I know some of you are probably hurting for ideas of what to get your dad for Father’s Day on Sunday. I’m here to help. In case you didn’t know, I like to read. So I’ve culled through the books I’ve read in the last few months for five that might be good options to get for reading dads.
Hank Greenberg: Hero of Heroes by John Rosengren — Full disclosure: John is one of my virtual writer friends. But the book is worthy regardless. Hank Greenberg has long been known in baseball circles for his skills with a bat — his nicknames included Hankus Spankus, Hammerin’ Hank, and (as one of the few elite Jewish athletes) the Hebrew Hammer. This book fleshes him out. He’s more than the guy who wouldn’t play on Yom Kippur. If you’re dad is a baseball fan of a certain age, pick up this book.
Canada by Richard Ford — What happens after the crime? What becomes of children when their parents go to jail? Beautifully written, the tale is told through the eyes of a son, who with his sister are somehow forgotten in the aftermath of an ill-conceived robbery and the subsequent arrest of his parents. Ford tells of the boy’s unexpected journey to Canada and his experience of a stark landscape and difficult life, his yearning for family and education, and how he makes sense of the idiocy of those who should have taken care of him. The language is sublime. There’s plot, too, which I know some readers crave.
It’s not a new book, but my son just read The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon and I was reminded of what a delightful novel it is. Even if you don’t know a lot about Jewish life or Yiddish language, it’s funny, engaging, and full of the twists and turns you expect from a good mystery. If you have knowledge of those things, you’ll probably laugh harder. The premise: what if Israel wasn’t the home of the Jews, but Alaska was? This is something actually proposed by Roosevelt at the end of World War II. It was the book that got me started on alternative histories, which led to 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I don’t read King, usually, but this imagining of what might happen if you found a way to stop one of the most unforgettable events of the last century caught me from the start. King is a wonderful writer, even if you don’t like his usual horror-type genre fiction. I couldn’t read fast enough. Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 isn’t as fast paced and deals less with alternative history than with a sudden shift in reality. Are there infinite time lines that we live? What if you slipped between them and the world you entered was just slightly different, events skewed at some time in the past by some event that didn’t happen in your time line? The story revolves around an unlikely assassin, an escapee from a cult, and a frustrated writer. Not for everyone, but for the literary reader a good choice.
If your dad likes funny, consider David Sedaris’ last two books. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk and the newly released Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls are filled with the same charming wit and simple joy that marks most Sedaris essays. If you guffawed through the Santaland Diaries, giggled through Naked, and woke your spouse with Me Talk Pretty One Day, pick up one or both of these for Dad. If he hasn’t read any and he was a totally awesome father, buy them all. He totally deserves it.
