This weekend is Father’s Day. For all who celebrate a father figure, and for all those who would like to gift said father figure a book on this most illustrious of holidays, I’ve put together the following flow chart. Whatever kind of papa you’ve got, there’s a book for him here.
Some given disclaimers. 1) This list omits Poetic Dad and Politico Dad, purely because I ran out of space. 2) Dads below skew Boomer to Gen-X. And 3) I, of course, do not actually know your specific Dad. Sorry!
Fathers Who Prefer Auditory Learning: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. If you can’t yet access this title in America, consider these Shakespeariences for a similar fix.
Cool Dad: Thomas Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket, Greg Tate’s Flyboy in the Buttermilk, Ellen Willis’ The Essential Ellen Willis.
Nature Father: Helen MacDonald’s H is For Hawk, Olivia Laing’s The Garden Against Time.
Wise Dad: Junichiro Tanizaki’s The Makioka Sisters, Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
Sweet Baby Jock Dad: Michael Lewis’ Moneyball, Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding, Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension.
Fun Dad: Mike Sacks’ Poking the Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers. Or Percival Everett’s Dr. No.
Mythic Math Pop: T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest.
Happy Papa Day, all who Papa!