"The woman who accidentally explained poverty to the nation." —The Huffington Post Entertainment Weekly BusinessWeek Women’s Health Magazine Good Housekeeping Kirkus Reviews Booklist , starred reviewHand to Mouth , [Tirado] uses her piercing insight, coupled with a confessional but unrepentant voice, to open a nuanced and deeply unsettling window into poverty in the U.S.” —Ms. Magazine Library Journal Hand to Mouth where Linda asks why we all can’t at least just agree that someone has to do the grunt work, and that there’s dignity in that, too. With this strong and unembarrassed account of her life on the edges of poverty Linda single-handedly re-takes some of the dignity that has been stripped from people without means in this singularly greed-dominated, most mean-spirited generation in America’s history. Honesty has its own power and this is a most honest book. Everyone who thinks things are just fine in this country should read it.” —Matt Taibbi, New York Times bestselling author
"Linda Tirado tells it like it is for tens of millions of America's low-wage workers—a group that's growing even as America's billionaires rake in ever more of the nation's total income and wealth. The top hedge-fund partner got $3.5 billion in 2013. That came to $1,750,000 an hour. Yet somehow we can't even raise the minimum wage. Read what Linda has to say and you'll understand it's not because Linda or other low-wage workers somehow deserve to be treated this way any more than the $3.5 billion hedge-fund deserves his pay. The game is rigged and we must un-rig it." —Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, national bestselling author of Aftershock Hand to Mouth should serve as a red flag to the politicians in Washington and the millionaires on Wall Street, this is why we the people are mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore.” —Cenk Uygur, Host of The Young Turks (www.tytnetwork.com)
“For those who have never had the experience, Tirado’s book allows you to hear, smell, taste, feel and visualize life as a minimum wage worker. It also leaves you with two inescapable conclusions. First, poverty can happen to anyone—even if you are born into the middle class. Second, you can educate people until you are blue in the face, but as long as there are jobs that require sweeping floors, flipping burgers, or waiting tables, we will never eliminate poverty until everyone who works is paid a living wage.” —Robert Creamer, Democracy Partners, author of Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win
“Hand to Mouth delivers the message to America’s poorest citizens, ‘You are not alone,’ and it represents a wake-up call to the world’s wealthiest individuals that income inequality has dangerous economic consequences for real people. It is an insightful, heart-wrenching, and at times laugh-out-loud look into how a third of our fellow Americans are living as poor people in an economy that only serves the top 1%. If you can afford to purchase this book, you will be peering into a world you likely have never known and definitely will never forget. Tirado’s words read like a conversation over coffee, but she delivers a devastating blow to our current economic assumptions equivalent to a modern day Oliver Twis t or The Jungle .” —Ryan Clayton, Executive Director, Wolf-PAC.com
The New York Times New York Times bestselling author of The Divide Entertainment Weekly Booklist (starred review)Bloomberg Businessweek
…if you go along with [Tirado], as you do with a political cartoonist or a stand-up comedian, you will learn a lot about life at the bottom of America. She puts her anger to good use…She is refreshingly infuriated. She acknowledges her faults, but she hones a constructive resentment to cut through her chronic depression, sharpen her wit and tune her X-ray vision into the disparities of power and money…It's rare to hear directly from the poor. Usually their voices are filtered through journalists or activists. So Tirado's raw clarity is startling.
The New York Times Book Review - David K. Shipler
★ 11/10/2014
Hand to Mouth delivers the message to America's poorest citizens, 'You are not alone,' and it represents a wake-up call to the world's wealthiest individuals that income inequality has dangerous economic consequences for real people. It is an insightful, heart-wrenching, and at times laugh-out-loud look into how a third of our fellow Americans are living as poor people in an economy that only serves the top 1%. If you can afford to purchase this book, you will be peering into a world you likely have never known and definitely will never forget. Tirado's words read like a conversation over coffee, but she delivers a devastating blow to our current economic assumptions equivalent to a modern day Oliver Twist or The Jungle.
Executive Director, Wolf-PAC.com OR Political Director, Americans Take Action - Robert Clayton
For those who have never had the experience, Tirado's book allows you to hear, smell, taste, feel and visualize life as a minimum wage worker. It also leaves you with two inescapable conclusions. First, poverty can happen to anyone — even if you are born into the middle class. Second, you can educate people until you are blue in the face, but as long as there are jobs that require sweeping floors, flipping burgers, or waiting tables, we will never eliminate poverty until everyone who works is paid a living wage.
Democracy Partners, author of Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win - Robert Creamer
When our economy and our democracy are both broken, the story Linda Tirado writes here is simply known as real life for millions of Americans who are going broke every day and feel ignored by our government. Every American deserves an equal seat at the table in the halls of power and a wage that can put food on the dinner table. Hand to Mouth should serve as a red flag to the politicians in Washington and the millionaires on Wall Street, this is why we the people are mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore.
Host of The Young Turks (www.tytnetwork.com) - Cenk Uygur
The great thing about writing is that it doesn't discriminate, with regard to race or gender or anything, class included. Being rich and advantaged doesn't mean you won't be cruelly exposed on paper as a pompous fraud. Conversely, if you write well, being broke and tired won't prevent your talent and mental clarity from shining through. Linda Tirado is just a terrific writer. There's a crucial passage in Hand to Mouth where Linda asks why we all can't at least just agree that someone has to do the grunt work, and that there's dignity in that, too. With this strong and unembarrassed account of her life on the edges of poverty Linda single-handedly re-takes some of the dignity that has been stripped from people without means in this singularly greed-dominated, most mean-spirited generation in America's history. Honesty has its own power and this is a most honest book. Everyone who thinks things are just fine in this country should read it.
New York Times bestselling author - Matt Taibbi
Linda Tirado tells it like it is for tens of millions of America's low-wage workers—a group that's growing even as America's billionaires rake in ever more of the nation's total income and wealth. The top hedge-fund partner got $3.5 billion in 2013. That came to $1,750,000 an hour. Yet somehow we can't even raise the minimum wage. Read what Linda has to say and you'll understand it's not because Linda or other low-wage workers somehow deserve to be treated this way any more than the $3.5 billion hedge-fund deserves his pay. The game is rigged and we must un-rig it.
former U.S. Secretary of Labor, national bestselling author of Aftershock - Robert B. Reich
The title of this short audiobook refers to what it’s like being part of the working poor in America. It’s not fun. Other people avoid you, or they expect you to act in certain ways, and when you don’t, they make unkind assumptions. Linda Tirado reads her own book, and her performance will require listeners to adjust their expectations. She begins by reading 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, zooming through her life which, we learn, is jam-packed and hurried. After a while, she settles into a manageable pace but zips past words and swallows others. Then her tone becomes preachy and angry. When all is said and done, her approach works, but, by the end of the book, the listener is as tired as she is. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
2014-08-06
