10 books for father's day
DADS are being asked to man up and read a book this Father's Day in a bid to improve children's literacy skills.
DADS are being asked to man up and read a book this Father's Day in a bid to improve children's literacy skills.
Studies in Australia and around the world show boys are lagging behind girls when it comes to reading at school but that male role models can help kids achieve better results.
In this, the National Year of Reading, Australian libraries and other stakeholders are staging events to help improve student's literacy skills and increase the number of children reading books.
To this end, a national reading hour is being staged on Saturday (August 25) in which every Australian is being asked to read for one hour to put literacy in the spotlight.
Because women read more than men in general - and buy up to 80 per cent of books sold - fathers are being urged to discover the joy of reading too.
"Men tend to read to learn something - they like truth and fact-based books,'' says State Library Queensland public and indigenous library services director Jane Cowell.
"The growth in science fiction has brought more men in to reading because it has some fact base in there in science but we're not sure why they don't read more fiction.
"Maybe men are hard-wired for action and, for them, reading is about learning or doing or knowing something rather than simple pleasure.
"But it doesn't matter what you read, it's that you enjoy it,'"
Here's ten titles to choose from for dad this Father's Day:
CRIME
Melbourne journalist Steve Lillebuen recounts the chilling true story of how a film script became a real life murder in The Devil's Cinema(Penguin, $29.95). Uncovering never-seen-before police, court and other details, Lillebuen reveals how aspiring Canadian filmmaker Mark Twitchell, inspired by the television show Dexter, became the "Dexter Killer''.
MILITARY
The anniversary of the Battle of Milne Bay is this week (August 25 - September 7, 1942) and Phillip Bradley combines research with real stories to recreate the war in New Guinea, Australia's largest military commitment of World War Two, in Hell's Battlefield (Allen and Unwin, $49.99).
FOOD/WINE
Few Australian wine critics are as experienced as James Halliday and in his memoir readers get to know the man who started out his career in a London brewery and went on to found Brokenwood and Coldstream Hills wineries. James Halliday: a life in wine(Hardie Grant, $45) is also a journey through Australia's wine industry.
MUSIC
How a small-town aspiring musician became one of America's most successful and enduring rock stars is revealed in Marc Dolan's Bruce Springsteen and the promise of Rock 'N' Roll (Wiley, $37.95). Rare studio recordings, long-lost set lists and collaborations with other musicians are analysed to show Springsteen's musical evolution.
SCIENCE FICTION
In a world destroyed by biological terrorism, a daughter wanting to put her own life in danger to save the human race is stopped by a father who puts his love above all else. Winner of the UK's top science fiction prize, the Arthur C. Clarke award, The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Allen & Unwin, $19.99) will force dads to question whether they'd let their child die to save the world.
THRILLER
A naive Australian computer programmer finds himself on an airforce base in Nevada, America and part of the war between the US and the Middle East in Andrew Croome's spy thriller, Midnight Empire (Allen & Unwin, $$27.99). Croome combines high stake poker in Las Vegas and the blurring of geographic and political lines to paint a disturbing picture of a future world where there's no borders.
BUSINESS/FINANCE
How America and Australia should respond to the rise of China is the basis of ANU professor Hugh White's book, The China Choice: Why America Should Share Power (Black Inc, $29.99). White argues America should relinquish its supremacy but how will this impact Australia's economic future?
SPORT
The footy, the finances and the move to France are all covered in former rugby league player Mark Gasnier's autobiography, Gaz (Random House, $34.95). The former St George Illawarra player, who retired last year, tells his side of the highs and lows of an 11-year sporting career.
HISTORY
David Day's Antarctica: A biography (Knof, $45) is an eye-opening history of the race amongst nations to be the first to plant their flag in the frozen land. It is a big book, covering Captain James Cook's attempts to find the 'Great South Land' in the 1770s to the present and all the explorers and adventurers in between.
BIOGRAPHY
Colonial hero and criminal; upstanding businessman and boxer. Joseph Windred was one of the most contradictory and extraordinary characters in Australian history and Stephen Dando-Collins recounts his life story in Mistaken Identity: the trials of Joe Windred (Random House, $34.95).