Workers or the Workplace

Participating in Summer Books & Bites Bingo? Try these books about workers and the workplace!

Updated June 30, 2026
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Friday black
Adjei-Brenyah, Nana Kwame
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An unbelievable debut, one that announces a new and necessary American voice."--New York Times Book Review The acclaimed debut collection from the author of Chain Gang All Stars; a piercingly raw and, at times, heartbreakingly satirical look at...
Tender is the flesh : a novel
Bazterrica, Agustina María
Paper Book
THE RUNAWAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL SENSATION Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans--though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries...
The personal assistant
Belle, Kimberly
Paper Book
USA TODAY bestselling author Kimberly Belle returns with a deeply addictive thriller exploring the dark side of the digital world when a mommy-blogger's assistant goes missing.   When Alex first began posting unscripted family moments and...
We had to remove this post
Bervoets, Hanna
Paper Book
WHAT IS "NORMAL"? WHAT IS "RIGHT"? AND WHO GETS TO DECIDE? To be a content moderator is to see humanity at its worst--but Kayleigh needs money. So she takes a job working for a social media platform whose name she isn't allowed to mention. Her task: review offensive videos...
Blood runs coal : the Yablonski murders and the battle for the United Mine Workers of America
Bradley, Mark A.
Paper Book
Finalist for the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime The shocking assassination that catalyzed groundbreaking reform in Big Coal. In the early hours of New Year's Eve 1969, in the small soft coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade...
Rednecks
Brown, Taylor
Paper Book
Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Fiction An NPR Best Book of 2024 An Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Southern Book of 2024 Co-winner of the 2024 Weatherford Award in Fiction Audie Award for Best Fiction A historical drama based on the...
The Circle : a novel
Eggers, Dave.
Paper Book
A bestselling dystopian novel that tackles surveillance, privacy and the frightening intrusions of technology in our lives--a "compulsively readable parable for the 21st century" (Vanity Fair).  When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most...
Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America
Ehrenreich, Barbara.
Paper Book
Our sharpest and most original social critic goes "undercover" as an unskilled worker to reveal the dark side of American prosperity. Millions of Americans work full time, year round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in...
American psycho : a novel
Ellis, Bret Easton.
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * In this modern classic, the acclaimed author of The Shards explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. "A seminal book." --The Washington Post ...
The devil is here in these hills : West Virginia's coal miners and their battle for freedom
Green, James R.
Paper Book
"The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I've ever read." --John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan On September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged in West...
Beaten down, worked up : the past, present, and future of American labor
Greenhouse, Steven
Paper Book
"A page-turning book that spans a century of worker strikes.... Engrossing, character-driven, panoramic." --The New York Times Book Review We live in an era of soaring corporate profits and anemic wage gains, one in which low-paid jobs and blighted blue-collar...
Villa Coco
Greer, Andrew Sean
Paper Book
Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills. A MOST...
By the book
Guillory, Jasmine
Paper Book
From New York Times best-selling author Jasmine Guillory comes the much-anticipated second book in the Meant to Be collection inspired by the classic fairy tale stories we all know and love, perfect for adult readers who crave contemporary, escapist rom-coms. ...
The warehouse : a novel
Hart, Rob (Fiction writer)
Paper Book
Cloud isn't just a place to work. It's a place to live. And when you're here, you'll never want to leave."A thrilling story of corporate espionage at the highest level . . . and a powerful cautionary tale about technology, runaway capitalism, and the nightmare...
Love, theoretically
Hazelwood, Ali
Paper Book
"The reigning queen of STEM romance."--The Washington Post An Indie Next and Library Reads Pick! Rival physicists collide in a vortex of academic feuds and fake dating shenanigans in this delightfully STEMinist romcom from the New York Times bestselling...
Horrorstor
Hendrix, Grady
Paper Book
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires comes a hilarious and terrifying haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting: a furniture superstore. Something strange is...
Song for a Hard-Hit People: A Memoir of Antiracist Solidarity from a Coal Miner's Daughter
Howard, Beth
An Appalachian organizer's excavation of the past, her own and her people's, to spark a collective fight for a future where we all have what we need and deserve In Song for a Hard-Hit People, Beth Howard shares her story of growing up in Appalachian Kentucky--the economic struggles,...
