Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich

Ehrenreich, Barbara (2001 ). Nickel and dimed: On (not) getting by in America .  New York: Metropolitan Books.

ISBN: 0805063889

Summary:  In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich temporarily disowns her Ph.D. and comfortable multi-room home to investigate life at poverty-level wages. Taking jobs whose mental and physical effort is often underrated, such as waiting tables, cleaning houses and hotel rooms, working at Wal-Mart, and assisting at a nursing home, Ehrenreich must find the cheapest accommodations and meals available in order to survive at six or seven dollars an hour. 

Additional Comments:  Written partly in response to welfare reform, her social experiment is a test to find out just how livable minimum wage is without government assistance.  It might come as no surprise that she is barely able to make ends meet.  Starting in Florida, she moves to several locations around America to compare her findings across geographic regions, yet surviving on minimum wage (even with two jobs) was nearly impossible, not to mention damaging to her health and spirit. Nickel and Dimed is essential reading for privileged high school students who will never be forced to scrub someone else's toilet. They will gain insight and empathy for the hard-working lower-class trying to make an honest living by jobs that the upper-class refuse.

Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser

Schlosser, Eric (2002). Fast Food Nation: the dark side of the all-American meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.  
0395977894

Summary: Eric Schlosser's 2002 New York Times bestseller, Fast Food Nation reveals that a seemingly trivial decision to buy a quick hamburger has hidden costs that are uncovered during Schlosser's disturbing investigation. Schlosser chronicles the rapid spread of fast food chains and the corresponding rise of agribusinesses as the food industry has had to accommodate the massive demand for beef and chicken as more and more franchises open across America and abroad.

Additional Comments:  Be forewarned that you may never again set foot in a McDonald's or Taco Bell after reading this provocative investigation of the fast food industry.  Read this book, and you will forever remember factory workers with missing fingers, factory workers who are forced to work overtime in dangerous conditions, and the gory butchering of cattle and chicken as they are slaughtered.  A moving example of "investigative journalism" that reveals the ways in which chain, fast food restaurants are destructive to employees, to public health, and to animal welfare.

Feed by M.T. Anderson

Anderson, M.T. (2004). Feed.  Cambridge: Candlewick Press.

Summary:  Set in a fantastical and futuristic version of America, Titus is a teenager who, like the majority of Americans, has a "feed" transmitter in his brain that broadcasts ads, shows, and music, and also networks with other "feeds" so that people can im chat around the clock.  On a trip to the Moon, a stranger hacks his "feed", which puts him in the hospital, exposes him to life without the "feed", and introduces him to Violet, a girl who tries to resist the "feed".

Additional Comments:  A scary vision of corporate America completely taking over every aspect of individual life and personal expression.  In the spirit of Brave New World, 1984, and The Giver, Feed presents an alternate reality and dystopia in which the general public doesn't question the corporate power structure and the mysterious lesions that are breaking out on everyone.