's newest, downwardly mobile group. If you’ve watched the film of the same name, directed by Chloe Zhao, you know what this book is about. It looks at the new nomads of the 21st century, who, struggling with rising debt, healthcare costs and increasingly unstable livelihoods, are leaving the white-picket-fence traditional lifestyle for a life on the road in vans, RVs and even cars.
This book was a wonderful balance between studying the increasingly difficult opportunity of having a reliable middle-class lifestyle and first-person experiences of living a life on the road alongside these communities. Bruder interviews and spends time with several people living on the road in the US in various vehicles, following them to meet-ups with fellow nomads or working as part of Amazon’s Camperforce programme or on campsites in national parks.
Many of these nomads were previously middle-class with stable jobs and good incomes, but when ill fortune arrived in the form of a recession or the 2008 crash, they found themselves saddled with debt, rent, and mortgages they couldn't pay off. The book looks are what drives people to live on the road full-time, the ups and downs of this nomadic lifestyle and the toll of constantly being on the move, working for pennies doing hard manual labour.
I thought this book was fantastic and I learnt so much from it. With the rise in popularity of van life on Instagram and social media, we forget that so many people haven’t necessarily chosen this lifestyle for the aesthetic. They’re still working whatever they can to survive. Although many of these nomads are older people who have had a hard time, they still find joy and peace in living this way, and I think that's really beautiful. One quote from the book that sums up this topic really well is: ‘In the widening gap between credits and debits hangs a question: What parts of this life are you willing to give up, so you can keep on living?’
Rating: 4.25/5
Recommendations: The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
This book was a wonderful balance between studying the increasingly difficult opportunity of having a reliable middle-class lifestyle and first-person experiences of living a life on the road alongside these communities. Bruder interviews and spends time with several people living on the road in the US in various vehicles, following them to meet-ups with fellow nomads or working as part of Amazon’s Camperforce programme or on campsites in national parks.
Many of these nomads were previously middle-class with stable jobs and good incomes, but when ill fortune arrived in the form of a recession or the 2008 crash, they found themselves saddled with debt, rent, and mortgages they couldn't pay off. The book looks are what drives people to live on the road full-time, the ups and downs of this nomadic lifestyle and the toll of constantly being on the move, working for pennies doing hard manual labour.
I thought this book was fantastic and I learnt so much from it. With the rise in popularity of van life on Instagram and social media, we forget that so many people haven’t necessarily chosen this lifestyle for the aesthetic. They’re still working whatever they can to survive. Although many of these nomads are older people who have had a hard time, they still find joy and peace in living this way, and I think that's really beautiful. One quote from the book that sums up this topic really well is: ‘In the widening gap between credits and debits hangs a question: What parts of this life are you willing to give up, so you can keep on living?’
Rating: 4.25/5
Recommendations: The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Ableism, Racism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Death
mandi4886's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Suicide, Racism, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Sexism, and Cursing
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Medical content, Police brutality, Slavery, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Drug use, and Chronic illness
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