I have a friend that is completely unaware poor people exist and she loves reading. Every year we do a book exchange for Christmas and this year I want to get her something that’ll maybe open her understanding a bit about the world around us.
For some background- she doesn’t understand the disadvantages of growing up poor/single parent household/etc. she grew up upper-middle class (mom didn’t need to work, cars in high school, yoga memberships, college fully paid for, didn’t have to work through college, had an allowance, etc.) I introduced her to another friend, we’ll call him B. B was telling a story about at 25 years old he had to sleep in front of a Waffle House parking lot one night because he couldn’t afford a greyhound ticket back to his home state and didn’t have enough money for a hotel and to get food. She flat out said “why didn’t you have money….I’ve always had money even at 25 I had 40k in my bank account”. She literally said her goals are harder than ours because hers require more money to do them…. she makes $20-35k more than we do a year and had a head start (we all grew up with one parent (single mom) in apartments or a hella rundown house.
She’s a very qualified young lady and deserves that kind of pay & it’s amazing she’s never experienced the financial deficit we did as kids and still are somewhat but she needs to get a grip. I’ve tried talking to her a million times and I figure maybe a good book would help her understand?? Anyone know any good fictional books with a message like this?? She usually just reads smut lol but she loves reading anything!
EDIT: So I quickly realized this is actually an impolite idea lol. A gift should be something special for that person not a “sneaky” way to call out someone and cover it up with “I want you to grow”. HOWEVER these book recs are amazing y’all!! I want to read all of these myself and I’m actually starting with Evicted by Matthew Desmond, I just got it tonight. THANK YOU all for your time here today! I really value you all.
Instead of making this a Christmas gift, we switch books back and forth all the time, so after I finish one from the comments I’ll send it her way lol and then we can hash out the book together and I think it would be a healthier segway into revisiting this topic with her :,) thanks again y’all!
by Jane3221