Books That Celebrate Dad and Fatherhood

Father's Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us.

According to Wikipedia, since Mother's Day was such a success in the United States, Father's Day was considered a way to celebrate fatherhood and male parenting. Sonora Dodd is credited for the establishment of this celebration.

Father's Day was founded in Spokane, Washington, at the YMCA in 1910 by Sonora Smart Dodd, who was born in Arkansas. Its first celebration was in the Spokane YMCA on June 19, 1910. Her father, Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, was a single parent who raised his six children. After hearing a sermon about the founder of Mother's Day in 1909, she told her pastor that fathers should have a similar holiday honoring them. Initially June 5, her father's birthday, was suggested as the day to honor father's. The celebration was set for the third Sunday in June to allow pastors enough time to prepare their sermons.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. In 1972, President Richard Nixon made Father's Day a national holiday.

Below is a selection of titles that celebrate fatherhood.

Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
"In Dad is Fat, stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan, expresses all the joys and horrors of life with five young children—everything from cousins ('celebrities for little kids') to toddlers’ communication skills ('they always sound like they have traveled by horseback for hours to deliver important news'), to the eating habits of four year olds ('there is no difference between a four year old eating a taco and throwing a taco on the floor'). Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home."

Dads are the Original Hipsters by Brad Getty
"He listened to vinyl before you did. He drank whiskey before you did. He had a mustache before you did. Admit it: your dad was a hipster before you were! Based on the blog phenomenon of the same name, this book celebrates dads as the original hipsters. Vintage photos of real dads back in the day in their short shorts and tight tees playing arcade games accompany snarky captions that at once tip a cap to Dad's glory days and poke fun at modern hipsters. Featuring tons of never-before-seen content, this is the perfect gift for dads, hipsters, and those who love to tease them!"

Fatherhood: And Other Stories by Thomas H. Cook
"A debut volume of collected short stories from Thomas H. Cook, one of America's most celebrated crime fiction authors. The range of this collection is, itself, astonishing. From a backwoods Appalachian shack during the Depression (Poor People) to a Midwestern college campus in the
throes of Sixties revolt (The Sun-Gazer) to a midtown Manhattan bookstore on Christmas Eve, The Lessons of the Season,' this collection demonstrates precisely that, in the words of Michael Connolly, 'no one tells a story better than Thomas H. Cook.' "

One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper
"Drew Silver is 44, divorced, and living alone at the Versailles, anapartment complex off the interstate and home mainly to divorced men. His ex-wife is about to marry a respected surgeon. His 18-year-old daughter, headed to Princeton in the fall, is pregnant. And now a heart ailment forces Silver to begin to take life seriously before it prematurely ends."

Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood by Drew Magary
"Drew Magary, journalist for GQ and Deadspin, brings his unique voice to a memoir. In Someone Could Get Hurt, he reflects on his own parenting experiences to explore the anxiety, rationalizations, compromises, and overpowering love that come with raising children in contemporary America."

And more books on fatherhood...
 
Submitted by Felita Yarbrough
East Lake Library