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This Is All I Got
- A New Mother's Search for Home
- Narrated by: Lauren Sandler
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's Summary
A New York Times Notable Book
From an award-winning journalist, a poignant and gripping immersion in the life of a young, homeless single mother amid her quest to find stability and shelter in the richest city in America
Long-Listed for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award
“A lesson for us all, and a testament to the bigness of the small story, to the power of intimate narratives to speak to something much larger.” (The New York Times)
Camila is 22 years old and a new mother. She has no family to rely on, no partner, and no home. Despite her intelligence and determination, the odds are firmly stacked against her. In this extraordinary work of literary reportage, Lauren Sandler chronicles a year in Camila’s life - from the birth of her son to his first birthday - as she navigates the labyrinth of poverty and homelessness in New York City. In her attempts to secure a safe place to raise her son and find a measure of freedom in her life, Camila copes with dashed dreams, failed relationships, the desolation of abandonment, and miles of red tape with grit, humor, and uncanny resilience.
Every day, more than 45 million Americans attempt to survive below the poverty line. Every night, nearly 60,000 people sleep in New York City-run shelters, 40 percent of them children. In This Is All I Got, Sandler brings this deeply personal issue to life, vividly depicting one woman's hope and despair and her steadfast determination to change her life despite the myriad setbacks she encounters.
This Is All I Got is a rare feat of reporting and a dramatic story of survival. Sandler’s candid and revealing account also exposes the murky boundaries between a journalist and her subject when it becomes impossible to remain a dispassionate observer. She has crafted a powerful and unforgettable indictment of a system that is often indifferent to the needs of those it serves, and that sometimes seems designed to fail.
Praise for This Is All I Got
“A rich, sociologically valuable work that’s more gripping, and more devastating, than fiction.” (Booklist)
“Vivid, heartbreaking.... Readers will be moved by this harrowing and impassioned call for change.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A closely observed chronicle...Sandler displays her journalistic talent by unerringly presenting this dire situation.... An impressive blend of dispassionate reporting, pungent condemnation of public welfare, and gritty humanity.” (Kirkus Reviews)
Critic Reviews
"Too few journalists put the time in to allow the working poor and homeless to be heard, speaking clearly about their pitfalls and occasional triumphs, in their own words. Sandler has achieved this with skill." (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America)
"Meticulously crafted and brilliantly reported, Lauren Sandler’s This Is All I Got exposes the Kafkaesque cruelties of America’s disintegrating social safety net. It is a gut punch of a narrative, an electrifying summons to policy action, and an instant classic." (Dan-el Padilla Peralta, associate professor of classics, Princeton, and author of Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League)
More from the same
Author
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What listeners say about This Is All I Got
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- laura wojtowicz
- 01-26-23
Intriguing story
Going through a year with this author was very interesting and very frustrating. Most of us know little about the system, especially in NYC or what single moms who are trying to better themselves go through.
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Performance
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- Roben Torosyan
- 12-18-20
Not follow the money; follow the people
This is an unbelievable story. No one should have to go through what Camilla goes through. I found myself taking up with every episode and found the entire journey really compelling
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-28-20
look at, to look after
Lauren Sandler is a remarkable writer and her courage in confronting the harsh reality of poverty-even harsher through the lens of of a single mother-is a great service to anyone thinking deeply about issues of poverty, child care, education, housing justice, family support, and community building. I hope everyone reading/listening to this book comes out of it asking some version of the question: What is mine to do?
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Performance
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- rosalie b. powers
- 08-18-20
Who cares? No one evidently.
Heartbreaking in its specificity and cruel delineation of a bureaucratic nightmare that crushes the poor while pandering to the greedy excesses of the .01% that feeds on the labor of those beneath them. A tale of uncaring societal rot that predicts the demise of our founders American dream of liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness for all. A sad, sad tale told well.
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- craig
- 08-11-20
sad but true and complex
A great job showing the sadness and complexity of our welfare system in the age of inequality
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- Erika
- 08-10-20
Truly a wonderful book
Should be required reading for all those who say, "They just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps." Extremely well-written and articulated. Thank you, Lauren, for all your fine reporting and for directly stating what needs to be understood about poverty and homelessness in the US. I hope someday you can update us on Camila's progress.
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- D. Ward
- 07-08-20
vote!
heartbreaking and eye opening! Got to fix the system and stop this tragic waste of human potential
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- Palmer
- 05-26-20
Great
This story is one of the millions of stories that everyday people need to hear. I hope the readers really understand the heartbreak of navigating the welfare system while dealing with everyday pressure and heartache. This is why people protest the current welfare system because reality is worse than fiction.
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- Home away from home
- 05-23-20
The Story We Need To Hear
This book is simply of dire importance and a brilliant feat. We need to all read this, especially now. Hats off.
