Spending years as a librarian at a preschool, I had a few go-to books.  This author’s The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man was and is one of my favorites.  It was read aloud frequently in my library and suggested constantly.  I even joked that I should be earning royalty on the number of copies I sold at book fairs.  So, when I saw this author’s name on a book for adults, I could not resist.  Nice surprise, he writes well for adults too!!!!

This collection of essays centers around an article that originally appeared in GQ.  It was written by the author while he was accompanying his 13 year old son to Men’s Fashion Week in Paris.  The author’s ability to realize that his response to things is not always his son’s was insightful.  It made me wish I had read it years ago when my own son was (ok still is) an encyclopedia of animal knowledge.

My favorite piece was The Old Ball Game.  I too was/am/will be a baseball fan – who was not a good player but could enjoy a pickup game in my old neighborhood.  Alleyway games where the girls were allowed to be on the same team as the boys (they needed the extra bodies) brings back fond memories that have been shadowed by so much of the current baseball environment.

This would make a wonderful gift for all the father’s out there – no matter their stage of Daddyhood.

SUMMARY

“Magical prose stylist” Michael Chabon (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times) delivers a collection of essays—heartfelt, humorous, insightful, wise—on the meaning of fatherhood.

For the September 2016 issue of GQ, Michael Chabon wrote a piece about accompanying his son Abraham Chabon, then thirteen, to Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Possessed with a precocious sense of style, Abe was in his element chatting with designers he idolized and turning a critical eye to the freshest runway looks of the season; Chabon Sr., whose interest in clothing stops at “thrift-shopping for vintage western shirts or Hermès neckties,” sat idly by, staving off yawns and fighting the impulse that the whole thing was a massive waste of time. Despite his own indifference, however, what gradually emerged as Chabon ferried his son to and from fashion shows was a deep respect for his son’s passion. The piece quickly became a viral sensation.

With the GQ story as its centerpiece, and featuring six additional essays plus an introduction, Pops illuminates the meaning, magic, and mysteries of fatherhood as only Michael Chabon can.