Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs

Average customer rating:

What are other people lives really like?

Should be required reading for High School Seniors

An Interesting Look at Jobs You'll Never Have

GiG: Americans Talk About Their Jobs

GiG: Americans Talk About Their Jobs

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs

Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0609807072
Release Date: 2001-08-21

Book Description

“Amazing . . . a gem of a book that uses only the strength of the human voice to tell an American story -- sometimes dark, always fascinating.”
-- USA Today

“The accounts are wonderfully revealing, with gritty and almost shockingly honest detail. For all their variety, they weave a cohesive, passion-filled story of what people bring to their work. It's an addictive read.”
-- Harvard Business Review's Best Business Books of 2000

“Keen, disturbing, and deeply felt . . . the stories in Gig deliver a more rousing political wallop than those in Working . . . remarkable and strangely moving.”
-- Susan Faludi, The Village Voice

“I love this book! It's surprising and entertaining and makes the world seem like a bigger and more interesting place. Gig manages to document everyday life and give pure narrative pleasure at the same time. One feels proud to live in the same country as the people in this book.”
-- Ira Glass, host of This American Life

“A fascinating compilation of what the American workforce has to say about itself.”
-- George Plimpton

“Eye-opening . . . more revealing than any theories a sociologist could concoct.”
-- The Industry Standard

“Entertaining, sobering, validating . . . Ordinary people discuss their jobs with extraordinary candor.”
-- US Weekly

“In the age of advanced spin, this book accomplishes a very rare thing. It actually lets workers speak for themselves. . . . The result makes for a fascinating read.”
-- Andrew Ross, director, American Studies Program at New York University

“Emotional and eye-opening, each compelling description offers insight about the job itself and, more important, an intimate view of a single human life.”
-- Austin Chronicle

“An engaging, humorous, revealing, and refreshingly human look at the bizarre, life-threatening, and delightfully humdrum exploits of everyone from sports heroes to sex workers.”
-- Douglas Rushkoff, author of Coercion, Ecstasy Club, and Media Virus

Customer Reviews:

What are other people lives really like?.......2007-10-03

The first-person format works well for me. It does a good job of presenting the huge variety of tasks people do for money, and the broad spectrum of emotional reactions people have to their jobs. It's not a life-changing book, but it is very interesting.

Should be required reading for High School Seniors.......2007-10-02

I liked this book a lot. It's just interesting, but it also is thought provoking for people wondering what career path they are going to take.

An Interesting Look at Jobs You'll Never Have.......2007-09-02

This book is basically a collection of stories told about certain jobs, told by people that work them. The individual stories are translated into a monologue and give you a sense of someone telling you how it is without a filter.

I found it pretty neat to read about certain aspects of jobs -- how people find gratification in what might otherwise be a demeaning job or the complexity and stress involved in different jobs. It kind of gives you an idea of what your bus driver or customer service rep may go through. In some cases, you wish for a followup to see if people attained the goals they mention in the book.

It's good to read in short bursts. All in all, the story of the American workplace can be a compelling one, but like all jobs it can be a little boring.

GiG: Americans Talk About Their Jobs.......2007-04-10

[Westfall - This is RACHEL LEW (using her sister's account)] I thought this book was interesting, helpful, and insightful. I liked the fact that each person has a job that different readers could relate to. The jobs described in the book are only a handful out of millions of job opportunities out there. The only thing I disliked about the book is that there aren't enough jobs being talked about. The editors should come up with a Gig 2.

GiG: Americans Talk About Their Jobs.......2007-04-10

This is a very intesting book. You will learn a lot about how people feel about their jobs.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium

Average customer rating:

Not on par with "Working"
You think you hate your job?
awesome, awesome read
Escapism that gives U Ideas!
Itýs Not Just an Adventure. Itýs a Job.

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium

Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Labor Policy | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Guides | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0609605887
Release Date: 2000-05-23

Amazon.com

A regular feature in the Web zine Word is a column called "Work," conceived as an updated homage to Studs Terkel's 1972 book, Working. A selection of these Word columns, augmented with some new material, has been collected under another monosyllabic title, Gig. The slightly more effusive subtitle describes precisely what the book offers: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium. Word conducted interviews with and accepted submissions from a wide range of people with an equally wide range of jobs. The editors have organized the entries into rough thematic groups such as Plants and Animals (lawn maintenance man, buffalo rancher, dog trainer), Bodies and Souls (palm reader, orthopedic surgeon, telephone psychic), and Artists and Entertainers (video game designer, Elvis Presley "interpreter," art mover).

