99 Jobs: Blood, Sweat, and Houses (Unabridged‪)‬

Joe repairs homes. With each job, he enters somebody's private world. Revealing a life. Or changing it. The life of a craftsman has its challenges, such as collecting an overdue bill from an irate psychopath - and its charms, such as the blonde in the hot tub. Joe has made every mistake and met every kind of homeowner - the good, the bad, the profoundly weird. For anyone who has ever built (or failed to build) a project from a simple bookshelf to an entire house, these are captivating, quick stories of human comedy.

What is craft? What is botch? Here with warmth and wry wisdom are 99 lessons learned, human encounters, slices of life in the construction zone. Joe Cottonwood, the not-exactly-best-selling author, has supported his family by crawling under houses or climbing on rooftops while writing novels at night. Forty years in the construction zone, building houses one story at a time. Building a life.