Father's Day Book Recommendation

If you haven't picked something up for the fathers in your life, here's your chance.

Josh Greene was kind enough to send me a cop y of Michael Lewis' new book, "Home Game." An out of the blue gesture that I really appreciated based b/c, as Josh said, "I've enjoyed some of your posts on fatherhood."

Well, from the moment I began reading Lewis' writing (which I knew well from Blind Side (review), Moneyball (my review), Liar's Poker, and The New New Thing) I literally began laughing out loud.

What Lewis does is put to words many of the feelings and thoughts that fathers have...but are afraid to tell their wives.

And he does it in a straightforward, unapologetic way that is so real, it's refreshing, and, as the book cover says "it's amazing that his wife let him publish the book."

There are a ton of great anecdotes in this one, but here's one I really enjoyed.

"From the point of view of the woamn, "labor" is well named; from the point of view of the man, it really should be called "waiting." Your wife goes into labor; you go into waiting.


A woman in labor needs to believe, however much evidence she has to the contrary, that the man in waiting beside her bed is directing every ounce of his concern toward her. This is of course impossible; and so the trick is for the man in waiting to disguise his private interest. He learns to camouflage trips to the john as grape-juice-feching missions. 

When he is hungry he waits until his wife dozes off, then nips furtively down to the hospital vending machines for his supper of Ring Dings and Nacho Cheese Doritos. At some point in his private ordeal one of the hospital staff will turn to ask sweetly, "And how is Dad doing?" 

He must understand that no one actually cares how Dad is doing. His fatigue, his worries, his tedium, his disappointment at the contents of the hospital vending machines-these are better unmentioned. Abov all, he must know that if his mask of perfect selflessness slips for even a moment he will be nabbed."

 Of course, my wife understands much of this, which is why she told me to go home and get my laptop...which resulted in the liveblogging of child #3's birth.

Anyway, a great read. The dads in your life will thank you for it.

Happy Father's Day!