This is a casual book of over 120 brief first-person narratives. It is not a survey or an anthropological study, but a window onto how other people spend their days and nights. A few of the people are famous (supermodel Heidi Klum, painter Julian Schnabel), but most are not, and the latter are in some ways more interesting, not least because we already hear so much about the former in the welter of entertainment coverage that already graces our TVs and newsstands. The joy of Gig lies in its conversational tone and intimate peeks into occupations that many would never even know existed (who knew you could be a "clutter consultant"?). So, if you've ever wanted to ask the human resources director of a slaughterhouse how her day was, Gig is for you. --J.R.

Book Description

For the last several years, the editors of Word, the pioneering Web magazine, have been sending interviewers -- nearly forty in all -- across America to talk to people about their jobs. They wanted to document reality, not to advance any overarching thesis or political agenda. Their sole position on work was that it's a fascinating topic and an elemental part of nearly everyone's life. They were certainly not disappointed with what they found; this wide-ranging survey of the American economy at the turn of the millennium is stunning, surprising, and always entertaining. It gives us an unflinching view of the fabric of this country from the point of view of the people who keep it all moving.

Recalling Studs Terkel's 1972 classic best-seller, Working, the more than 120 roughly textured monologues that make up Gig beautifully capture the voices of our fast-paced and diverse economy. The selections demonstrate how much our world has changed -- and stayed the same -- in the last three decades. If you think things have speeded up, become more complicated and more technological, you're right.

But people's attitudes about their jobs, their hopes and goals and disappointments, endure. Gig's soul isn't sociological -- it's emotional. The wholehearted diligence that people bring to their work is deeply, inexplicably moving. People speak in these pages of the constant and complex stresses nearly all of them confront on the job, but, nearly universally, they throw themselves without reservation into coping with them. Instead of resisting work, we seem to adapt to it. Some of us love our jobs, some of us don't, but almost all of us are not quite sure what we would do without one.

With all the hallmarks of another classic on this subject, Gig is a fabulous read, filled with indelible voices from coast to coast. After hearing them, you'll never again feel quite the same about how we work.

Customer Reviews:

Not on par with "Working".......2006-03-26

As other reviewers before me have noted, "Gig" is a fun book, but it's not an in-depth study of people's relationship to the jobs they do as was Studs Terkel's excellent "Working."

In "Gig," the interviews are a little shallow, and even the prostitute seems to like her job; had the word.com actually used oral history techniques, they would have interviewed the subjects over several sessions to get to the "meat" behind their stories. Of course everyone wants to be happy with their jobs. No one is going to confess from the get-go that his or her life is problematic.

Some of the interviews mirror our celebrity-saturated, status- conscious world of today. Heidi Klum and Debra Messing gush over their work, but their one-in-a-million careers do not necessarily mean anything to us "regular" folk. However, having the art mover interview appear right after the interview with the famous artist did provide a nice contrast.

"Gig" makes for a great and easy read. If you really want to understand the whole concept of work, however, I recommend "Working" and "American Dreams" by Studs Terkel.

You think you hate your job?.......2002-08-25

Then you should read this book. Gig is an unexpectedly engaging collection of vignettes of diverse American workers. It makes you think long and hard about your job...as well as all those jobs that someone has to do, but that no one really wants to. (What does the garbage man really think about when he's riding the back of the truck?) My favorite profile: man who runs a company that cleans up murder scenes and homes where people are simply found dead from natural causes.

awesome, awesome read.......2001-11-23

I only read one entry a night to drag it out. It's that good. Not only is there much hilarity, you actually learn insider info about how things work--excellent cocktail conversation. I must have told 20 people things I've read in here, and I"m only a third finished.

I've actually confirmed some of the comments with people who really have those jobs--and they're true!

Escapism that gives U Ideas!.......2001-09-30

This is by far the best book i've read in 2 years. The stories are perfectly edited, so they are either concisely funny or heart-wrenching or appalling (mostly funny). YOu never know what you're going to get when you start one of the 3-page nuggets.

