What do you get the man who (says he) has everything? With Father’s Day now one week away?
A thoughtfully chosen book is always a good choice, and your neighborhood bookstore has plenty of recently released titles to choose from. Here are some Father’s Day recommendations from volunteers now planning the next Tucson Festival of Books:
“War on the Border” by Jeff Guinn. One of America’s best-read historians, Guinn loves telling tales about (in)famous celebrities. His previous projects featured Bonnie and Clyde, Charles Manson and Jim Jones. This time, Guinn brings us Pancho Villa, whose bloody raid on Columbus, New Mexico, triggered a major response from the U.S. government. Who hasn’t heard of Pancho Villa? Who really knows why? — Bruce Dinges
“Noise” by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein. Another book released last month, “Noise” offers a scientific look at the vagaries that influence our decision-making. How can two judges review the same set of facts and arrive at totally divergent verdicts? How can two lifelong friends have such different views of racial justice? Kahneman and Sunstein call our external influences “noise,” and report how noise both impacts and impairs the decisions we make. — Jennifer Casteix
“Ridgeline” by Michael Punke. Punke’s first book since “The Revenant” is a novel based on real people and real events in the Old West. Specifically, it explores the civil war that followed the Civil War: the battles fought between Native America and the U.S. Army. Punke begins with a vivid retelling of the Battle of Little Big Horn. He then steps back to examine the issues and strategies that brought the participants to the battlefield that day. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd
“Hymns of the Republic” by S.C. Gwynne. The final year of the Civil War featured events whose aftershocks rattle America to this day. Gwynn explores the recruitment of 180,000 former slaves into the Union Army; the guerilla bloodshed in Missouri and Kansas; the rise of Clara Barton; Sherman’s March to the Sea; the 1864 election; and the murder of President Lincoln. That’s a lot. — Abby Mogollon
“Nine Nasty Words” by John McWhorter. Do you know our swear words come from a different part of our brain than the rest of our vocabulary? McWhorter does. He’s one of America’s leading linguists and in this unusual book he explores the reasons why language we find shocking is so startling, so powerful … and so fun to use. — Tricia Clapp
“The Groundbreaking” by Scott Ellsworth. This timely book recounts the destruction of the Greenwood Section of Tulsa by a white, racist mob 100 years ago. The entire neighborhood was bombed, looted and burned to the ground. One hundred seventy-six residents died. How could it have happened? Why did so few of us learn about it in school? Ellsworth had the same questions, and he was raised in Tulsa. — Jessica Braithwaite
“Sidecountry” by John Branch. An admiring critic once said Branch writes sports the way Lyle Lovett writes country music, featuring ordinary people who do extraordinary things. This is a collection of 20 such stories Branch has written for the New York Times. He will discuss the book and some of its featured subjects in an online conversation with Joe Draper on July 14, at 3 p.m. It will be presented by the Tucson Festival of Books at tucsonfestivalofbooks.org. — Nicolas Dawidoff
“The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing” by Mark Kurlansky. This is a book about fishing that isn’t a book about fishing at all. To be clear, Kurlansky has been a fisherman his entire life. But this fresh, revealing memoir reflects on the life lessons he has learned from fish … and the many things that make the pursuit such a special part of his life. — Abby Mogollon
“Winter Counts” by David Heska and Wanbli Weiden. If dad prefers fiction, “Winter Counts” is a thriller about vigilante justice on a Native American reservation in South Dakota. It features Virgil Wounded Horse, who is hired to track down the source of a heroin influx killing young people on the reservation. — Tricia Clapp
“How to Grill Everything” by Mark Bittman. This cookbook isn’t new, but you can never go wrong with a cookbook on Father’s Day. Many men love to barbecue. All of us enjoy eating barbecue. It sounds like a win-win gift to us. — Lynn Wiese Sneyd
