Welcome to Litsy!

Help Wanted landed on last years‘ (this year?? 2025) #ToB long list. I read it earlier this year and I was not impressed. Follows a group of employees at a big box store teaming up and forming alliances to help corporate decide who should get promoted to manager. The characters were interchangeable, all just there to make a point about low-wage jobs and how employees are set up to fail.
Anyhoo, I‘m excited to get started on the new 2026 list.

Great subject, great setting. The people of Movement (the ones who offload and unpack boxes) in a big store will get a new manager. Anyone has a say before Corporate decides and we learn a lot about the team members before they have their interview.
It took a bit too long to pickup pace but once it did it was a good read. Thanks for the recommendation Helen! #ToB25longlist

I didn‘t read the blurb properly on this #ToB longlister and was expecting a wacky, unrealistic, maybe horror-based, attempt by a logistics team at Town Square (aka Walmart)to get their disliked manager promoted away from them.

Instead, the author plays it ‘straight‘, which is a good thing - I really felt I got to know and care for the characters and you really see the impact of corporate decisions on the economically disadvantaged.

Yet another book from the #TOBLonglist that I think should have been on the shortlist.

This was my first read of the year, and I loved it! It seemed so true to me- working a job with very little power doing what you can to create any change at all. Highly recommend.

Adelle Waldman is so very clever. She lures the reader in with a story that seems to be a bit of a madcap workplace comedy in a big box store. And once she has you hooked, she reveals that it‘s actually a critique of modern American capitalism and how badly it hurts people and communities. This is fantastic. #TOBlonglist

This book was like every job I‘ve ever had in which we had a. A common enemy (boss), B. A plot to band together to promote/fire someone…seemingly like we had control but not really, and C. a bonding of unlikely colleagues who talk deeply at work then just fade away after that job ends. Loved it.

It was billed to be funny like the tv show Superstore but it made me feel more sad than I wanted. I did skim the ending to see what happened but just couldn't get past how depressing it seemed. Also there was a weird sort of POV shifting with the narration.

Taking advantage of a brief respite from the heat to do some porch/sideyard reading. Rolo approves.

A fellow Rioter compared this book to Superstore, and it's an appropriate comp for this compelling read. A group of warehouse logistics employees (now referred to as "movement") scheme when they learn highers ups are interviewing them to potentially promote their incompetent manager. The insights into their circumstances and reasons for wanting to see her promoted are intricately untagled. Slice of life corporate capitalism, if that's a thing.

As someone who has been a retail slave of the big box discount stores, this fictionalized novel of struggling employees dealing with corporate greed, wage survival, difficult managers, and a changing consumer base will trigger and connect with readers. The similarities between the TV show Superstore is uncanny, but this is a more realistic and sad portrayal of the poverty and working class who rely heavily on these companies.