Making It In The City Book Review
The full title is Making It in the City: A Girl’s Guide to Starting Life on Your Own in a Ridiculously Expensive City You Can’t Afford, by Adina Kalish Neufeld.
I found this book on the New Book bookcase in the front of the library. It’s a cute pink & brown cover. It reminds me of raspberry cream chocolates. I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but the premise is a girl’s guide to making it in urban meccas that are expensive. Her target cities are NYC, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC. I think I picked it up because I wish I had a book like this when I first moved to San Francisco many years ago. I also thought that it would have some good hints for DC, where I currently live.
This book isn’t the personal finance guide that I first thought it was. It was shevled right next to the loathesome Dave Barry book. The chapters are written as standalone articles you could read on your frugal 20-minute bus ride to and from work, or during the day when you eat your packed lunch on a park bench. She has excellent frugal tips for the internet savvy girl just graduated from college. The topics include how to pound the pavement to find an apartment, living with a roommate, cheap dates, healthcare, personal finance and more. She directs readers to the internet, especially sites like Craigslist, upon which I relied heavily in SF when it first stopped being a list that Craig wrote himself.
The author doles out practical and incredibly realistic advice on dealing with roommates, replying to family pressure to move home, bribing doormen for information on vacancies, approaching people at a networking event and making chit-chat, etc. There are anecdotes on successes interspersed in the chapters, that offer hope, but don’t take over the advice.
Some of the listings made me laugh, like going to the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse for second run films. I’ve served beer there and I agree, it’s a great place for an inexpensive dinner and movie. I learned new things about SF and DC so I think this book is pretty darn worthwhile as a graduation present for someone thinking about moving to any of these cities. It’s a good starting out guide, but it’s not the place to get a strong foundation on personal finance.
Camelot wrote:
I found the book at a local coffee shop and almost ripped the apartment tips out and took it with me. I live in NYC. It helped me so much and finally, wasn’t filled the BS that so many of those other so called advice books are filled with.
Posted on 05-Nov-07 at 11:16 am | Permalink