Not only was this fabulous escapism during the recent Horrors, it gave me truly useful ideas of how to better use MY life in a way that is rewarding and of use to the planet!! And how to appreciate the value, the contributions, and/or the sheer hilarity of my many jobs, past and present.

Itýs Not Just an Adventure. Itýs a Job........2001-05-25

There are three fundamental questions about work.

* What do other people do?

* Who actually does that?

* Is their job better than mine?

As it happens, all three questions have the same answer: you'd be surprised. After collecting years of a column on "Work", the editors of Word.com can tell you exactly what Americans do all day, and those jobs are both more bizarre and more mundane than you might imagine. As _Gig_ demonstrates, Americans are working as florists, lemonade salesmen, clutter consultants, smokehouse pit cooks, paparazzi, Elvis Presley interpreters, buffalo ranchers, heavy metal roadies - and in most cases, loving it.

_Gig_ is fascinating for its variety alone. But more importantly, _Gig_ is inspiring. It's hard to read this book and not be impressed: impressed by Americans' creativity, by their insight, even by their dedication. A receptionist echoes the voices of the 120-plus interviewees when she says that "I take pride in my job. I really - it's my baby, you know? That front desk is my baby. I just take a lot of pride in what I do."

There's no one way to read _Gig_. You can turn to the oddities. (Yes, crime scene cleaner is a real job.) You can look for the parallels and contrasts. (Temp, preceded by CEO, preceded by slaughterhouse human resources director.) You can flip around for anecdotes. (The systems administrator's tale is riveting.) Or you can take heart in homespun philosophy. A steelworker says that "you work with people you like, and they like you because you do your work, and you're with them. You're together." A lawn maintenance man articulates his dream to "finish up school. And then maybe I'll try to get one of those jobs where you can wear khaki pants and relax."

At times the editors try too hard to keep the interviews raw; the constant punctuation of "[Laughs]" can wear thin. But overall _Gig_ is extraordinary: part entertainment, part oral history, part homage to the work of Studs Terkel. _Gig_'s editors pay explicit tribute to Terkel's 1972 _Working_, yet the collection will remind you too of _Hard Times_, his brilliant collection of interviews on the Great Depression. If _Gig_ is a documentary, then it's a documentary in which the central participant shapes the structure and uncovers the meaning. Not unlike a job.

Average customer rating:
GIG: American Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millennium
Marisa Bowe, Sabin Streeter, Daron Murphy, Rose Kernochan (Edited) John Bowe
Manufacturer: Crown Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P6I46Q

Customer Reviews:

sumamente iluminador, desafiante.......2007-05-25

En terminos financieros, de administración de los recursos económicos, pocos libros me han sido de tanto beneficio e iluminación.

El trabajo es una investigación, con esto, implicamos que es mucho más que la opinión de uno o dos autores bien intencionados, ni de teorias de cómo hacerse rico sin esfuerzo (autores que generalmente quieres hacer dinero vendiendonos su teoria y su libro). No, ellos escriben, basados en datos, encuestas, estadisticas, número, etc. En ocasiones este aspecto puede ser tedioso para algunos lectores; no obstante, es importante ya que establece cientificamente los puntos tratados.

Los millonarios, qué millonario, los millonarios norteamericanos -EEUU-; no de cualquier país. Los millonarios que han logrado, por lo menos, acumular un millón de dólares (parece redundante) y no necesariamente en la cuenta bancaria, sino entre su cuenta, sus bienes raices -como la casa que ya pagaron- y otros activos. Los millonarios que se hicieron millonarios durante su propia generación, no los millonarios que heredaron su millon o millones. Estos son los millonarios analizados en este libro -tampoco son los multimillonarios.

