Nomadland

I picked this book up by chance and found its ability to put a human face on the struggle to get by, especially in the wake of the 2008 market crash, compelling. Before reading it I knew nothing about the migratory workforce, much of it composed of older Americans, who move around the country to work in warehouses and other kinds of seasonal employment.

I remember reading this book on a camping trip. It’s a story of the nomad movement, particularly focused on low-income adults who are forced to live in their cars, campers, and RVs.

I fell in love with the grit and resilience of the people who often face difficult circumstances but embrace the minimalism, connection to the natural world, and community they build on the road out in wild places in the desert Southwest.

You might be familiar with the movie that came out a few years ago, but I highly recommend the book, which I couldn’t put down.

This is the best book on the precarity facing American workers today—especially women. Bruder lived it, first in a tent, then in a van, following the itinerant workers of today, many of them older women. She embedded deeply, working in an Amazon warehouse and at the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota, mainstay jobs for these new itinerants. Two of the powerful women Bruder documented ended up appearing in the Oscar-winning film, Nomadland, which was based on the book.