Non-fiction books about relationships between father and a new child
March 12, 2013 6:57 AM Subscribe
I'm going to be a proud first-time papa in a couple months, and I'm gearing up for the madness and joy to come. I've really enjoyed reading non-fiction anecdotes about fathers and children, and I was wondering if you had any books you might recommend? Hopefully nothing 'Chicken Soup for the ____'-ish, but more along the New Yorker-y lines of Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik and Home Game by Michael Lewis.
If it impacts your suggestions, we're expecting a boy, however, books about raising either gender are OK. And mom and children books would be OK if you think I could relate to the situation as a parent, but father/child books are preferred. Thanks!
(PS - have seen this MeFi link already, but am looking more for non-fiction, and more about the raising of a young child, not the raising of a child into adulthood.)
If it impacts your suggestions, we're expecting a boy, however, books about raising either gender are OK. And mom and children books would be OK if you think I could relate to the situation as a parent, but father/child books are preferred. Thanks!
(PS - have seen this MeFi link already, but am looking more for non-fiction, and more about the raising of a young child, not the raising of a child into adulthood.)
Best answer: Check out the podcast Minivan Men. It's three comedians (Chris Spencer, Al Madrigal and Maz Jobrani) talking about their experiences with fatherhood. It was refreshing to me about how frank they were with the highs and lows of being a dad - so many of the books/articles I read upon becoming a new dad cast the role as a Noble Warrior, not as a guy who has to deal with convincing a little person that poop on his butt is icky and needs to be cleaned right now so please put down the fire truck we can play rescue in a little bit oh god the smell come here where did you get so fast I can remember when you couldn't walk
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:30 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by robocop is bleeding at 7:30 AM on March 12, 2013
Best answer: It's not out till May, but please keep an eye out for Someone Could Get Hurt: A Memoir of Twenty-First-Century Parenthood, by Drew Magary. It was hilarious and honest, and not in that faux-bragging way that many parenting memoirs can be. I loved it.
posted by lyssabee at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by lyssabee at 7:34 AM on March 12, 2013
Would you consider a book that deals with fatherhood, but which starts when the kid is a toddler and deals with discovering she's a special-needs child? Because I was sort of reading the book Schuyler's Monster as it was happening, back when it was a series of blog entries, and it's a hell of a story and well written; and Schulyer is one kick-ass kid. (Also, the author is one of our own.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:45 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
You should read The Story About the Baby, and its sequel The Story About the Toddler. Warning: spit-out-your-coffee funny.
(Vogel is the guy who runs Spiderweb Software, makers of old school style RPG games, and a good friend from way back.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:52 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
(Vogel is the guy who runs Spiderweb Software, makers of old school style RPG games, and a good friend from way back.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 7:52 AM on March 12, 2013 [1 favorite]
Dan Gets A Minivan. I want to read his earlier stuff, too, but haven't found it at the library yet.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:25 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 8:25 AM on March 12, 2013
You want Crawling: A Father's First Year by Elisha Cooper.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:59 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:59 AM on March 12, 2013
I just happened to see this post about a quarterly examining fatherhood called Kindling. Might be worth checking out.
posted by elizeh at 9:23 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by elizeh at 9:23 AM on March 12, 2013
Oh, there's also Alternadad by Neal Pollack, which apparently gets four stars on Amazon which seems kind of high to me, it's a lot fluffier than Crawling, but also fun and relevant.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:25 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:25 AM on March 12, 2013
Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys is great.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:43 AM on March 12, 2013
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:43 AM on March 12, 2013
Have recommended it before, will recommend again: Jeff Vogel's The Poo Bomb: True Tales of Parental Terror.
posted by Cuke at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2013
posted by Cuke at 5:51 PM on March 12, 2013
The Poo Bomb is just The Story About the Baby (linked upthread) in book form.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:15 PM on March 12, 2013
posted by rabbitrabbit at 9:15 PM on March 12, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by hhc5 at 7:11 AM on March 12, 2013