The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections : a novel
Jurczyk, Eva
Paper Book
"With its countless revelations about the dusty realms of rare books, a likable librarian sleuth who has just the right balance of compassion and wit, and a library setting that is teeming with secrets, The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections is a rare treat for readers. I loved this...
Fight like hell : the untold history of American labor
Kelly, Kim (Journalist)
Paper Book
A 2022 New Yorker Best Book of the Year A 2022 Esquire Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A 2022 BuzzFeed Book You'll Love A 2022 LitHub Favorite Book of the Year "Kelly unearths the stories of the people-farm...
Redeployment
Klay, Phil.
Paper Book
Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction · Winner of the John Leonard First Book Prize · Selected as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post Book World, Amazon...
Temporary
Leichter, Hilary
Paper Book
Eighteen boyfriends, twenty-three jobs, and one ghost who occasionally pops in to give advice: Temporary casts a hilarious and tender eye toward the struggle for happiness under late capitalism. In Temporary, a young woman's workplace is the size of the world. She...
Severance
Ma, Ling
Paper Book
Maybe it's the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma's offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance. "A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both...
The radium girls : the dark story of America's shining women
Moore, Kate (Writer and editor)
Paper Book
A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller! "The glowing ghosts of the radium girls haunt us still." --NPR Books  Discover the gripping and inspiring true story of The Radium Girls, a groundbreaking work by acclaimed author Kate Moore....
Convenience store woman
Murata, Sayaka
Paper Book
The English-language debut of an exciting young voice in international fiction, selling 660,000 copies in Japan alone, Convenience Store Woman is a bewitching portrayal of contemporary Japan through the eyes of a single woman who fits in to the rigidity of its work culture only too well...
On rotation : a novel
Obuobi, Shirlene
Paper Book
AS SEEN ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA! ONE OF TEEN VOGUE'S 25 BOOKS BY BLACK AUTHORS THEY CAN'T WAIT TO READ THIS YEAR ONE OF BETCHES' "22 BOOKS YOU NEED TO READ THIS YEAR" "As a fan of Grey's Anatomy (and Chicago Med!), I couldn't put down On Rotation, and you won't be able to,...
Mutiny : the rise and revolt of the college-educated working class
Scheiber, Noam
Paper Book
The story of a disillusioned generation that set out to reclaim its dignity and take on corporate America. In recent years, young college grads have faced an alarming reality: crushing debt, unemployment, and jobs below their qualifications. They are frustrated that the time...
The jungle
Sinclair, Upton
Paper Book
"Practically alone among the American writers of his generation, [Sinclair] put to the American public the fundamental questions raised by capitalism in such a way that they could not escape them." --Edmund Wilson When it was first published in 1906, The Jungle exposed the...
Romantic comedy : a novel
Sittenfeld, Curtis
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * A comedy writer thinks she's sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions--a "smart, sophisticated, and fun" (Oprah Daily) novel from the author of Eligible, Rodham, and Prep....
The grapes of wrath
Steinbeck, John
Paper Book
The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized--and sometimes outraged--millions of readers. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read A Penguin Classic First published in 1939...
American made : what happens to people when work disappears
Stockman, Farah
Paper Book
What happens when Americans lose their jobs?  In American Made, an illuminating story of ruin and reinvention, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Farah Stockman gives an up-close look at the profound role work plays in our sense of identity and belonging, as she follows...
The cleaner : a novel
Wells, Brandi
Paper Book
"So inappropriately fun to read." -Booklist, starred review "Welcome to the office building at night, an eerie ship helmed by one woman desperate for connection." --Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark Every night, she...
The animators : a novel
Whitaker, Kayla Rae
Paper Book
"A wildly original novel that pulses with heart and truth . . . That this powerful exploration of friendship, desire, ambition, and secrets manages to be ebullient, gripping, heartbreaking, and deeply deeply funny is a testament to Kayla Rae Whitaker's formidable gifts. I was so sorry to...
Returns and Exchanges
Whitaker, Kayla Rae
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A sweeping novel of one Kentucky family's rise and fall throughout the 1980s--a tragicomic tour de force about love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business, from the acclaimed author of The Animators "This...

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