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Carpenters and craft, friendship and rivalry: Wally is building a mansion for a dot-com multimillionaire in the Silicon Valley of California. As the dot-com's stock keeps rising, the size of the house - and the owner's ego - keep growing. Wally and his colorful crew may be into something that's over their heads. When little guys work for bigshots, who gets nailed?

From bungling to burglary, from demolishing concrete to racing beltsanders, from love of tools to falling in love, everyone will encounter Wally's Laws of Construction - or are they Laws of Life? Each house, it seems, is a miracle.

Joe Cottonwood is a contractor in the Silicon Valley of California where he has been building houses - and fixing homes - for over 30 years. He is the author of FAMOUS POTATOES and other novels.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works- 3.0 United States License.

Audio Quality: Out of 26 ratings

Narration Quality: Out of 26 ratings

Writing Quality: Out of 26 ratings

Overall Rating: Out of 26 ratings

By: Joe Cottonwood
Thanks, Mandarine - and a belated thanks to Goran, as well. As for the Paypal issue, never mind a donation - just buy the book, and then you'll have something to keep. The publishing process is slow agony, but pretty soon it will be available for orders from amazon or an autographed copy directly from me. But then I've been saying that for a month now, and the book still isn't out yet... Anyway, you have no idea how much these comments mean to me. Thank you from the bottom of my (sometimes clear) heart. On the news front, an Italian publisher is going to reissue my novel Famous Potatoes - in Italian - 30 years after its original appearance, and they've invited me to do a book tour in Italy during a Blues Festival there next May. I guess I have to pay my own way, but still, how cool is that? Springtime in Italy, and a blues festival, and a book tour. I've never even been to Europe. Time to fix that. So come to Italy next May, and we can say howdy.

By: mandarine
I have just finished listening to the book and I must say it had been some time since I last had smiled that much while commuting. You (and Susan, and all your fascinating characters) made those last three weeks of cycling between home, train station, and work, pure bliss. It was my first encounter with podiobooks (I have been a fan of LibriVox for some time), and I will certainly post a review on my blog to share my enthusiasm. English is not my first language, so I am not a very good judge of language sheen, but as far as story-telling and humour goes, I pictured you somewhere between P.G. Wodehouse and Mark Twain. P.S. I have been working on the restoration of my old French farmhouse for six years now, and I have found the house construction backdrop totally gripping. And I was immensely flattered when you mentioned my Milwaukee Sawzall among the tools that count - it was the first expensive tool I invested in when I started working on my house. P.P.S. I guess I will have to figure out how to revive my Paypal account soon. Or maybe I should order the book...

By: Goran
One of the better traditional fiction books I have read/listened to in recent memory. What it lacks in world ending disasters it more than makes up for in strong character development, a solid plot and most defiantly humor. Very glad to have listened to this book.

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