Book Review: Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work

Book Review: Water Cooler Diaries: Women Across America Share Their Day at Work
Edited by Joni B. Cole and B.K. Rakhra

‘Water Cooler Diaries’ is a collection of ‘day in the life’ diaries all written on March 27th, 2007 by different women. The editors’ goal: “was to gather a true diversity of women’s working lives by reaching across experiential, socio-economic, cultural, and geographical boundaries.” I’d say they achieved that goal.

The 35 diaries are broken down into times of day and cover a 24 hour span of time, making it an easy book to read on the go. They have all sorts of interesting people ranging from race car drivers to literary agents (Yes! They have Tina Wexler of ICM) to trauma surgeons to office workers to boxing promoters to Avon ladies to…you get the idea. Some themes I noticed: a lot of the women didn’t eat properly. They either ate not enough, went for junk, ate on the go, ate really late or even <gasp!> not at all! Whether it is connected or not, many women also seemed to be on a diet, a member of Curves or Weight Watchers and/or made some unhappy comments about their body. Plus there seemed to be a lot of Red Bull being consumed! Yikes! And seeing as it was a day that American Idol was aired, I’d say probably 1/4 of the readers watched American Idol. I’ve never done any of the above, so it was an interesting insight into the average American woman.

From a writer’s standpoint, the book is a goldmine of sneak peaks into different occupations, backgrounds, mindsets and voices. Although the diaries only cover one day, you do get a sense of who the person is and what they normally accomplish/deal with in a typical workday. As a bonus, there are more diary excerpts on the site www.my247life.com.

Enjoy!

Want to pick it up?
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