Missmath144 Female, Married. USA

This a captivating read about how our brains work, particularly the flaws. Have you ever recalled an event in the past and then others who were present swear that it happened differently? Each person has a vivid memory of the event . . . completely clear, no doubts . . . just like a video replay in the head? That is because our memories are actually created (and recreated each time we call the memory up) by our minds, which take into account our background knowledge, things we fill in to make sense of what we saw, comments and questions people have asked about the event. No matter how certain one is of a memory, none of us can truly know exactly what happened, but we aren't willing to question what seems so clear and evident to us. This is just one of several topics dealt with in the book. It's fascinating.

I also worked in restaurants for twenty years (despite having a college degree, as did the author). Restaurants vary a great deal, but my restaurant history was very similar to Ms. Ginsberg's, so I was truly able to identify with pretty much everything in the book. It was refreshing to read an account of waiting tables by someone who did it intentionally, not as something she was forced to do for lack of other options. I experienced many of the things she did, although fewer of the bad things and more of the good aspects of waiting. Overall, I loved what I did and only changed because the hours didn't work out for me once my kids were all in school. This book brought back mostly good memories for me. It's true, however, that waitresses have nightmares of not being able to keep up with their tables; I thought that was just me until I read this book.