For the New Dad
Folded Wisdom: Notes From Dad on Life, Love, and Growing Up by Joanna Guest
Every morning for nearly 15 years, Bob Guest sat down to craft notes to his two children, Joanna and Theo. Hand-lettered and illustrated with colorful sketches, the notes were folded into triangles and left on the kitchen counter for the kids to grab on their way to school. Over the years, the messages evolved from puzzles and word games into profound life lessons and heartfelt reflections on the joy of watching his children grow up.
Between them, Joanna and Theo saved more 3,500 of their father’s notes. Their awe-inspiring collection is lovingly catalogued in this beautiful book, which makes a great gift for any dad starting out on the incredible journey of fatherhood.
For the Suspense-Addicted Dad
Pre-order this spine-tingling suspense novel now and give your dad something to look forward to when the dog days of August roll around. Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake have moved to the English village of Featherbank to make a fresh start after a family tragedy. But the town has its own dark history: A serial killer known as The Whisper Man murdered five residents nearly 20 years ago. When a young boy goes missing and Jake starts to hear strange whispers in the night, Tom fears that his son will be the next to die.
An unnerving combination of ghost story and family drama, The Whisper Man is poised to be the summer’s most-talked about thriller.
For the Sports-Junkie Dad
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches by Tyler Kepner
Hitters get all the glory, but pitchers make baseball what it is. From an island in the center of the field, pitchers dictate the course of the game, making an endless series of calculations based on the size of the strike zone, the tendencies of each opposing batter, and their own skill sets. It’s no wonder, then, that the best pitchers are also the greatest innovators, men who have conquered the sport by figuring out new ways to throw a 5-ounce ball across a 17-inch plate.
From the fastball to the curveball to the slider, New York Times baseball columnist Tyler Kepner examines the game’s ten essential pitches and the colorful characters who perfected them. The result is a joy-filled book that will make even the most diehard fan fall in love with baseball all over again.
For the Movie-Buff Dad
If the dad in your life can’t get through a conversation without quoting Animal House, Caddyshack, The Blues Brothers, or Beverly Hills Cop, this is the perfect book to tell him “thank you very little.” (Trust us, he’ll get it.)
Film journalist Nick de Semlyen brings readers back to a golden age of Hollywood comedy, when studio executives eager to cash in on the cultural cache of Saturday Night Live and National Lampoon gave the era’s breakout stars, including Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, John Belushi, and Dan Aykroyd, the freedom to create some of the funniest movies ever made. Full of fascinating trivia and hilarious anecdotes, Wild and Crazy Guys is the kind of gift that dad likes best: The ones that tell him that he’s right.
For the History-Loving Dad
The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson
After telling the epic story of World War II in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson turns his attention to a more remote chapter in American history: the Revolutionary War. For most people, the conflict has been reduced to a handful of storybook images, like George Washington crossing the Delaware River, Paul Revere dashing through the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the Sons of Liberty dumping tea in Boston Harbor. But Atkinson, drawing on copious research and his own cinematic imagination, reveals that the war was much more violent and chaotic than we remember it, and that its outcome was far from certain. The first in a planned trilogy, The British Are Coming is packed with revelatory details and exquisite storytelling.
