10 great books for Father's Day

What do you buy for the father who already has everything? How about a book that manages to be a great read, even as it paints a compelling portrait of fatherhood?

Here are 10 recent books that meet both criteria:

1. My Father's Paradise, by Ariel Sabar (Algonquin Books, 345 pp., $14.95). This moving memoir tells the story of journalist Ariel Sabar's travels with his father to Iraq in an effort to understand his family's roots in an ancient community of Iraqi Jews. (CSM review 9/16/08)

2. The Father of All Things, by Tom Bissell (Vintage, 432 pp., $14.95) In a book that combines memoir, travelogue, and history, Tom Bissell tells of the 2005 trip to Vietnam he took with his father, a former US Marine and Vietnam vet. (CSM review 3/13/07)

3. The River of Doubt, by Candice Millard (Anchor, 432 pp., $15). In 1912, after a humiliating defeat in his third presidential bid, Theodore Roosevelt tried to distract himself and his son Kermit with a foolhardy trip down an unmarked Brazilian river. This stranger-than-fiction tale is a gripping read but also a touching father and son story. (CSM review 10/11/05)

4. Brother, I'm Dying, by Edwige Danticat (Vintage, 288 pp., $15) Haitian immigrant Edwidge Danticat has written a moving tribute to her father and uncle, the two men who raised her and loved each other and yet spent most of their adult lives on separate shores. (CSM review 9/11/07)

5. Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and her Father, by John Matteson (W.W. Norton, 512 p., $17.95) Matteson tells the odd, fascinating story of the über idealistic Bronson Alcott and the impact of his life decisions on his daughter, beloved childrens' book author Louis May Alcott. (CSM review 8/21/07)

1 | 2

Next