9 Books for Thoughtful, Well-Read Dads

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As Neil Gaiman says, “Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them.” The books in this list are words that have comforted me, that have guided me, brick by brick, in fashioning a kind of hopeful and heartened architecture. They have helped me write my own memoir. They have helped me open a door to my mother’s death and my father’s life so that I could understand my fate as a man. As a father. As a son. And they have helped me grapple with love, loss, and longing, and asked questions I’ve been too afraid to answer. May the nine books you find here be the blessings you didn’t know you needed.

Above Ground, by Clint Smith

The tenderly explosive poems in Clint Smith’s new collection will hold your heart, break it, and then mend it back together. The collection is a chronological ode to all the woe and wonder of parenting, of love, of all the complexities of becoming a father in a society that arrests its own humanity, in a world slowly losing hope: Pride at a son standing up for another boy in class mixes with dismay over another impending war, “the river that gives us water to drink is the same /one that might wash us away.” Accessible. Cool. Relatable. Brilliant. Above Ground is that rare poetry book that was written not just for other poets but for the people also. And definitely for those of us who want to reflect and remind ourselves of how hilarious and hopeful and humbling it is to be a parent.

Radical Inclusion, by David Moinina Sengeh

Many of us talk about inclusion but only dwell in the hope and dream of it. With a poet’s heart and a scientist’s mind, this book shows us how to genuinely practice it. As the minister of education in Sierra Leone, David Moinina Sengeh assumed that the administration he served―not to mention his family and friends―shared his conviction that all girls belong in the classroom. He was wrong. And so he set out to change this. To change minds. Radical Inclusion is both a memoir and a master class in innovation and human transformation. Like Frantz Fanon and the great African thinkers before him, Sengeh has written a practical textbook for advocates, activists, and allies who truly want to make the world a better place.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, by Maggie Smith

If we want to be better fathers to our daughters, better sons to our mothers, better husbands and lovers, I posit that we must learn more about our women, not like we own them but like we owe them. And we owe it to ourselves to listen and learn. What better way to begin to understand better than by reading? Maggie Smith’s book is one of the most powerful memoirs I’ve ever read. Well, listened to. It’s a poet’s memoir, so I wanted to hear the rhythm and sound of her lyrical vignettes. Divorce, a mother’s love, gender roles, and patriarchy are just some of the personal themes she explores in this fierce reckoning with womanhood. This book makes me see the women in my life in a new light, not that they are different, but I am. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a much-appreciated temple of my familiar.

Be the Bus, by Mo Willems

The best wit is often filled with wisdom, and Mo Willems is the wittiest, funniest, cleverest, smartest children’s book author on the planet (and maybe Mars, too). The Pigeon from Mo’s mega-bestselling Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus children’s picture book series has penned and illustrated a colorful gift book of hilarious pigeon-y axioms and opinions and “basic philosophical misunderstandings” that will have you laughing and learning about things you mostly already knew and never thought you’d needed to read or hear. But I’m here to tell you that you do, we all do, because, let me be the first to say that everything has already been said.

The First Ladies, by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christoper Murray

Partisan hostility is greater and more widespread than at any point in the past three decades. It’s as if we just don’t know how to say, as my 6-year-old daughter used to, “Can you please help me come out of my funk?” And yet, fiction still takes us into imaginary worlds and introduces us to characters who we can see grow, change, and develop, giving us insight into our own lives. Historical fiction does this with real lives, real people, and real experiences. In this historical novel-cum-reimagined biography, Benedict and Murray have fictionalized the real lives of two very different people with different ideologies, and vastly different backgrounds. The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Eleanor Roosevelt, born into a world of immense wealth and wealth privilege, were drawn together because of their shared belief in women’s rights and the power of education. They became fast friends and fought together for justice and equality. Turns out they were more alike than different. Something we should all remember, right?

Everyone’s Table, by Gregory Gourdet with JJ Goode

Getting a reservation at two-time Top Chef finalist Chef Gregory’s Portland, Oregon, wood-fired Haitian hot spot—and recently crowned Best New Restaurant at the 2023 James Beard Awards—kann is akin to catching a fly ball in a baseball stadium. With chopsticks. Like his restaurant, this James Beard-award-winning cookbook is chock-full of exquisite, globally inspired dishes free of gluten, dairy, soy, legumes, and grains that are so delicious you not only won’t notice the difference, but you simply won’t care. And dads, it is not breaking news that healthy eating might be the antidote for the ills and frailty from aging that beset us. With 180 scrumptious full-color photographs, Everyone’s Table will have you eating to live, and loving to eat.

The Afrominimalist's Guide to Living with Less, by Christine Platt

So many boxes of old newspapers and VHS tapes and never-worn-again family reunion hoodies block the door to one of the bedrooms in my father’s two-bedroom condo, and I’ve never been able to walk into my garage because of dozens of crates and furniture that house my nostalgia—old report cards, my firstborn’s crib, framed posters of my first book. Christine Platt has written a highly entertaining and empowering treatise that not only explains the psychology of ownership but also helps me—us—understand why we are motivated to hold on to certain things, why is it so hard to let go of things we no longer need, use, or love. In the process, she offers a four-step holistic approach to living with less that is influenced by the history and beauty of the African diaspora. I started by letting go of one thing a day. (Except books. Never. Get. Rid. Of. Books.)

The Lives We Actually Have, by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie

It’s okay to admit—in fact, we must admit, especially us dads—that sometimes, when our world is not such a beautiful place and we just don’t feel worthy, we need a boost, a lift, a landing spot for our weary blues. This collection offers a “permission slip to feel it all… All the yellows and pinks, and violets and grays/ Because you are the whole damn sky.” Richie and Bowler cushion the messiness of our lives with heart loving blessings, one hundred of them, that quite compassionately, non-judgmentally, and prayerfully give us the space to take a breath, honor the thorny and the jubilance in our lives, and receive all blessings that we deserve.

I Am Not Sidney Poitier, by Percival Everett

Every dad needs a little roaring laughter. Percival Everett writes like a mashup of Albert Camus, Dave Chappelle, Flannery O’Connor, James Baldwin, and Jerry Seinfeld. (It’s really kind of silly to try to label him. He’s unlabel-able.) And he does it with the best sense of humor in 21st-century literature. Yeah, it was published 15 years ago, but each summer I read this irresistible novel about Not Sidney’s arrest for driving while Black, his relationship with his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, and the hilarious recurring interchange with random folks: "What's your name?" a kid would ask. "Not Sidney," I would say. "Okay, then what is it?"

Kwame Alexander is a poet, an educator, a producer, and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 39 books, including Why Fathers Cry at Night, An American Story, The Door of No Return, Becoming Muhammad Ali (coauthored with James Patterson), Rebound, which was shortlisted for the prestigious UK Carnegie Medal, and The Undefeated, the National Book Award nominee, Newbery Honor, and Caldecott Medal-winning picture book illustrated by Kadir Nelson.

Why Fathers Cry at Night by Kwame Alexander

Kwame Alexander is the author of 39 books. His newest release, a memoir on fatherhood, is available now!

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