WORK

Drawing inspiration from their New York Times business column, Feinberg and Rothman offer introductions to people happily engaged in 28 unconventional careers.

These concise profiles include a veterinarian in Uganda, who explains how to transport live giraffes; owners of an antique toy shop on City Island in the Bronx; and a pair of vegan butchers who live in Minneapolis but grew up in Guam, to mention just a few. Based on live or video interviews, each entry combines brief background notes and quotes distributed in easily digestible blocks around Rothman’s lively portraits and lavishly detailed views of storefronts, crowded display shelves, workspaces hung about with specialized gear, and outdoorsy gatherings of wild or domestic animals. Here, a tour guide in Australia’s Budj Bim National Park exhibits a special net that he and other Gunditjmara people use to trap eels. There, a research assistant in Chicago’s Field Museum notes that the ability to write very tiny numbers is a job requirement. Why? In order to label very tiny bones. The author and illustrator close out with entries on their own work and a list of helpful prompts for would-be interviewers. The workers here are as diverse racially and culturally as they are geographically; one (an architect and accessibility consultant) uses a motorized wheelchair. This fascinating survey will leave readers exhilarated by the options before them, inspired to think big, and eager for more—hopefully, Feinberg and Rothman have a follow-up in the works.

Tantalizing glimpses of working worlds beyond the office or computer screen.