The Book of Carlos

 

  Today on The Book of Carlos : Entry 67:  I Left My Hand In San Francisco Entry 71:  Mom’s Tupperware and the Lids That Don't Fit Any Bowl Entry 73:  Whispers in the Locker Room: My First Encounter with Brut Cologne and Public Humiliation Selected by John Mark Bergner of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thanks Mark! -- Entry 67: I left My Hand In San Francisco Some souvenirs are meant to last. Others are meant to teach you humility via large bodies of water. Entry #67 takes us back to marching bands, theme parks, teenage glory, and one gloriously grotesque rubber hand that didn’t survive the scenic wonders of Fisherman’s Wharf. If you’ve ever bonded with a novelty item, mourned its untimely demise, and learned that even sidekicks aren’t above savage one-liners, this entry is for you. Direct from my own personal journals. Grab your coffee and your emotional support limb—we’re marching into the bizarre, the hilarious, and the slightly tragic tale of how I lost a fake hand and gained...

Author’s Note Why I Wrote This Book Why title this “The Book of Carlos!? ” I suppose when I think about it, I probably could have come up with a much better title. However, after giving it some thought, I said to myself, “Why not? Afterall, it is about a life lived by a man named Carlos. That’s me!” It beat what I was originally going to call it, “Tardy…Mommy Wants You!” I will have to explain the origins of that phrase in a future entry. Whenever I hear a title start with … “The Book Of ….” For example, The Book of Love, The Book of John, The Book of Clean Living, The Book of Bad Fashion, etcetera. I understand it to mean that it is a collection of stories, articles, images or other forms of media that tells a story about a real person, place, event, or thing. So, in this case, The Book of Carlos! Made sense to me. The Book of Carlos began as a quiet whisper, a personal effort to make sense of all I had lived through—faith and failure, mercy and memory, and everything in between....

  The Book of Carlos  is a deeply personal and soulfully told journey through memory, identity, faith, and resilience. From near-drownings in Azusa Canyon to heartbreaks in high school, Disneyland dreams gained and lost, and encounters with grief that blurred the veil between life and death—Carlos opens his heart and history in a series of journal-style reflections that are as honest as they are poetic. With humor, raw vulnerability, and reverent wonder, this memoir invites you to walk through one man’s story that somehow feels like all of ours. Whether he’s writing about band class crushes, the quiet mercy of a mother, or a life-changing visitation in a Baldwin Park bedroom, Carlos reminds us that memory is sacred, dreams are complicated, and grace often shows up when we least expect it. If you’ve ever wanted to feel seen, heard, or gently accompanied back to your own buried stories—welcome to the Book of Carlos!