El libro es un trabajo excelente, ya que describe las caracteristicas de estas personas. No se enfoca en la riqueza como cosa, sino en quienes la han adquirido, sus hábitos de vida y de pensamiento, los porqués de su logro. El titulo: "Es el millonario de al lado", ya revela una de las conclusiones del trabajo, porque los verdaderos millonarios, generalmente son gente que vive como la mayoría, trabajan, la pasan cómodos, sí, pero no visten ropa super cara, ni automóbiles lujocísimos, ni otras cosas extravagantes... motivo por el cual, dicho sea de paso, es que son millonarios. Suelen ser personas que tienen una mini empresa de dos a cinco empleados -o algo similar-; no tienen tantísimos estudios (ya que quienes estudian mucho, gastan mucho dinero en sus estudios y comienzan a hacer el dinero tarde en la vida); y son gente SUMAMENTE ahorrativa, frugal, gente que no derrocha sino que procura INVERTIR... Por ejemplo, los autores presentan una ilustracion del punto al decir que el millonario puede regalarle un tapado de piel a su esposa como regalo de aniversario -ya que es una buena inversión y un toque emocional delicado-, pero que se enfurece si alguien olvidó la luz del baño encendida durante toda la noche.

En fin, usted mismo podrá comprobar la validez de este libro, pero desde ya le advierto, no promete nada parecido a "como hacerse millonario en una semana" ni nada semejante. Es un trabajo serio, una investigación, medianamente bien escritA y sumamente util, si se está dispuesto a aprender y, por sobre todo, a poner en practica.

Suerte.

Ah... para un enfoque cristiano del asunto, vea: cómo Llego A Fin De Mes?

Una exelente exposición del concepto de frugalidad.......2006-12-29

Este es una excelente investigación acerca de la forma en que viven los verdaderos millonarios. Los autores comentan que iniciaron esta investigación buscando a los millonarios donde todos esperamos encontrarlos: en los suburbios de grandes residencias. Grande es la sorpresa cuando no dicen que todos conocemos algún millonario y no sabemos que lo es, porque llevan una vida frugal.
Todo esto debidamente respaldado por tablas y datos que nos dan una buena idea de como ponernos en el camino a la riqueza.

Book Description

Today the goal of designing highly productive, sustainable agricultural production systems is at the forefront of agricultural research agendas around the world. The key to designing sustainable agricultural production technologies is in understanding their economic, environmental, and human health impacts. This volume presents a methodology designed to quantify such impacts and to represent them as tradeoffs. This tradeoff methodology is proposed as an approach to accomplish two essential elements in achieving agricultural sustainability. First, the tradeoffs method is a key to the design of successful interdisciplinary research projects for assessing sustainability of production systems. Second, the tradeoffs method provides a successful means of communicating research findings to policy makers and the public.

Economic, Environmental and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production.(Review) (book review): An article ... American Journal of Agricultural Economics

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Economic, Environmental and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production.(Review) (book review): An article ... American Journal of Agricultural Economics
George Frisvold
Manufacturer: American Agricultural Economics Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Natural Resources | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008J2OKM
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Journal of Agricultural Economics, published by American Agricultural Economics Association on August 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1478 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Economic, Environmental and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production.(Review) (book review)
Author: George Frisvold
Publication: American Journal of Agricultural Economics (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2000
Publisher: American Agricultural Economics Association
Volume: 82 Issue: 3 Page: 778

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Economic, Environmental, and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production

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Economic, Environmental, and Health Tradeoffs in Agriculture: Pesticides and the Sustainability of Andean Potato Production
Charles C. Crissman
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUOMNO

Book Description

Now in its seventh outstanding volume, Biotransformations has become established as a unique and important source for those involved in the discovery and development of new compounds. It broadly covers the scientific literature for the period 1987 to 1994.

The series provides a complete survey of the biotransformations, in vertebrates, of the following:

Pharmaceuticals; agrochemicals; food additives; environmental chemicals; industrial chemicals.

Biotransformations provides a ready way of accessing information on the known pathways for the biotransformation of structurally-related compounds. Key functional groups provide an index-related procedure for retrieving information on compounds of interest. A further index allows the retrieval of examples of specific biochemical reactions which may have wider application.

Book Description

The internationally renowned physicist Harald Fritzsch deftly explains the meaning and far-flung implications of the general theory of relativity and other mysteries of modern physics by presenting an imaginary conversation among Newton, Einstein, and a fictitious contemporary particle physicist named Adrian Haller -- the same device Fritzsch employed to great acclaim in his earlier book An Equation That Changed the World, which focused on the special theory of relativity.

