Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter

"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." ―Rosie Schaap, author of Drinking with Men

A warm and inspiring book for anyone who has ever dreamed of changing tracks, Hammer Head is the story of a young woman who quit her desk job to become a carpenter. Writing with infectious curiosity, Nina MacLaughlin―a Classics major who couldn’t tell a Phillips from a flathead screwdriver―describes the joys and frustrations of making things by hand. Filled with the wisdom of writers from Ovid to Mary Oliver and MacLaughlin’s own memorable accounts of working with wood, unfamiliar tools, and her unforgettable mentor, Hammer Head is a passionate book full of sweat, bashed thumbs, and a deep sense of finding real meaning in work and life.

8 illustrations

Nina MacLaughlin lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she works as a carpenter. Formerly an editor at the Boston Phoenix, she has written for the Believer, Bookslut, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.