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- avidreader
- 05-22-20
Illuminating a big problem with personal story
This book is so gripping, minutely documented, and a great example of how a personal story can illuminate a problem better than any statistic, no matter how shocking. Lauren Sandler tells the main character's story with integrity, compassion, love, and truth. Thank you for your work, Lauren, to tell Camilla's story and show just how broken our social systems are and why they must change.
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Story
Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages - and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here - more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else.
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Good Premise, but-
- By Blissfully Booked on 05-14-19
By: Joanne Ramos
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Pregnant Girl
- A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families
- By: Nicole Lynn Lewis
- Narrated by: Nicky Sunshine
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An activist calls for better support of young families so they can thrive and reflects on her experiences as a Black mother and college student fighting for opportunities for herself and her child. Pregnant Girl presents the possibility of a different future for young mothers - one of success and stability - in the midst of the dismal statistics that dominate the national conversation.
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Political
- By Amazon Customer on 01-16-23
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Friends and Strangers
- A Novel
- By: J. Courtney Sullivan
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly 20 years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit.
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thought provoking story
- By Barbara S on 07-26-20
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Three Girls from Bronzeville
- A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood
- By: Dawn Turner
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They were three Black girls. Dawn, tall and studious; her sister, Kim, younger by three years and headstrong as they come; and her best friend, Debra, already prom-queen pretty by third grade. They bonded—fervently and intensely in that unique way of little girls—as they roamed the concrete landscape of Bronzeville, a historic neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, the destination of hundreds of thousands of Black folks who fled the ravages of the Jim Crow South.
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Captivating, in a Every-Day-Life Way
- By Blondae on 09-23-21
By: Dawn Turner
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Invisible Child
- Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
- By: Andrea Elliott
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care.
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Narration is completely over the top
- By Heather on 10-14-21
By: Andrea Elliott
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Speaking of Summer
- By: Kalisha Buckhanon
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer's twin sister Summer walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again - the door to the roof is locked, and no footprints are found. Faced with authorities indifferent to another missing woman, Autumn must pursue answers on her own, all while grieving her mother's recent death. With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. She falls into an affair with Summer's boyfriend to cope with the disappearance of a woman they both loved.
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Too long
- By Ambee on 02-26-23
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The Farm
- A Novel
- By: Joanne Ramos
- Narrated by: Fran de Leon
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity: organic meals, personal fitness trainers, daily massages - and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here - more than you’ve ever dreamed of. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else.
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Good Premise, but-
- By Blissfully Booked on 05-14-19
By: Joanne Ramos
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The Awkward Black Man
- Stories
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories - heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved, and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals.
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Don't just listen, think.
- By Alonzo on 04-13-21
By: Walter Mosley
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The Imperfects
- By: Amy Meyerson
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Millers are far from perfect. Estranged siblings Beck, Ashley, and Jake find themselves under one roof for the first time in years, forced to confront old resentments and betrayals, when their mysterious, eccentric matriarch, Helen, passes away. But their lives are about to change when they find a secret inheritance hidden among her possessions - the Florentine Diamond, a 137-carat yellow gemstone that went missing from the Austrian Empire a century ago.
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Good read!
- By Linda Ottey on 07-20-21
By: Amy Meyerson
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American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
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I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
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Here We Are
- American Dreams, American Nightmares (A Memoir)
- By: Aarti Namdev Shahani
- Narrated by: Aarti Namdev Shahani
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Shahanis came to Queens - from India, by way of Casablanca - in the 1980s. They were undocumented for a few unsteady years, and then, with the arrival of their green cards, they thought they'd made it. This is the story of how they did, and didn't; the unforeseen obstacles that propelled them into years of disillusionment and heartbreak; and the strength of a family determined to stay together.
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Here We Are Review
- By Yolonda Simon on 10-04-19
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Malaya
- Essays on Freedom
- By: Cinelle Barnes
- Narrated by: Cinelle Barnes
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Out of a harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes emerged triumphant. But as an undocumented teenager living in New York, her journey of self-discovery was just beginning. Because she couldn’t get a driver’s license or file taxes, Cinelle worked as a cleaning lady and a nanny and took other odd jobs - and learned to look over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t get caught.
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Captivating and powerful
- By Megan on 12-18-19
By: Cinelle Barnes
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Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
- A Novel
- By: Cho Nam-Joo, Jamie Chang - translator
- Narrated by: Kathleen Choe
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A 30-something-year-old “millennial everywoman”, she has recently left her white-collar desk job - in order to care for her newborn daughter full-time - as so many Korean women are expected to do. But she quickly begins to exhibit strange symptoms that alarm her husband, parents, and in-laws: Jiyoung impersonates the voices of other women - alive and even dead, both known and unknown to her.
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This is not a novel.
- By Anonymous User