Items22The creator’s order
  1. 1Hammer head (2015)Hammer head (2015)Published Jan 1, 2015Nina MacLaughlin leaves a desk job and learns carpentry as the assistant to a woman who has spent years in the trade. Decisions about a tool or a measurement have consequences that a paragraph on a screen never did. Start here if you want to see what it feels like to become a beginner again at work.0
  2. 2Lab Girl (2016)Lab Girl (2016) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2016Hope Jahren follows her life as a scientist from her father’s classroom laboratory to the labs she runs with Bill, her longtime research partner. The plants give her work its questions, while jobs, equipment, and colleagues help decide what can get done. Read it for the part of learning science…0
  3. 3Educating Esmé (1999)Educating Esmé (1999)Published Jan 1, 1999Esmé Raji Codell records her first year teaching fifth grade in a Chicago public school. The journal lets readers see books and lesson ideas meet the personalities of a room she is still getting to know. Choose it if you want an account of belief in a job being tested in specific ways, often within…0
  4. 4The Shepherd's Life (2015)The Shepherd's Life (2015) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2015James Rebanks follows the shepherd’s year in the Lake District and the work he learned from his family. The seasons organize what has to be done, and the farm gives a reader a concrete sense of which decisions take years of seeing the same place. Read it for knowledge passed on through work…0
  5. 5The real doctor will see you shortly (2015)The real doctor will see you shortly (2015) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2015Matt McCarthy follows his first year as a doctor, when being responsible for patients meant learning how and when to ask more experienced people for help. The structure lets readers watch which kinds of confidence he develops and which ones he has to surrender. Choose it for a memoir about…0
  6. 6Life in parts (2016)Life in parts (2016) 8.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2016In A Life in Parts, Bryan Cranston organizes his memoir around the roles he played, from early jobs to Walter White. The structure gives you a way to follow what an actor learns across very different kinds of work. Start here if you want to hear how a performer thinks about building a role and what…0
  7. 7Working (2019)Working (2019) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2019Robert A. Caro looks back at learning to research, interview, and write as a newspaper reporter and biographer. The accounts of making sense of archives and getting people to describe power in practice show why some questions take a long time to answer. Choose this if you want to see how a writer…0
  8. 8Smoke gets in your eyes (2014)Smoke gets in your eyes (2014) 7.7/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2014Caitlin Doughty takes a job in a crematory and has to learn work that most families do not see. Everyday encounters with colleagues and grieving people give her a way to describe an industry that can be hard to ask about. Read it for the contrast between how an outsider imagines the job and what…0
  9. 9The Dirty Life (2010)The Dirty Life (2010) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2010Kristin Kimball gives the first year of Essex Farm room to take its full length on the page, from winter preparations to harvest. Working with draft horses is one of the concrete changes in how she spends a day. Pick it up if you want to know what living by the timing of a farm did to someone whose…0
  10. 10Working stiff (2014)Working stiff (2014) 7.2/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2014Judy Melinek and T. J. Mitchell recount Melinek’s training at the New York City medical examiner’s office. The account makes time for the people who teach her to document observations and for the responsibility of speaking to relatives. Read it for an account of how a specialist learns to be…0