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Best Books for Dad 2022

Father's Day

Best Books for Dad 2022

Father’s Day is a time to celebrate the men in our lives who have raised and loved us. Why not show him your appreciation by inspiring him with a great book? We have 12 titles that are perfect gift-giving suggestions for Dad, keeping him busy through the rest of the year.

 

Congratulations to the five winners of our 17th Annual Father’s Day Contest! Each winner received a prize package that includes all of the titles in this year’s feature.

This year's prize books are:

  • CAROLINA MOONSET by Matt Goldman
  • DECEMBER '41: A World War II Thriller, by William Martin
  • DREAM TOWN: An Archer Novel, by David Baldacci
  • THE LAST COMMANDMENT: An Austin Grant of Scotland Yard Novel, by Scott Shepherd
  • MAGIC SEASON: A Son's Story, by Wade Rouse
  • THE MATCH by Harlan Coben
  • MY SEVEN BLACK FATHERS: A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole, by Will Jawando
  • THE OMEGA FACTOR by Steve Berry
  • SWING AND A HIT: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, by Paul O'Neill and Jack Curry
  • TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY by Linwood Barclay
  • UNDELIVERED: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History, by Jeff Nussbaum
  • WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BENNETTS by Lisa Scottoline

Winners

Ann B. from Ravenna, OH
Anne P. from Murrells Inlet, SC
Julia H. from Excelsior, MN
Minna S. from Cherry Hill, NJ
Steven B. from Tulalip, WA

 

Carolina Moonset by Matt Goldman - Mystery/Thriller


Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, to look after his ailing father, who is succumbing to dementia. Marshall Green’s short-term memory has all but evaporated, but his oldest memories are more vivid than ever. His mind keeps slipping backwards in time, retreating into long-ago yesterdays of growing up in Beaufort as a boy. But Joey grows increasingly anxious as his hallucinatory arguments with figures from his youth begin to hint at deadly secrets, scandals and suspicions long buried and forgotten. Resurfacing from decades past are mysteries that still have the power to shatter lives --- and change everything Joey thought he knew. Especially when a new murder brings the police to his door.

December '41: A World War II Thriller by William Martin - Historical Thriller


On the day after Pearl Harbor, shocked Americans gather around their radios to hear Franklin Roosevelt declare war. In Los Angeles, a German agent named Martin Browning is planning to kill FDR on the night he lights the National Christmas Tree. Who will stop him? Relentless FBI Agent Frank Carter? Kevin Cusack, a Hollywood script reader who also spies on the German Bund of Los Angeles and becomes a suspect himself? Or Vivian Hopewell, the aspiring actress who signs on to play Martin Browning's wife and cannot help but fall in love with him? The clock is ticking. The tracks are laid. The train of narrow escapes, mistaken identities and shocking deaths is right on schedule.

Dream Town: An Archer Novel by David Baldacci - Historical Thriller

Aloysius Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the New Year with an old friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan, when their evening is interrupted by an acquaintance of Callahan’s: Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter in dire straits. After a series of increasingly chilling events, Eleanor fears that her life is in danger, and she wants to hire Archer to look into the matter. Archer suspects that Eleanor knows more than she’s saying, but before he can officially take on her case, a dead body turns up inside of Eleanor’s home…and Eleanor herself disappears. With the help of Callahan and his partner, Willie Dash, Archer launches an investigation that will take him from mob-ridden Las Vegas to the glamorous world of Hollywood to the darkest corners of Los Angeles.

The Last Commandment: An Austin Grant of Scotland Yard Novel by Scott Shepherd - Mystery/Thriller


Christmastime in London. When three seemingly unconnected victims are murdered with matching sequential Roman numerals carved into their foreheads, Metropolitan Police Commander Austin Grant finds his answer in one of the last places he’d expect: the Holy Bible. Each of the deaths correspond to a transgression of one of the Ten Commandments, and Grant must find the killer before the remaining Commandments are commemorated with homicides. Unfortunately for Grant, the next victim with a number on their forehead turns up not in London, but across the pond at the iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, turning this English murder case into a transatlantic manhunt spanning two global metropolises, each with its own rich history and culture.

