Great Books for Father's Day 2021
Father's Day is on Sunday the 20th of June. Whether your dad loves a great thriller, the best history writing or a world-class sports book, there's a great selection to choose from this year. Here are just a few;
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
For those readers familiar with Patrick Radden Keefe, particularly his astonishing account of the Northern Irish Troubles, Say Nothing – you’ll already know that he is one of the best investigative journalists on the planet.
His latest book is Empire Of Pain, a study of the infamous Sackler family. The Sacklers have been hailed as modern day Medici’s, a family commited to philanthropy and charity, pumping billions of dollars a year into deserving causes and institutions.
They are also the family that produced and marketed oxycontin, the drug at the very heart of America’s opiod epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are now addicted to oxycontin, while the death-toll from overdoses reaches catastrophic proportions. All the while, the Sacklers continue to aggressively market this drug and take strenuous steps to hide the truth from the media.
This is investigative journalism as it’s supposed to be, wide ranging, hard hitting and wonderfully written. A fanatstic interview with Keefe on Eamon Dunphy’s podcast The Stand can be found here.
Northern Spy by Flynn Berry
Dozens of crime-writers have attempted to set a thriller amidst the carnage and subterfuge of Northern Ireland’s Troubles over the last decade or so, usually with pretty hollow results. Flynn Berry’s Northern Spy should be held up as an example to them all.
This is a proper thriller, character driven and laced with tension throughout.
It’s been years since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, but tensions in Northern Ireland remain at a constant simmer. A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another IRA raid comes on the air: as the anchor requests the public’s help in locating those responsible for this latest attack – a robbery at a gas station – Tessa’s sister Marian appears on the screen, pulling a black mask over her face.
The police believe Marian has joined the IRA, but Tessa knows this is impossible. But when the truth of what has happened to her sister reveals itself, Tessa will be forced to choose: between her ideals and her family.
The Accidental Footballer by Pat Nevin
Pat Nevin never wanted to be a professional footballer. His future was clear, he’d become a teacher like his brothers. There was only one problem with this – Pat was far too good to avoid attention.
Raised in Glasgow’s East End, Pat loved the game, playing for hours and obsessively following Celtic. But as he grew up, he also loved Joy Division, wearing his Indie ‘gloom boom’ coat and going on marches – hardly typical footballer behaviour!
Placed firmly in the 80s and 90s, before the advent of the Premier League, and often with racism and violence present, Pat Nevin writes with honesty, insight and wry humour. We are transported vividly to Chelsea and Everton, and colourfully diverted by John Peel, Morrissey and nights out at the Hacienda.
The Accidental Footballer is a different kind of football memoir. Capturing all the joys of professional football as well as its contradictions and conflicts, it’s about being defined by your actions, not your job, and is the perfect reminder of how life can throw you the most extraordinary surprises, when you least expect it.
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Falling by T.J. Newman
This one is a pure, adrenaline-fuelled thriller, descibed by Ian Rankin as “Speed on a passenger jet – with the cockpit dials turned up to supersonic”.
You just boarded a flight to New York.
There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.
What you don’t know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot’s family was kidnapped.
For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.
The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.
Enjoy the flight.
You’ll get your copy of this incredibly fun thriller from LitVox online.
The Power of Geography by Tim Marshall
Tim Marshall’s global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation’s choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn’t changed. But the world has.
In this revelatory new book, Marshall explores ten regions that are set to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain and Space. Find out why Europe’s next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks as trouble brews in the Sahel; why the Middle East must look beyond oil and sand to secure its future; why the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the twenty-first century; and why the Earth’s atmosphere is set to become the world’s next battleground.
Delivered with Marshall’s trademark wit and insight, this is a lucid and gripping exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity’s past, present – and future.
If your pops is obsessed with politics, current affairs or just an outstanding non-fiction read, this is the perfect Father’s Day choice. Get it now from LitVox.
Behind the Lions by Stephen Jones
The Lions tour gets underway on the 3rd of July, so there’s no better time to get stuck into this fully-updated work of Rugby history.
For 125 years the British & Irish Lions have stood out as a peerless emblem in world sport. This unique account of the best from the four Home Nations examines every tour in the Lions’ history, including the victorious 2013 tour to Hong Kong and Australia, told in the players’ words.
Behind the Lions sees six esteemed rugby writers from across the Home Nations delve to the heart of what it means to be a Lion, interviewing a vast array of former and current players to uncover the passion, pride and exhilaration experienced when wearing the famous red jersey.
It is a tale of heart-break and ecstasy, humour and poignancy that is at once inspirational, moving and utterly compelling. This is the story of the British & Irish Lions in their own words.
Looking for the gift that keeps on giving for the reading dad? Check out LitVox Book Subscriptions! Every month, LitVox will select the latest and best books and deliver them right to your dad’s door, no matter where he is! There’s a subscription to match all tastes, it’s highly customisable, and can be cancelled at any time.
Four Killings: Land Hunger, Murder and A Family in the Irish Revolution by Myles Duggan
The story of a single family during the Irish Revolution, Four Killings is a book about political murder, and the powerful hunger for land and the savagery it can unleash.
Myles Dungan’s family was involved in four violent deaths between 1915 and 1922. Jack Clinton, an immigrant small farmer from County Meath, was murdered in the remote and lawless Arizona territory by a powerful rancher’s hired assassin; three more died in Ireland, and each death is compellingly reconstructed in this extraordinary book.
Mark Clinton was murdered by a group of agrarian ‘bandits’ who resented his family’s possession of some disputed acres; his killer was tried and executed by the dead man’s relatives and comrades in the Meath IRA. A mentally challenged youth was shot as an informer by another relative of Dungan’s, and buried in secrecy and silence.
What unites these deaths is the violence that engulfed Ireland during the campaign against the British, but also the passions unleashed by arguments over the ownership of the soil. That often brutal struggle between landless labourers and smallholders and more prosperous farmers is a forgotten aspect of the war of independence.
You can pick up your copy of this stunning history book here.
You'll find plenty more Fathers Day ideas on our bookshop homepage.
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