The best books for Astralian dads this Father’s Day
Father’s Day is about socks, jocks and novelty BBQ tools — but there are lots of books dads can sink their spare time into as well.
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Traditionally, Father’s Day is about drab socks and novelty barbecue accessories.
So if you actually want to make your dad’s day next weekend, how about the gift of storytelling instead?
Stuck for inspiration here at the Sunday Book Club, we asked for advice from the best-qualified people we know: the publishers at HarperCollins Australia, whose day job is to pick the page-turners that the rest of us treasure forever.
So here they are. Do you agree with their tips?
CATHERINE MILNE: Head of Local Publishing
I actually love that Father’s Day has rolled around again. My dad is massively well read, a big history and current affairs buff, and he also loves crime fiction, so he’s a dream to buy for. As we all know, books make for the easiest and best gifts — but to be completely honest it also means that I get to buy him books that I secretly want to borrow and read, so you know, it’s a complete win-win. In the past, I’ve loved introducing him to some of my favourite crime fiction authors like Joe Herron, Peter Temple, Tana French and Ben Aaronovitch, but this year, though, I thought I’d try something a bit different. Dervla McTiernan is an Irish-Australian crime writer, and her two novels in the Cormac Reilly series, The Ruin and The Scholar are set in rain-drenched Galway, and both are twisty, tight and atmospheric — I think he’ll love them. And for something in current affairs that actually reads like crime fiction, I think I’ve hit on the perfect gift: Adele Ferguson’s Banking Bad — a powerful expose of the fraud, mismanagement and skulduggery in the finance and banking sectors that will shock and horrify you — it’s like a corporate thriller.
NICOLA ROBINSON: Commissioning Editor
Over the years I gave my dad many books — on Father’s Day, Christmas, birthdays — and over the years, many went unread. The Aquarian Conspiracy, during my (blessedly short) adolescent New Age phase. Then, in my 20s, serious literary fiction — this had to be a good idea, because he was a serious guy, right? He accepted these respectable and improving books with a long-suffering smile (or, in the case of Aquarian Conspiracy, an eye-roll and a sigh), and I’m not sure he even opened the covers.
Then, one day, Dad spied one of my beloved Ian Rankin novels and his eyes lit up. ‘Can I read it after you?’ he asked. It was the key to a shared reading life: crime, thrillers, suspense. After that, we swapped a lot of books — Michael Crichton, Peter Temple, Tara Moss, Robert Galbraith. Sometimes respectable but definitely not improving … and oh so enjoyable.
Dad’s not around anymore, and I often wish I could share a book with him. This Father’s Day, I’d be giving him Linwood Barclay’s Elevator Pitch, the thriller that has me a little worried about using the lift at work. His eyes would have lit up, I just know it.
JO MACKAY: Head of Local Fiction, Harlequin
My father is no longer with us but I still think about him at this time of year and occasionally find myself making a mental note of books he would have liked. As we had shared taste in crime and thriller books, it’s no hardship to buy some in his honour.
On the must-read list, Sarah Barrie’s wonderful Devil’s Lair set in a contemporary gothic Tasmania, Michael Robotham’s Good Girl, Bad Girl featuring a new main character, Cyrus Haven, forensic psychologist and Karin Slaughter’s pacy The Last Widow.
I now help my daughters chose books for their dad. The job is made easier because he is such an avid reader. He is interested in the environment and ecology so a book I know he would love is The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben: a fascinating look at the highly complex relationship trees have to each other and us. Robert Macfarlane’s Underland would also be included. A groundbreaking political, philosophical and poetic exploration of the relationship between landscape and humanity and an altogether remarkable book.
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Remember to share your own recommendations at the Sunday Book Club group on Facebook.
And why not spoil the non-dads as well? Our book of the month this August, Adele Parks’ Lies Lies Lies, is more aimed at a female readership but is a cracking read for all — and you get it for 30 per cent off by visiting Booktopia and using the code BCBT19.
Originally published as The best books for Astralian dads this Father’s Day
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