If you like The Nanny Diaries, or The Devil Wears Prada, or those behind the scenes reality shows depicting the dark underbelly of the food industry, you’ll like this one.

Jacob Tomsky is an amusing, profane, and not always likeable guide to the hospitality business.

This memoir describes his job history in hotels in New Orleans and New York City, and the crazy cast of characters that entails: the regulars, the irregulars, the possible prostitutes, the businessmen with secret lives, the celebrities, the paparazzi, the bellmen, the housekeepers, the union representatives, the management, the drug addicts, the spoiled brats, the tourists from far away places, the CEOs who don’t want to go home to their families, the psychopathic valets.  He gives advice on getting away with petty theft (no, I’m not going to tell you…if you absolutely must know, read the book).

For the more scrupulous hotel patron who wants extras and freebees, he has advice for that, too (spoiler alert: be nice and tip prodigiously). If you’ve ever worked in customer service or for any large inflexible bureaucracy, if you’ve spent time among both the haves and the have nots, or if you’ve drunk your take home pay with your dysfunctional family of coworkers after your shift is over, you’ll relate.

It’s a quick read…bring it on the plane next time you’re going somewhere, laugh a bit, and leave it for the next traveler.

BOOK: Heads In Beds

AUTHOR: Jacob Tomsky

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2013

IMAGE: book cover, Anchor