Since you can send a Kindle book via email, either instantly or at a scheduled, future date and time, it’s the perfect last-minute gift for loved ones who are far away. And since the recipient doesn’t even have to own a Kindle to read a Kindle book, it’s a great way to introduce newcomers to the joys of e-reading without persuading anyone to invest in a new gadget.
As I recently blogged over at Digital Media Mom:
Amazon has made a FREE Kindle Reader app available for every device you can imagine: PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, Android devices of all kinds, Blackberry smart phones, Windows phones…pretty much whatever device you’ve got, there’s a FREE Kindle Reader app for that. There’s even the Kindle Cloud Reader, which allows you to read Kindle books in a web browser! Once you’ve got the Reader app you want, you’re all set to start enjoying Kindle books on your preferred device.
No matter what kind of guy your dad is, there’s a Kindle book to suit his tastes! So go ahead, last-minute Father’s Day shoppers: send Dad a Kindle book for his special day, and in the note you’re allowed to attach to your gift, include one of the above links to the Amazon page with information about all the Kindle Reader apps. Alternatively, send it in a separate email of your own.
In no time, Dad’ll be reading a great new book on a device he already owns and knows how to use.
Here are some quality, affordable choices for the dad in your life—and you may just be tempted to pick up a few of them for yourself!
For Crime / Detective / Mystery Fan Dads
Eighty Million Eyes – 87th Precinct – Ed McBain (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
Stan Gifford is the ultimate comedian. A pro through and through, when Stan’s act dies, so does he—in front of forty million viewers from coast to coast, including the 87th Precinct’s Steve Carella. But what seemed to be death by natural causes quickly turns into a case of murder, and Carella must unravel the motivations behind the comedian’s final act.
Meanwhile, Cindy Forrest has been working to put herself through college since the sniper who held the city hostage three years ago murdered her father. But now she’s in the crosshairs, and the only thing standing between her and a killer is Detective Bert Kling of the 87th Precinct.
A pair of spellbinding mysteries full of intricate plotting and razor-sharp dialogue, Eighty Million Eyes is an Ed McBain classic, keeping the boundary-pushing spirit of his 87th Precinct series rocketing forward with gritty precision.
For Horror Fan Dads
Afraid: A Novel of Terror (4/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
WELCOME TO SAFE HAVEN, POPULATION 907…
Nestled in the woods of Wisconsin, Safe Haven is miles from everything. With one road in and out, this is a town so peaceful it has never needed a full-time police force. Until now…
A helicopter has crashed on the outskirts of town and something terrible has been unleashed. A classified secret weapon programmed to kill anything that stands in its way. Now it’s headed for the nearest lights to do what it does best. Isolate. Terrorize. Annihilate.
Soon all phone lines are dead and the road is blocked. Safe Haven’s only chance for survival rests on the shoulders of an aging county sheriff. And as the body count rises, the sheriff realizes something even more terrifying – maybe death hasn’t come to his little town by accident…
WELCOME TO SAFE HAVEN, POPULATION 907… 906… 905…
AFRAID by Jack Kilborn:
Are you afraid of the dark? You will be.
For Grillmaster Dads
How to Grill: The Complete Illustrated Book of Barbecue Techniques, A Barbecue Bible! Cookbook (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
Without a doubt the most interesting, comprehensive, and well-thought-out book on grilling ever and it’s destined to be in the kitchens and backyards of both professionals and home cooks. Every detail is made clear and easy in a concise and inspirational way. Spark it up! (Mario Batali, Molto Mario – The Food Network – Mario Batali’s Simple Italian Food)
The definitive how-to guide for anyone passionate about grilling, from the newest beginner to the most sophisticated chef. (Tom Colicchio, Think like a Chef)
Master the techniques that make barbecue great with this indispensable show-and-tell by Steven Raichlen. Using more than 1,000 full-color, step-by-step photographs, How to Grill covers it all, from how to build an ingenious three-zone fire to the secrets of grilling a porterhouse, prime rib, fish steak, kebab, or chicken breast. Plus the perfect burger. Includes 100 recipes – one to illustrate each technique – with memorably delicious results!
For History Buff and War Buff Dads
The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $3.99)
Victor Davis Hanson has long been acclaimed as one of our leading scholars of ancient history. In recent years he has also become a trenchant voice on current affairs, bringing a historian’s deep knowledge of past conflicts to bear on the crises of the present, from 9/11 to Iran.
“War,” he writes, “is an entirely human enterprise.”
Ideologies change, technologies develop, new strategies are invented-but human nature is constant across time and space. The dynamics of warfare in the present age still remain comprehensible to us through careful study of the past. Though many have called the War on Terror unprecedented, its contours would have been quite familiar to Themistocles of Athens or William Tecumseh Sherman. And as we face the menace of a bin Laden or a Kim Jong-Il, we can prepare ourselves with knowledge of how such challenges have been met before.
