Book recs for dads and daughters

[trinityofone]

My dad is impossible to shop for, and as always happens around this time of year, I’m faced with the one-two punch of Father’s Day and his birthday, which are only about two weeks apart. I’ve been wracking my brain for gift ideas, but haven’t come up with much beyond getting him some books to read on the road, as he’s got about a billion business trips scheduled this summer. (Just the other day he was at the Canadian Consulate in Detroit interviewing Mounties. Dude! SO CLOSE!) He doesn’t read too many novels, but I think he would enjoy a break from Serious Books About Serious Issues. Still, I’m not really sure what to get him.

My original idea was to buy him Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson, as my dad’s a political junkie and would, I think, enjoy those aspects; however, I think the science would make his eyes glaze over, and since, as I said, he rarely reads fiction, I don’t think the first book of a trilogy’s such a good idea. So, my question for you is: what are some other books he might like? Well-written novels that would make good plane reading and deal with some of his interests:

*Politics
*History (though mostly American history and/or the histories of indigenous peoples in Mexico/South America)
*Religion
*Jazz

Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated!

…And while I’m soliciting book recs, I might as well ask for some myself. I’ve lately been very disappointed with pretty much everything I’ve read. There are a number of reasons for this, but chief among them is the fact that everything I’ve been choosing has turned out to have only the most shallowly developed characters. Do you have any recs for books with really awesome, fucked up, wonderful characters? I’m looking for an experience like when I first started reading the Lymond Chronicles. I’m not feeling too picky about genre; I just want someone I can fall in love with. Be my literary matchmaker, please!

Comments

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

She's the same Gilbert, yes, but wrote Stern Men before EPL. I adore EPL (I like to think I read it before it became a sensation) but I think liking it depends on who you are and when in your life you read it. I really needed a new perspective on how to live when I serendipitously picked it up in an airport, and I loved that she's down to earth and honest about the fact that trying to live better (emotionally etc) is irritating as hell :D

But, regardless, Stern Men is nothing like EPL. In fact it really impressed me that there was *nothing* of her EPL voice in Stern Men at all.