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99 Jobs
- Blood, Sweat, and Houses
- Narrated by: Joe Cottonwood
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
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Publisher's Summary
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.
What listeners say about 99 Jobs
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Daryl
- 08-12-14
Lighthearted introspections on houses, family, lif
Where does 99 Jobs rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
it is a very unique read. All 99 stories are reflections on home repair, society, life, growing older, gaining experience, and the people that populate our world - the kind, flighty, sad, funny, and just plain weird. I normally don't like this style of book, but joe Cottonwood is so humorous - and I've lived through hellish home repairs - that I gobbled this boo's bite-sized portions in two gulps!
What did you like best about this story?
I loved the accessible writing of Joe Cottonwood. he is just the type of construction worker I would want working on my house! he is streetsmart, witty, and introspective, and seems to learn from each new experience over the years.
What about Joe Cottonwood’s performance did you like?
I loved it! it is not polished and professional, but just like a great-uncle is telling me stories of his glory days.
Any additional comments?
this book is great! it flows, in a manner of speaking, but each of the 99 stories of home repairs, relationships, moving on and growing up stand on their own, so you can either - as I did - flip the pages speedily or pick it up and put it down. Well worth the nearly 12 hours and the credit.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Charles
- 02-20-17
A life of dignity and intelligence in the trades
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I already have recommended this book to several people who will appreciate how Mr. Cottonwood uses his experiences as a tradesman as a framework to respectfully - and often lovingly - describe a wide variety of characters.
What other book might you compare 99 Jobs to and why?
99 Jobs reminded me of Hard Scrabble, Observations on a Patch of Land, by John Graves. John Graves describes his experiences in trying to ranch on a hard scrabble tract of land in the Cross Timbers region of Texas in a way that highlights the integrity of good people doing honest work.
What about Joe Cottonwood’s performance did you like?
Mr. Cottonwood's narrative voice is very distinctive, and it takes a few chapters to settle into it, but once you do, you can't imagine anyone else as the narrator of his story.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Building a full life.
Any additional comments?
I was genuinely sorry to finish the book because I felt that I had come to the end of a long visit with a wise and gentle friend. 99 Jobs is a book that can be enjoyed on several levels.
1 person found this helpful
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Performance
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Story
- scott
- 04-29-18
Love Joe Cottonwood
Would you consider the audio edition of 99 Jobs to be better than the print version?
Yes. Joe Cottonwood really makes his books come alive with his narration
What does Joe Cottonwood bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
the way he reads his work makes you really feel whats going on
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Performance
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Story
- Jimi
- 01-29-15
Not Joe's best work
I've loved pretty much all of Joe's books, this one not so much.
Its good in as far as you can see parts of other charictors in these story's but as a whole its lacking something
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Not the whole book
- By Gabriela on 03-09-13
By: David Sedaris
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Summer of Light
- By: W. Dale Cramer
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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After a series of bizarre events, ironworker Mick Brannigan finds himself knee-deep in laundry - and considering a retreat to his hopelessly littered kitchen. He soon learns important lessons from unlikely sources. W. Dale Cramer, multiple Christy Award-winning author of Bad Ground and Levi's Will, delivers a Romantic Times Top Pick tale of a reluctant Mr. Mom who discovers what matters most.
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The Power Of Presence
- By Sara on 10-06-16
By: W. Dale Cramer
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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Heat and Light
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Haigh
- Narrated by: Michael Rahhal, Allyson Ryan
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: It sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas. To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming. He doesn't count on the truck traffic and nonstop noise, his brother's skepticism, or the paranoia of his wife, Shelby, who insists the water smells strange and is poisoning their frail daughter.
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Sigh
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 07-10-16
By: Jennifer Haigh
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Rabbit, Run
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his - or any other - generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is 26 years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty - even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness, and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path.
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A Thinking Man's Novel
- By L. Berlyne-Kovler on 01-12-09
By: John Updike
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The Dead Cat Bounce
- By: Sarah Graves
- Narrated by: Lindsay Ellison
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine.
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too slow of a story...
- By Annette on 03-13-18
By: Sarah Graves
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Burn Coast
- A Novel
- By: Dale Maharidge
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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McGee Ridge, earthquake-rattled and clinging to the thousand-foot cliffs of the Northern California coast, is nestled in one of a very few truly wild places left in the Lower 48. It is also home to a band of off-grid outlaws who vanished behind the famed Redwood Curtain in the 1960s and whose time there is swiftly coming to an end.
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A new great American novel?
- By Gabriel Kent on 01-26-22
By: Dale Maharidge
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Tank Man's Son
- By: Mark Bouman
- Narrated by: Joe Geoffrey
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Bouman recounts the events of his childhood at the hands of his larger-than-life, neo-Nazi father in brilliant, startling detail. From adventure-filled days complete with real-life war games, artillery fire, and tank races to terror-filled nights marked by vicious tirades, brutal beatings, and psychological torture, Mark paints a chilling portrait of family life that is at once whimsical and horrific - all building to a shocking climax that challenges even the broadest boundaries of love and forgiveness.
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Riveting
- By KD on 06-28-16
By: Mark Bouman
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The Kindness of Strangers
- Penniless Across America
- By: Mike McIntyre
- Narrated by: Chris Brinkley
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, journalist Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So one day he hit the road to trek from one end of the country to the other with little more than the clothes on his back and without a single penny in his pocket. Through his travels, he found varying degrees of kindness in strangers from all walks of life - and discovered more about people and values and life on the road in America than he'd ever thought possible.
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great
- By Chris on 12-10-14
By: Mike McIntyre
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Drown
- By: Junot Diaz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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With 10 stories that move from the barrios of the Dominican Republic to the struggling urban communities of New Jersey, Junot Diaz makes his remarkable debut. Diaz's work is unflinching and strong, and these stories crackle with an electric sense of discovery.
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Latino literature at its best!
- By Absinthe on 03-15-11
By: Junot Diaz
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Big Red Tequila
- A Tres Navarre Mystery, Book 1
- By: Rick Riordan
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Edgar Award winner Rick Riordan captures San Antonio at its grittiest with his mysteries featuring Jackson "Tres" Navarreunlicensed P.I., Tai Chi master, and imbiber of Big Red cream soda laced with tequila. It’s been a decade since his father was murdered and Tres left town. But he’s got an itch that can only be scratched by looking for answers. Returning to San Antonio with his enchilada-eating cat, he uncovers a conspiracy involving the Mafia and dirty politicians.
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It's the small things
- By Tracey Pastore on 05-04-12
By: Rick Riordan
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Gemini
- By: Carol Wiley Cassella
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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An ICU doctor in one of Seattle's most respected hospitals, Dr. Charlotte Reese is used to listening for the chop of the Medvac helicopter and preparing for the worst. But when a Jane hurtles through the doors of Beacon Hospital with tubes keeping her alive, Charlotte's stoic resolve begins to fail her and she becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystery of her patient's identity to solve what is looking more and more like an attempted murder.
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Very good character development
- By Kathi on 03-13-14