Things I Wish My Father Had Told Me is a collection of sayings for a happier life and for dealing with life's struggles from former U.S. Army counselor, Leonard Adams, whose childhood trauma from abusive parents was rejected and his own life was turned around. The motivational sayings are random snapshots of how to embody love in one's life and relationships, resulting in an affirmation of the possibilities for any of us, no matter how terrible are the conditions we are currently experiencing.
"My intention was to 'peek' at I Wish My Father, but I couldn't put it down, and after the last poem, I started again from page one and read to the end. This collection is so moving and plain-spoken, that the careful attention to the ingredients of sound and prosody baked into each line might go unnoticed, which is what we, as poets, hope for. I got to know the author's dad in all his humanity; he is now part of my family. A wonderful companion to I Carry My Mother; in both volumes, Newman captures the moods and personalities beautifully". -Richard Michelson, author of More Money Than God "I Wish My Father is a study of a father-daughter relationship, full of daily expressions of love, loyalty, and devotion that passes between the two. In this book-length verse sequence, a partner to Newman's previous collection I Carry My Mother, the poet bears witness to her father's life, post losing his wife/her mother, and brings forth their shared grief in finely wrought observations of domestic moments that resound with larger meaning. With Newman's trademark clarity of language and her matter-of-fact tone mixed with tenderness, these poems offer moving reflections on facing the vicissitudes of aging, loss, and mortality." -Shara McCallum, author of No Ruined Stone "This collection speaks eloquently to the dictum that if you write fully about one person, you write about all people in their humanity. Lesléa Newman deftly enumerates situations that in their beautifully observed wrinkles and folds give forth the feeling of an aged man's life and his relationship with his daughter, who, in dealing with his crotchets and quibbles, to saying nothing of pure stubbornness, is 'on the edge / of a nervous breakdown.' Droll and sad, these poems possess an abundance of insight, a precious empathy that rises out of the depths of exasperation into the bemused heights of love." -Baron Wormser, author of Unidentified Sighing Objects
A gift-appropriate story for kids features a long-suffering boy's eye-rolling observations of his father's bombastic and often corny sense of humor, which is comprised of groan-out-loud puns and wisecracking rejoinders.
Sometimes daddies are loud and playful. Other times they are quiet and compassionate. And they are always loving. Sebastien Braun's appealing text and charming illustrations follow a day in the life of a bear and his bear cub in this celebration of the bond between father and child.
From author and speaker Romal Tune and his son, Jordan, comes this tour de force about fathers, sons, and healing the unfinished business between them. Tune sits down with seventeen men for I Wish My Dad interviews and offers strategies to initiate your own vulnerable conversations, freeing you to have, and become, the kind of dad you wished for.