The Father of Us All brings together much of Hanson’s finest writing on war and society, both ancient and modern. The author has gathered a range of essays, and combined and revised them into a richly textured new work that explores such topics as how technology shapes warfare, what constitutes the “American way of war,” and why even those who abhor war need to study military history. “War is the father and king of us all,” Heraclitus wrote in ancient Greece. And as Victor Davis Hanson shows, it is no less so today.
For Fix-It Dads
Black & Decker The Complete Photo Guide Homeowner Basics: 100 Essential Projects Every Homeowner Needs to Know (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $13.74)
Homeowners who are ready to remodel, just moving in, or ready to tackle their first DIY repair will find Black & Decker The Complete Photo Guide for New Homeowners indispensable. Filled with easy-to-follow projects for all of the most common repairs and installations homeowners confront, this is the essential guide for readers with little to no do-it-yourself experience.
This book is carefully tailored for the needs of homeowners new to the art of home repair and maintenance. Each section includes an overview of the topic; including information on common tools and materials, overall house systems, and how to evaluate different situations. Then specific projects start with a list of common terms and a photographed list of the tools and materials needed for the project at hand. Detailed, step-by-step photo instructions follow.
For Science Buff Dads
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
The Periodic Table is one of man’s crowning scientific achievements. But it’s also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
We learn that Marie Curie used to provoke jealousy in colleagues’ wives when she’d invite them into closets to see her glow-in-the-dark experiments. And that Lewis and Clark swallowed mercury capsules across the country and their campsites are still detectable by the poison in the ground. Why did Gandhi hate iodine? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium? And why did tellurium lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history?
From the Big Bang to the end of time, it’s all in THE DISAPPEARING SPOON.
For Gardening Dads
Garden Guide – A No Nonsense, No PhD, No Fuss Guide to Great Gardens with Hand-Holding How To’s for Beginners and Straightforward Instruction for Advanced Gardeners (5/5 stars, currently priced at 99 cents)
We’ve all admired our neighbor’s gorgeous gardens filled with flowering perennials and longed to recreate their beauty in our own back yard. But if we’re being honest, when it comes to gardening, most of us have no idea where to begin. Additionally, in these economic times, who can afford to hire an expert to come in and do the job for us? That said, regular folks all across North America and Europe are returning to the soil, shovels in hand. With the help of this book, there is absolutely no need to fly blind into the world of green thumbs, perennials, and herbs.The name—Garden Guide: A No Nonsense, No PhD Guide to Great Gardens with Hand-Holding How To’s for Beginners and Straightforward Instruction for Advanced Gardeners—truly says it all. Indeed, this book is the hand-holding garden guide that will walk even the most timid novice right through the gardening process from beginning to end.
In addition to straight forward, practical advice in everyday language, you will love the stories and anecdotes Olver shares from her fifteen years of backyard, organic gardening adventures. Easy and entertaining, you‘ll probably read this book in one sitting, but you’ll reference it for years to come. The beauty of Garden Guide is that Olver divides her advice into two sections: Beginning Gardeners and Advanced Gardeners. No matter what your skill level, there are simple explanations, tips, and tricks that will walk you through every aspect of the garden process. Garden Guide features details such as:
• Everything you need to know about location, from sunlight to drainage to selecting just the right spot
• How to understand soil types, how to amend and condition them
• pH levels and soil testing broken down in simple terms
• Step by Step guide for planning your PERFECT garden no matter where the location
• Fertilizing made manageable with explanations for all those numbers and organic alternatives
• Composting broken down so you can start immediately
• Pests obliterated with loads of organic suggestions
• The basics of garden maintenance from deadheading to dividing perennials
• Loads of helpful website suggestions for purchasing plants online, getting ideas, locating county extension offices, perennial databases and so much more.
• Gardening terms are defined in language you will both understand and remember
If you have time to read only one book on gardening, this is the book to choose. Short enough not to feel like an encyclopedia and just long enough to wet your gardening appetite, Olver has woven basic garden science and practical ideas for everyday people into each page. With her warm, inviting, no-nonsense instruction, you will be amazed how simple and doable gardening really is. Not only will it thoroughly educate you in basic gardening, Garden Guide will send you well on your way toward beautiful perennials gardens and leave you inspired and hungry to begin planting in your own patch of earth.
For Outdoorsy Dads
The Best of Outside: The First 20 Years (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $11.99)
For two decades Outside magazine has remained committed to good writing, publishing feature articles from well-known authors on a variety of topics connected (in sometimes obscure yet fascinating ways) to the outdoors, adventure, travel, and just about anything else that happens beyond the confines of the mall. The most memorableof these pieces are collected in a single anthology, The Best of Outside: Tom McGuane offers compelling reasons to hunt; Jonathan Raban discusses life on the open ocean; Barry Lopez considers the graceful and beleaguered flocks of snow geese that once filled the skies. Also included are the original articles from Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger that would expand into their bestselling books Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm, respectively.
