The Carpenter’s Notebook is a novel about a realtor’s struggle to remodel his mom’s garage while carpentry rules help Brendan through a crumbling marriage and loss of his carpenter father.
What’s The Carpenter’s Notebook?
The answers to living a good life follow the rules of carpentry. In this novel about a family struggling with a crumbling marriage, juggling kids, and an aging parent who recently lost her carpenter-husband, Mark uses building metaphors as a guide to living a well-intentioned and honorable life. When his mother asks him to help transform the workshop into an art studio, will Brendan be able to strap on tools and leave his less-than-active realtor world to make it happen? And if he does help, is it just an excuse to bow out of marriage for a while?
The first-and-only carpentry novel!
It’s about a Carpenter’s job site wisdom.
What’s really at the heart of The Carpenter’s Notebook is finding truths about life that are like carpenter’s go-tos. They include coping, and plumb, level, and square. These are truths that one can count on and depend upon. They last. They cast a light in the damn darkness.
Also, the story starts at Christmas and tells the tale of a family dealing with loss. They are trying to rebuild love and purpose through the mental and physical demands of hard work, so we can just all call it a potential Hallmark Channel Holiday Classic.
It’s a love story, too.
Mark’s love-story-carpentry novel, The Carpenter’s Notebook, is about a son learning jobsite lessons from his late father’s jobsite notes. The father’s jobsite wisdom helps the son Brendan finally deal with the challenges in his marriage, reawaken his long-lost connection to building, and rediscover how to live a truly engaged life.
With every swing of his hammer and turned page of his father’s notebook, Brendan tries to fulfill a promise to his late father: Rebuilding his late father’s old shop into an art studio for his mother. After discovering his father’s carpenter’s notebook, he obtains the inspiration he needs to rebuild his own life and face the challenges he’s avoided as a husband and father.
What’s in the book?
Illustrated how-to of real DIY projects included throughout the novel. Projects include a toolbox, basketball hoop, flooring layout, and more.
What are some book reviews?
“A wonderful book about building both houses and relationships…wise, touching, and as satisfying as a hard day s work well-done.” —Bret Witter, Editorial Director, HCI and Publisher of Chicken Soup for the Soul
“Inspiring work and great reading don t miss it!”
—Scott Phillips, host of Public Television s American Woodshop and American Homeshop
“Home Improvement is a thread that runs through our lives. Mark has woven it into very rich and unique story.”
—Dean Johnson, co-host of Hometime
Available through Amazon as a paperback or ebook, you can get your copy of The Carpenter’s Notebook today (I’m sitting here. Have you gotten it yet? We’ll be waiting…)
We hope you enjoy a few excerpts from The Carpenter’s Notebook below.
“Often just getting ready–nevermind the work–is as hard as the work itself.”
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