Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Memoirs

HAMMER HEAD

Nina MacLaughlin

The Making of a Carpenter

From former Boston Phoenix editor and freelance book critic comes a personal and profound account of how she left a life of the computer screen for one of hammer and nails, capturing the pleasures and challenges of making things by hand. The author explores how carpentry affects one’s view of the world, and what it’s like to work as a woman in a trade that is 98% male.

Nina MacLaughlin spent her twenties sitting at a desk, staring at a screen, dragging and clicking. One day she saw an ad on Craigslist—Carpenter’s Assistant sought: women strongly encouraged to apply—and saw her way out. She couldn’t tell a Phillips-head screwdriver from a flat-head, and she has a degree in Classics…but she got the job. Hammer Head is the empowering story of her learning the trade, a book for anyone who has ever daydreamed of switching tracks or starting over – an idea with tremendous appeal in today’s culture of authenticity. MacLaughlin is a wonderful guide, mixing wisdom from Ovid, Melville, and Mary Oliver with practical descriptions of varieties of wood and types of tools. She describes the joys and frustrations of making things by hand, what it’s like to work as a woman in an occupation that is 99% male, and how carpentry changes the way she sees the world. Like Tracy Kidder’s House and Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft, the book covers not just how to build sturdy walls, but a meaningful life, too. Nina MacLaughlin was born in Boston and lives in Cambridge. Formerly an editor at the Boston Phoenix, she has written for the Believer, Bookslut, Time Out New York, and elsewhere.

Available products
Book Published 2015-03-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

I have never built anything but after reading Nina MacLaughlin's smart, inspiring memoir Hammer Head, I wanted to. She gives context and depth to wood and the act of shaping it, of working with one's hands, of taking risks and letting go. A fantastic debut.

[A] quirky journey… the author finds enormous release in hands-on labor free of words.

Hammer Head is warm, wise, and authentically inspiring. No other book has made me want to re-read Ovid and retile my bathroom floor, nor given me the conviction that I can do both. I loved it.

Nina MacLaughlin built a dream by becoming a carpenter, and transformed her life. Hammer Head is her exquisitely inspiring story. I loved it.

This is a lovely and important book!

In this beautiful memoir about learning a trade, Nina MacLaughlin explores mortality, desire, the passage of time, and the meaning of work. She transcends the personal and makes us question what of our own works are built to endure. This book—a thing well-made—certainly is.