The man-eating proclivities of Komodo dragons. The complicated art of being a cowgirl. A picaresque ramble with a merry band of tree-cleaners. The big-wave crusaders of the world’s best surfers. For the past twenty years, Outside magazine has set the standard for original and engaging reports on travel, adventure, sports, and the environment.
Along the way, many of America’s best journalists and storytellers–including such writers as Jon Krakauer, Tim Cahill, E. Annie Proulx, Edward Abbey, Thomas McGuane, David Quammen, and Jane Smiley–have made the magazine a venue for some of their most compelling work. The Best of Outside represents the finest the award-winning magazine has to offer: thirty stories that range from high action to high comedy. Whether it’s Jonathan Raban sailing the open sea, Susan Orlean celebrating Spain’s first female bullfighter, or Jim Harrison taking the wheel on a cross-country road trip, each piece can be characterized in a word: unforgettable. Commemorating Outside magazine’s twentieth anniversary, The Best of Outside is one of the most entertaining and provocative anthologies of the decade.
For Mr. Mom Dads
49 Fun & Free Summer Activities For Your Family (4/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
Best Selling Authors Mary Joy Schwab and Michael Cercone have created the second book in their 49 ways series. In 49 Fun & Free Summer Activities For Your Family, they explore creative ways to spend the summer days having fun and building strong relationships among family members without spending a lot of money.
In this book you will be given indoor and outdoor activities, quiet and active activities as well as themes that can last all day or all week. In addition, many of the ideas also have links to additional resources to make it easy to engage in the activities quickly and easily. With this book in hand you will have a summer full of fun activities that will quickly become family favorites.
Say goodbye to “I’m bored” whining and hello to fun and bonding time!
For Politics Buff & Corporate Climber Dads
Leadership (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
Pulitzer Prize–winning historian James MacGregor Burns’s definitive look at the power of transformational leadership, from Moses to Machiavelli to Martin Luther King Jr.
Historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns has spent much of his career documenting the use and misuse of power by leaders throughout history. In this groundbreaking study, Burns examines the qualities that make certain leaders—in America and elsewhere—succeed as transformative figures.
Through insightful anecdotes and historical analysis, Burns scrutinizes the charisma, vision, and persuasive power of individuals able to imbue followers with a common sense of purpose, from the founding fathers to FDR, Ghandi to Napoleon.
Since its original publication in 1970, Leadership has set the standard for scholarship in the field.
For Dads Who Love To Laugh (and don’t mind a little profanity or political incorrectness)
In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $9.99)
A couple years back, I was at the Phoenix airport bar. It was empty except for one heavy-set, gray bearded, grizzled guy who looked like he just rode his donkey into town after a long day of panning for silver in them thar hills. He ordered a Jack Daniels straight up, and that’s when I overheard the young guy with the earring behind the bar asking him if he had ID. At first the old sea captain just laughed. But the guy with the twinkle in his ear asked again. At this point it became apparent that he was serious. Dan Haggerty’s dad fired back, “You’ve got to be kidding me, son.” The bartender replied, “New policy. Everyone has to show their ID.” Then I watched Burl Ives reluctantly reach into his dungarees and pull out his military identification card from World War II.
It’s a sad and eerie harbinger of our times that the Oprah-watching, crystal-rubbing, Whole Foods-shopping moms and their whipped attorney husbands have taken the ability to reason away from the poor schlub who makes the Bloody Marys. What we used to settle with common sense or a fist, we now settle with hand sanitizer and lawyers. Adam Carolla has had enough of this insanity and he’s here to help us get our collective balls back.
In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks is Adam’s comedic gospel of modern America. He rips into the absurdity of the culture that demonized the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, turned the nation’s bathrooms into a lawless free-for-all of urine and fecal matter, and put its citizens at the mercy of a bunch of minimum wagers with axes to grind. Peppered between complaints Carolla shares candid anecdotes from his day to day life as well as his past—Sunday football at Jimmy Kimmel’s house, his attempts to raise his kids in a society that he mostly disagrees with, his big showbiz break, and much, much more. Brilliantly showcasing Adam’s spot-on sense of humor, this book cements his status as a cultural commentator/comedian/complainer extraordinaire.
For Philosophical Dads
The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $9.99)
“A colorful reinterpretation. . . . Stewart’s wit and profluent prose make this book a fascinating read.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive, controversial philosopher Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who denounced Spinoza in public, became privately obsessed with Spinoza’s ideas, wrote him clandestine letters, and ultimately met him in secret.
“In refreshingly lucid terms” (Booklist) Matthew Stewart “rescues both men from a dusty academic shelf, bringing them to life as enlightened humans” (Library Journal) central to the religious, political, and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. Both men put their faith in the guidance of reason, but one spent his life defending a God he may not have believed in, while the other believed in a God who did not need his defense. Ultimately, the two thinkers represent radically different approaches to the challenges of the modern era. They stand for a choice that we all must make.