Essential Reading: Father’s Day
Celebrate Father’s Day with these titles, recommended from Literary Mamas!
Download the list and bring it along on your next trip to your local bookstore or library.
Irena Smith, Columns Department Editorial Assistant, shares, “How can you resist a man who once brought his two-year-old for a seven-course meal at Masa, a San Francisco temple of gastronomy? Although that particular story is not in the book (it was published as an article in Gourmet magazine and gave hope to parents of two-year-olds everywhere), Michael Lewis’ Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood is equally irreverent and funny. It begins with a side-splitting account of what happens at the pool of a tropical resort when his youngest daughter, who is three at the time, drops not just the f-bomb but an entire string of eminently unprintable words, and only gets better from there. Lewis covers all the bases: the sleep deprivation of early infancy, visits to the emergency room, his wife’s wild mood swings, the joy of watching his children grow into their own distinctive personalities, and even an unflinching account of his own vasectomy.”
Caroline Grant, Editor-in-Chief and Columnist writes, “Literary Mama contributor Andrea Richesin’s What I Would Tell Her: 28 Devoted Dads on Bringing Up, Holding On and Letting Go of Their Daughters is a brand new and wonderful collection of essays by men who write with great wonder, humor, and abiding love for their daughters. Whether sending their girls to preschool or college, walking them through colic or coaching them on the soccer field, these writers — stay-at-home, non-custodial, adoptive, gay and straight dads, stepdads and grandfathers — offer fresh insights into the pleasures and pains of the father-daughter bond. What I Would Tell Her is an indispensable addition to the growing literature of fatherhood.”
Kristina Riggle, Fiction Co-Editor, shares “I just finished a story collection by Adam Schuitema called Freshwater Boys, about boys and men in their prime finding their way as adults, surrounded by the lakes, dunes and towns of southwest Michigan, an environment that’s sometimes wild, sometimes beautiful, often both. The stories about fathers seem particularly appropriate to this month’s Father’s Day theme, and the writing is beautiful.”
E-Zine Co-Edtor, Jessica DeVoe Riley says, “I recommend Do-Over!: In which a forty-eight-year-old father of three returns to kindergarten, summer camp, the prom, and other embarrassments by Robin Hemley. You know those moments from your past that make you cringe in shame and embarrassment? Robin Hemley has lots of them. From a mean Kindergarten teacher to a poor summer camp experience, he just couldn’t seem to catch a break growing up. Now a father of three with one more on the way, Hemley decides to confront his childhood frustrations in the spirit of a kid — by calling ‘Do over!’ In doing so, Hemley finds the will to let go of past regrets and embrace his present and future role of ‘Dad,’ the understanding guy holding his children’s hands as they stumble through the hardships of growing up.”