Einstein's theory of gravitation, his general theory of relativity, touches on basic questions of our existence. Matter, according to Einstein, has no existence independent of space and time. It is even capable of bending the structure of space and changing the course of time -- it introduces a "curvature." Gravity emerges not as an actual physical force but as a consequence of space-time geometry. Even the apple that drops from the tree follows the curvature of time and space.

In this entertaining and involving account of relativity, Newton serves as the skeptic and asks the questions a modern reader might ask. Einstein himself does the explaining, while Haller explains the new developments that have occurred since the general theory was proposed. The result is an intellectual roller-coaster ride in which concepts that have entered the vernacular become clear for the first time: the Big Bang, "black holes," elementary particles, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

The Curvature Of Spacetime: Newton, Einstein, And Gravitation.......2007-01-10

Although this book is a general public level presentation in the fields of special and general relativity, it reads like a novel, presents many historically accurate facts about the lives of two famous individuals - Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton - and presents the material in an extraordinarily understandable manner.
A good comparison would be the popular work of Stephen Hawking, albeit with a little more math than most of Hawking's.
All in all, an enjoyable read and an easy way to increase one's comprehension of several difficult concepts.
John Brady

Conversations About Curvature.......2005-12-29

In general, I am not particularly fond of books that explain physical concepts in this format. Through coversations with Newton, Einstein, and a fictional physicist named Haller we are given the priviledge of learning the basics of newtonian gravity, the special and general relativity, the standard model, and cosmology.

Once I started reading the book I could not put it down. The real gems are found in passages that explain the concepts of the metric and spacetime cuvature. I also found the chapter on the origin of mass particularly interesting.

I rate this material five stars because the conversational style of Dr. Fritzsch's book worked eceptionally well in this case. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Lorentz Spacetimes of Constant Curvature - MSRI 05808-90

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Lorentz Spacetimes of Constant Curvature - MSRI 05808-90
G Mess
Manufacturer: Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KGIJRU

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The Curvature of Spacetime
Harald Fritzsch
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPGYGK

Book Description

A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN BROOKLYN is the poetic tale of author Frank Crocitto's childhood growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940's.

Reminiscent of Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales," the book poignantly captures the true spirit of the Christmas season reflected in the traditions of a large Italian-American family and the love and respect that binds it together.

Crocitto's story begins just prior to Christmas, as the anticipation begins to mount for the 'big day.' The holiday season officially commences as school lets out for the holiday. Snow begins to blanket the streets of Crocitto's 81st Street. The colorful house lights are brought out and hung with Grandpa. As Grandma mobilizes her tyrannical reign in the kitchen to prepare for the ultimate holiday meal, there are snowball fights with "the gang," and there is the search to find the perfect tree with Mom and Dad.

As the family traditions are carried on, the night before Christmas brings a life-changing encounter with Santa Claus. Christmas Day culminates in present-opening, church-going, raucous family bingo games, dancing in the parlor and the profound realization of just how fortunate one boy can be.

A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN BROOKLYN brings you into the family, and Crocitto's warmhearted Christmas memories of a sweeter, simpler time will resonate with readers of all ages.

Frank Crocitto's warm and delightful reading of A CHILD'S CHRISTMAS IN BROOKLYN brings this charming holiday memoir to life for all who listen.

Customer Reviews:

A Literary "Christmas Story".......2005-02-07

Reading this beautifully packaged book will give you a Proustian experience. Regardless of your age, you will be transported back to the world of your childhood, when the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was the longest of the year. You will lose that adult reality that the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas doesn't even seem as long as a three day weekend.

In my experience, only Calvin and Hobbes comic strips or Jean Sheperd's memoirs rival Frank Crocitto for being able to bottle the mind of a child from an adult perspective. Everyone who owns this book will probably reread it, possibly every Christmas season.

A wonderful memoir of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s.......2001-10-17

Frank Crocitto's A Child's Christmas In Brooklyn is a wonderful memoir of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s. What is particularly striking is not just the wonderful anecdotal stories but the way they are physically and visually laid out for the reader in a line-on-the-page format that is almost lyrically poetic in its presentation. A Child's Christmas In Brooklyn is marvelous reading for any Christmas season and a delight for anytime of the year -- especially for that "window in time" feeling taking us back on a nostalgic tour of Brooklyn through a child's eyes.

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