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Books that bind
Share your interests, love - or differences - with Dad by reading some well-chosen words.
By MARGO HAMMOND, Times Books Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 13, 2002
Fathers, Sons & Baseball: Our National Pastime and the Ties That Bond by Wayne Stewart (Lyons Press, $24.95).
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Baseball is a sport that seems to naturally bind fathers and sons. If you don't believe it, just ask Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr.; Bobby and Barry Bonds; Jose Cruz Sr. and Jr.; Cal Ripken Sr. and Jr. and Billy Ripken; Sandy Alomar Sr. and Jr. and Roberto Alomar; Felipe and Moises Alou; Tom and Ben Grieve, or any of the other first- and second-generation ballplayers who have made it to the major leagues en famille. Wayne Stewart, who has been writing about the game for more than 25 years, did, and his collection of interviews is just the ticket for that dad who spent all those Saturdays playing catch with his kids. Even if you didn't make it to the major leagues, let him know he's a major-league dad.
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Chicken Soup for the Father's Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Fathers by Jack Canfield (editor), Mark Victor Hansen, Mark Donnelly and Chrissy Donnelly (Health Communications, $12.95).
Okay, there have been too many Chicken Soup books, but if your dad is a sucker for sentiment, this is for him. Like all the other soupy collections, this daddy dearest version includes heartwarming contributions from famous fathers (Bill Cosby) and not-so-famous sons and daughters.
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Dear Rhonda: Life Lessons From a Father to His Daughter by Demitri Kornegay (Villard, $12.95)
A police officer for more than two decades, Demitri Kornegay wasn't sure he would always be there for his daughter, Rhonda. So he decided to write her a series of letters, giving her advice on dating, love, marriage, religion and race, among other subjects. After she told him over the phone that she was sad, he wrote to her about depression. In a letter in which he described the challenges she would face as a black woman, he enclosed an article about the first black man to attend classes at the University of Georgia. After Sept. 11, he wrote to "apologize for the inhumanity that exists, the poverty, disease, famine, political strife, bigotry, corruption, and hatred you nor any other child bargained for when you got here." At the end of this touching collection, Kornegay provides space for the reader to write. Why not write to dad and seek his fatherly advice?
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The Great Santini by Pat Conroy (Bantam, $7.99)
With the possible exception of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, most literary fathers are not perfect role models. From Huckleberry Finn to Angela's Ashes, they tend to be either abusers or losers. In a way, Pat Conroy's Lt. Col. Bull Meecham falls into both categories, but the Great Santini, for all his Marine macho, is a hard man to hate. Give this book to a dad whose blustering exterior hides a heart of gold.
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