EBGreg Olear’s book Fathermucker won’t be out in time for Father’s Day, which is sad because it would make a perfect Father’s Day gift. But don’t despair! You can preorder Fathermucker right now (just choose your favorite retailer here) and then give your father/grandfather/husband/other random guy you’re buying Father’s Day presents for this nifty card:
In celebration of Father’s Day, Greg has also provided us with this list of 10 great books for the holiday. Check them out below, and let us know if you preorder!
10 Great Fathers Day Books
By Greg Olear
In alphabetical order:
1. About a Boy, Nick Hornby
It’s not about a boy; it’s about a millionaire playboy who becomes a father, without actually becoming a father. (High Fidelity would work here, too. Or Songbook. Anything by Hornby, really.)
2. Bad Marie, Marcy Dermansky
The père in this novel is not exactly a model papa. Good fathers, after all, do not abscond to Paris in the middle of the night with their sexy nanny, their toddling daughter in tow. But Marie, bad in all the right ways, would tempt even the World’s Greatest Dad.
3. Holy Water, James P. Othmer
As Othmer himself—one of the funnier writers going—puts it, “This Father’s Day, give the gift of failed dreams, falsified vasectomies and suburban malaise!” Now in paperback.
4. Little Children, Tom Perrotta
In which a stay-at-home dad and a stay-at-home mom get it on. Includes a great riff on the brilliance of Raffi.
5. Playdate, Thelma Adams
Like Little Children, but in San Diego. And with more sex. And without the creepy sex offender subplot. Adams calls the emerging genre “dick-lit.”
6. Rock-n-Roll Will Save Your Life, Steve Almond
Not really about dads, as such, although the arc of this musical memoir culminates in Almond’s fatherhood. Worth it for the exegesis of “Down in Africa” alone.
7. The Financial Lives of the Poets, Jess Walter
One of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors, concerning a recently laid-off, recently cuckolded father of two who has perhaps watched a few too many episodes of Weeds. Insightful, beautifully written, and funny as all get-out.
8. This One Is Mine, Maria Semple
Don’t let the cupcake on the cover fool you; this is not a “chick lit” title. “Chick lit” titles don’t include jokes about Allen Iverson, anal sex, and becoming pregnant during groupie sex with Def Leppard’s one-armed drummer. This is LLOL funny (the second “L” stands for “literally”), and I wept like a baby at the end.
9. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Ron Chernow
Fantastic and exhaustive look at the richest man America ever produced—and likely ever will. John D.’s father, the illustrious Doc Rockefeller, was a traveling salesman of healthful elixirs—like Paul McCartney in the “Say Say Say” video. If you’re interested in finance and Standard Oil and the fallacy of the pro-deregulation movement, this is the book for you.
10. You Can Make Him Like You, Ben Tanzer
Tanzer’s protagonist, Keith, is sort of the target audience for the beer commercials they run during football games. But in the end, Tanzer does make us like him. This one is told in short, pop culture-rich passages that makes for perfect bathroom reading.
