Today is my father’s birthday. His 81st. He’s a retired physician who worked so many hours during his working life that he never had time for all the things he wanted to do around the house. “Projects” piled up that he was going to get to some day, although I suspect we all do a bit of that “someday” thinking.
I will fix the flibberty-gibbet when I have time…
Only when you do have some time it’s more fun to take a nap or read or do something that is less like work. And now, for various reasons, he cannot do the things he was saving up to do.
Anyway, he loves to read. He doesn’t read on a Kindle, so it’s paper for him all the way. Which gets me into the bookstore pretty often. I try to think of books he might like, but he’s a tough cookie. Very picky. Sometimes I give him a dud, and I feel terrible.
A while back, after I read my first Lee Child book, I knew my dad would love Jack Reacher. And I was right.
Unfortunately, eventually, I had both of us caught up with his backlist. At that point, my dad actually started trolling the internet looking for information about the next Jack Reacher book. He would duly print out whatever he’d found and bring it to me with instructions to please get that book for him. So cute. Then I signed him up for Child’s newsletter. Smash hit. I think I am his favorite daughter whenever a newsletter arrives.
I went to Bouchercon a couple years ago and, as it happens, Lee Child was a speaker and doing a signing. I brought the penultimate hardback with me, and purchased the new book Child was signing, and I stood in a very, very long line and got the books signed for my dad. Child was completely gracious. And my dad was tickled pink to get personally autographed books.
Now my Dad prints off all the newsletters and brings them to me to make sure I get the book for him right away. But I get the newsletter too, and I’m faster on the ‘Net and always have the book on order at the local independent for him.
Dad likes (I’m pretty sure) Navy SEAL books; I got him the bin Laden op book and a couple others and he seems to have liked them. I get him political thrillers because he’s got some rather looney political conspiracy theories himself. (Fiction for us, non-fiction for him?)
My Question to you
Dad loves mysteries and I’ve been thinking that I should possibly get him some of the Heyer mysteries. But I have not read any of them. Have any of you? Which would you recommend? Please let me know in the comments!
Other stuff
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.