Magic Season: A Son's Story by Wade Rouse - Memoir

Before his success in public relations, his loving marriage and his storied writing career, Wade Rouse was simply Ted Rouse's son. A queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade struggled at a young age to garner his father's approval and find his voice. For his part, Ted was a hard-lined engineer, offering little emotional support or encouragement. But Wade and Ted had one thing in common: an undying love of the St. Louis Cardinals. For decades, baseball offered Wade and his father a shared vocabulary --- a way to stay in touch, to connect and to express their emotions. But when his father's health takes a turn for the worse, Wade returns to southwest Missouri to share one final season with his father.

The Match by Harlan Coben - Thriller


A DNA match on an online ancestry database brings Wilde closer to his past than he’s ever dreamed and finally gives him the opening he needs to track down his father. But meeting the man brings up more questions than answers. So Wilde reaches out to his last, most desperate lead: a second cousin who disappears as quickly as he resurfaces, having experienced an epic fall from grace. Was his cousin’s downfall a long time coming? Or was he the victim of a conspiracy as cunning as it is complex? And how does it all connect to the man once known as The Stranger, a treacherous fugitive with a growing following whose mission and methods have only turned more dangerous with time?

My Seven Black Fathers: A Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Me Whole by Will Jawando - Memoir


Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian name, Yemi, was shunted from school to school, never quite fitting in. He was a Black kid with a divorced white mother, a frayed relationship with his biological father, and teachers who scolded him for being disruptive in class and on the playground. Eventually, he became close to Kalfani, a kid he looked up to on the basketball court. Years after he got the call telling him that Kalfani was dead, another sickening casualty of gun violence, Will looks back on the relationships with an extraordinary series of mentors that enabled him to thrive.

The Omega Factor by Steve Berry - Thriller

The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee, who works for the United Nations’ Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick’s job is to protect the world’s cultural artifacts --- anything and everything from countless lesser-known objects to national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering for nearly 2,000 years.

Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me by Paul O'Neill and Jack Curry - Sports/Memoir

In SWING AND A HIT, All-Star Yankee and five-time World Series champion Paul O’Neill elaborates on his most important hitting principles, lessons and memories --- exploring those elements across 10 chapters (to align with the nine innings of a baseball game and one extra inning). Here, O’Neill describes what he did as a hitter, how he adjusted to pitchers, how he boosted his confidence, how he battled with umpires (and water coolers), and what advice he would give to current hitters. O’Neill has always been a tough out at the plate. Recalling how he started to swing a bat as a two-year-old and kept swinging it professionally until he was 38, O’Neill provides constant insights into the beauty and frustration of playing baseball.

Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay - Psychological Thriller

One weekend, while Andrew Mason was on a fishing trip, his wife, Brie, vanished without a trace. Most everyone assumed Andy had gotten away with murder, but the police could never build a strong case against him. Six years later, Andy has finally put his life back together. He sold the house he once shared with Brie and moved away. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sad to hear that the old place was razed and a new house built on the site. One day, a woman shows up at his old address, screaming, “Where’s my house? What’s happened to my house?” And then, just as suddenly as she appeared, the woman --- who bears a striking resemblance to Brie --- is gone. The police are notified, and old questions --- and dark suspicions --- resurface.

Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History by Jeff Nussbaum - History


For almost every delivered speech, there exists an undelivered opposite. These "second speeches" provide alternative histories of what could have been if not for schedule changes, changes of heart or momentous turns of events. In UNDELIVERED, political speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum presents the most notable speeches the public never heard, from Dwight Eisenhower’s apology for a D-Day failure to Richard Nixon’s refusal to resign the presidency, and even Hillary Clinton’s acceptance for a 2016 victory --- the latter never seen until now. Examining the content of these speeches and the context of the historic moments that almost came to be, Nussbaum considers not only what they tell us about the past but also what they can inform us about our present.

What Happened to the Bennetts by Lisa Scottoline - Thriller


Jason Bennett is driving his family home after his daughter’s field hockey game when a pickup truck begins tailgating them. Suddenly two men jump from the pickup and pull guns on Jason, demanding the car. A horrific flash of violence changes his life forever. Later that awful night, Jason and his family receive a visit from the FBI. The carjackers were members of a dangerous drug-trafficking organization, and now Jason and his family are in their crosshairs. The agents advise them to enter the witness protection program, and they have no choice but to agree. The Bennetts begin to fall apart at the seams. Then Jason learns a shocking truth and realizes that he has to take matters into his own hands.