In 1998, New York Times journalist Barbara Ehrenreich entered the American workforce to take a realistic look at how lower-class America gets by.

In "Nickel and Dimed," Ehrenreich plows through work as a waitress, a hotel maid, a nursing home aide and a Wal-Mart sales clerk while simultaneously trying to find affordable rent in Florida, Maine and Michigan.

Ehrenreich goes about this investigative task as fairly as possible. Her resume, which includes holding a doctorate in biology and a job as an NYT reporter, is replaced with one of an unskilled divorced woman lacking experience.

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