Like Father, Like Son…

In honor of Father’s Day, here are four pairs of fathers and sons who have both made their mark as modern authors.

	Kingsley & Martin Amis Kingsley Amis was a prolific British novelist, poet, and critic who was as famous for his love of women and English pubs as he was for his comedic novels. If you want a taste of his work, try Lucky Jim, a classic academic satire. Martin Amis is still writing today, with a new book out this month, titled The Pregnant Widow. Amis often uses black humor to highlight the alienation and emptiness that he sees accompanying modern life. Time’s Arrow and London Fields are two of his best-known works.
	William F. & Christopher Buckley William F. Buckley is well-known as the founder of The National Review, but is perhaps lesser known as a novelist. Getting It Right is a coming of age story set against the early years of the modern conservative movement, while Nuremberg: The Reckoning is a fictional account of the Nuremberg trials. His son Christopher is one of the best satirists of modern politics and culture writing today. For a cringe-inducing laugh at our modern world, try Thank You For Smoking or Boomsday.
	Stephen King & Joe Hill Stephen King, one of America’s best known novelists, has recently branched out into a career as pop culture commentator (check out his monthly column in Entertainment Weekly) and memoirist (his book On Writing is part autobiography, part advice to young writers). His son, Joe Hill, is touted as one of the freshest new voices in the horror genre. His books 20th Century Ghosts, Heart-Shaped Box, and Horns have all been critical and commercial successes.
	David & Nic Sheff Award-winning journalist David Sheff shares his struggle to help his meth-addicted son in his 2008 book Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Meth Addiction. His son, Nic, writes of that very meth addiction, as well as his struggle to get clean, in Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines. These two books give a rare and moving glimpse into the effects that drug abuse has on the addict and the entire family.

Recommendable Reads: Bird Songs by Les Beletsky

Dan Coleman's Recommendable Read is Bird Songs: 250 North American Birds in Song by Les Beletsky. Also, Inez the cat makes her movie debut.

If You Liked To Kill a Mockingbird...

If you liked To Kill a Mockingbird--this year's Read Across Lawrence selection--you might also like these novels.

	The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale Lansdale’s widely praised homage to To Kill a Mockingbird is part bittersweet coming-of-age story and part white-knuckled murder mystery. From a distance of seventy years, Harry Crane looks back on his youth in Depression-era East Texas, spinning a tale of race, murder, and a small town sheriff trying to do the right thing. More about the book
	Clover by Dori Sanders Like Lee’s Scout, Sanders’ young narrator Clover Hill is simultaneously innocent and wise beyond her years. When her father dies tragically on his wedding day, Clover—ten years old and black—begins living with a white stepmother she barely knows. Set in South Carolina in the 1980s, Clover is a touching, heartfelt story of a child coming to terms with grief and change. More about the book
	Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns This exuberant, quirky, crowd-pleaser of a novel is set in Cold Sassy, Georgia in 1906. Burn's young narrator Will Tweedy tells the story of his grandfather’s scandalous second marriage to a much younger woman, and has plenty of adventures of his own. More about the book
	Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton First published in 1947, Cry, the Beloved Country put a human face of the injustices of apartheid, became an international bestseller, and was hailed by critics as an instant classic. The beauty of Paton’s novel--the story of a Zulu priest who travels to Johannesburg to find his missing family--hasn’t diminished with time. More about the book
	A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines In 1940s rural Louisiana, a young, uneducated black man is sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. Wanting him to die with dignity, his godmother convinces a local black school teacher to educate him. Gaines’ award-winning novel tells the simple but rich and moving story of the lessons both men teach each other as their relationship deepens. More about the book
	Mudbound by Hillary Jordan In 1946, Laura McAllan reluctantly moves to the Mississippi Delta after her husband purchases a farm. Narrated by six distinctive voices, Mudbound is an emotional but expertly rendered portrait of a particular place and time, and a poignant reminder of the toll of blind racism. More about the book
	My Last Days as Roy Rogers by Pat Cunningham Devoto The summer of 1954 in Bainbridge, Alabama is a season of high adventure and, ultimately, sobering drama for ten-year-old tomboy Tab and her best friend Maudie. Warm, humorous, and entertaining, Devoto’s debut is a knowing but loving portrait of the 1950s south. More about the book
	The Queen of Palmyra by Minrose Gwin It is 1963 and Florence Forrest, the child of an abusive father and an alcoholic mother, spends most of her days shuttled back and forth between the home of her grandparents and the home of Zenie, their black housekeeper. The Queen of Palmyra is an atmospheric, spellbinding story the tragedies wrought by racism. More about the book
	Right as Rain by Bev Marshall Full of humor, but also heartbreak, Right as Rain spans two decades in the intertwined lives of three families--two black and one white--in Zebulon, Mississippi. With intimately and vividly drawn characters, Marshall takes on the complexities of race in the South before and during the civil rights movement. More about the book
	The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd In Kidd’s much loved novel about the remarkable bonds between women, Lily and Rosaleen are taken in by three eccentric, bee-keeping sisters, after escaping from an abusive father and racist local policemen in 1960s South Carolina. The Secret Life of Bees is a vivid, hopeful story of the power of love. More about the book
	Snow in August by Pete Hamill Micheal Devlin, twelve-years-old and an Irish Catholic altar boy, develops an unlikely relationship with an aging rabbi who, in exchange for lessons about baseball and English, teaches him Yiddish and tells him stories about his life in Prague. Snow in August is an endearing tale of growing up and accepting others, and astrong evocation of 1940s Brooklyn. More about the book
	The Year the Colored Sisters Came to Town by Jacqueline Guidry In rural Louisiana in 1957, the arrival of two black nuns to teach at an all-white Catholic elementary school sends shockwaves through the community. It also teaches Guidry’s wide-eyed and precocious ten-year-old narrator some painful, and sometimes complicated, lessons about the results of racism. More about the book
	Your Blues Ain't Like Mine by Bebe Moore Campbell A racially-motivated beating in rural pre-civil rights era Mississippi echoes through the generations in Campbell’s poignant, poetic saga of family and race. Your Blues Ain't Like Mine was compared favorably to the work of Harper Lee, Alice Walker, and Flannery O’Connor. More about the book

Recommendable Reads: To Kill a Mockingbird

Don't forget to visit our Read Across Lawrence page!

Post a Video. Win Free Books.

Want to win a $10 gift certificate to the spring book sale?

We're launching a video series, Recommendable Reads, and need your help! For a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the spring book sale, just create a video, around one minute long, about a book you love. Upload it to YouTube and send the link to sbrown@lawrencepubliclibray.org by noon on Monday, April 4. The winner will be chosen at random. Please tag your videos with "Lawrence Public Library" and "Recommendable Reads".

The first video in the series, created by LPL’s marketing coordinator Susan Brown, is posted below.