The Girl's Guide to Homelessness

In The Girl's Guide to Homelessness, Brianna Karp documents her experience with homelessness after getting laid off from her full-time, seemingly stable job in 2008. She struggles to find a new job and ends up homeless, living in her deceased father's RV in a Walmart parking lot. Kind of as a joke, she starts a blog to document her experience.  It's through her blog and Twitter account that she begins a romantic relationship with a fellow advocate for the homeless. 

There are some relatively cool things that happen to Karp as a result of her blog and activism within the homeless community. I think these are some of the finer points of the book. I was somewhat disappointed that she focused so heavily on her blossoming relationship. I realize this is an unfair complaint given the integral role the romance plays in Karp's story. The twists and turns at the end of the book, as they pertain to her relationship, are horrifying yet interesting and suspenseful. At the same time, I wanted to hear more about how she survived as a young homeless woman in Southern California. I suppose I was hoping for a more literal translation of the title: "The Girl's Guide to Homelessness."

Aside from this, Karp makes some REALLY good points in her book. I tend to agree with her a lot with regards to how people perceive the homeless and the rights, or lack of rights, people think the homeless should have. Like, for example, the pervasive belief that homeless people shouldn't have cell phones or laptops. First, and Karp makes this point in her book, people rely on their cell phones for safety. The homeless are no different and I would argue are more susceptible to situations where they may very well need to make an emergency call. Also, if someone has the opportunity to keep their laptop after becoming homeless, I don't see how this hurts anyone else. Laptops are useful to, you know, look for employment. And even if they used it to look at porn instead of searching for a job, who cares? They're homeless.