Summer Reading – Career Memoirs!

 If information interviews are aimed at helping you learn whether or not a certain career or role is right for you, memoirs about careers might be their friendly cousin.  No need to schedule a meeting or prepare your targeted questions – just an enjoyable way to consider possibilities.

These books all currently exceed a 3.5 rating on Good Reads.

 Acting:

• Year of the King: An Actor's Diary and Sketchbook by Antony Sher
• As the Matzo Ball Turns by Jozef Rothstein 

Ambulance Worker:

• Blood, Sweat and Tea by Tom Reynolds

Boat Captain:

• The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain's Journey by Linda Greenlaw

Carpenter:

• Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin

Cook:

• Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany by Bill Buford
• Blood, Bones, and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton

Crime scene cleanup:

• Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home by Gil Reavill

Emergency Dispatcher:

• Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat by Caroline Burau

Fire Lookout:

• Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors

Firefighter:

• Report from Engine Co. 82 by Dennis Smith 

Food Critic:

• Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl

Freight Transportation:

• Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee

Hotel Hospitality:

• Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky

Industrial Assembly:

• Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line by Ben Hamper

Medical Examiner:

• Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Dr. Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell

Mortician:

• Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

Nanny:

• A Spoonful of Sugar: A Nanny's Story by Brenda Ashford

Nurse:

• Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between by Theresa Brown 

Oyster Farming:

• Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm by Erin Byers Murray

Park Ranger:

• Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

Restaurant Owner:

• Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg

 Teacher:

• Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
• Somebody Else's Kids by Torey L. Hayden