By Diva Dreamchaser
Over the years Father's Day has many times taken a back seat to Mother's Day. This month we focus on Dad.

There are several books written on fatherhood. Including, from quite possibly the most famous father figure of the times, Bill Cosby. He has several books on the subject. Here just a sampling from one of those:

 

Excerpt from Fatherhood by Bill Cosby:

 

“Yes, having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit. Having had five qualifies me to write this book but not give you any absolute rules because there are none. Screenwriter William Goldman has said that, in spite of all the experience that Hollywood people have in making movies “Nobody knows anything.” I sometimes think the same statement is true of raising children. In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck- and of course, courage because you’ll be spending many years in fear of your kids.”

 
Here's a list of Bill Cosby's books for adults:


Fatherhood - with Alvin F Poussaint

I Am What I Ate ,,, and I'm Frightened!!! And Other Digressions from the Doctor of Comedy
Congratulations! Now What?: A Book for Graduates
I Feel Great and You Will Too!: An Inspiring Journey of Success with Practical Tips on How to Score Big in Life
Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education
Love and Marriage
Bill Cosby on Fatherhood
Time Flies
You Are Somebody Special
The Personal Touch: What You Really Need to Succeed in Today's Fast Paced Business World
Cosbyology: Essay and Observations from the Doctor of Comedy
Myself Among Others
Childhood
Changes: Becoming the Best You Can Be
When Growing Up Hurts Too Much: A Parent's Guide to Knowing When and How to Choose a Therapist With Your Teenager
Parents' Guide to Raising Responsible Kids: Preschool Through Teen Years (Children's Television Workshop Family Living Series)
Step in the Right Direction: Getting a Better View on Life
Kids Say The Darndest Things


Books

Here are some other books on the subject of dads:

 

It's Father's Day, Charlie Brown! by Charles M. Shultz

 

The Expectant Father- Facts, Tips and Advice for Dads-To-Be by Armin A. Brott

 
I Love My Daddy by Sebastien Braun
 
101 Secrets A Good Dad Knows by Walter Browder (Author), Sue Ellin Browder

How Tough Could It Be? The Trials and Errors of a Sportswriter Turned Stay-At-Home Dad by Austin Murphy

Now They All Have Window Seats: A Reynolds Unwrapped Tribute to Fatherhood by Dan Reynolds

Verses For Dad's Heart by Steven L. Layne
A list of Books About/For/Titled Father's Day

Isaac Asimov's Father's Day (Fantasy/Sci-Fi) - Gardner Dozois (Editor), Sheila Williams (Editor)
Father's Day (Fiction/espionage) - Rudolph Engelmann
Father's Day (Fiction) - Philip Galanes
Father's Day   (Fiction) - William Goldman
Father's Day : A Novel of Power, Passion & Conscience (Fiction) - Eugene Kennedy
Father's Day (Thriller) - John Calvin Batchelor
Dear Old Dead (mystery) - Jane Haddam
The Father's Day Murder  (mystery) - Lee Harris
Dead Water (mystery) - Victoria Houston
Father's Day Murder (mystery) A Lucy Stone Mystery - Leslie Meier
Father's Day : A Novel (Action / Mystery) - Alan Trustman
Happy Father's Day  (Silhouette Special Edition, No 1033) - Barbara Faith
Part-Time Father: Father's Day (Harlequin Romance)  - Sharon Kendrick
Holiday Honeymoons: His First Father's Day / Married on the Fourth (Harlequin) - Merline Lovelace & Carol Buck
Father's Day  (Harlequin Romance, No 3130) - Debbie Macomber

Guest Book Review by Diva LadyCat
Obernewtyn & The Farseekers by Isobelle Carmody
First SFBC Science Fiction Printing: Aug. 2000
TOR Hardcover, August 2000
PB 440
ISBN# 0-7394-1211-6
Review by Christina Francine Whitcher
http://www.CFrancine.bizland.com

What does our future hold? Will a holocaust of some kind destroy the world completely or partially? If mankind lives through it, will they be changed? How would man and animals adjust to chemicals, radiation, and manmade poisons? The author of this book thought about these questions and one more. What if the effects from these mishaps eventually brought special strengths? Yet, the history of human nature proves not everyone will consider mutations good, especially those without them.

This book is about time after a nuclear holocaust. Any person or beast found to have a mutation is feared and burned. Mutants are decreed unsafe and called misfits. People feared mutants would bring problems of the past back or cause new ones. Not all mutantcies were apparent though. Some attacked the mind. Soldier guards, called Herders, watched over misfits and kept them at arm’s length. Orphaned children with the label of misfit, or the child of a misfit, are considered dangerous and sent to a special orphanage to work.

The main character is a sixteen-year-old girl named Elspeth Gordie who lives in one of the orphanages. Her brother, Jes, is an assistant Herder. Elspeth has special abilities that she keeps hidden, but now and again she slips. People think her headaches are the result of a fall. Elspeth has visions that come true, she can mind speak with animals, coerce the will of others, and pick locks with her mind. Jes worries for them both. If anyone finds out about Elspeth’s secrets it means Jes can’t become a full-fledged Herder. They would probably be sent to Obernewtyn then, or worse, burnt. Rumor has it a scientist experiments on misfits at Obernewtyn and they are never seen or heard from again.

* Story Excerpt with a scene of Elspeth talking to a battered wild cat who could also mind speak: Page 26

“When I was in the Old places, I dreamed of the Old One. She said I must follow you. It was my task. But I am…tired.”

I gulped, for a horrible notion had come to me. “Where does the Dark One come from? Where will she take me?”

“To the mountains,” Maruman answered. “To the mountains of shadow, where black wars with white, to the heart of darkness, to the eyrie above the clouds, to the chasm underearth. To the others.” Suddenly he pitched sideways and a trickle of saliva came from his mouth.

I sat very still because none lived in the mountains save those at Obernewtyn.

A keeper from Obernewtyn would come; if Maruman was right, a woman who would find out the truth about me.

Elspeth eventually finds her powers an asset, but dangers lie everywhere. She also finds she has a very important job to do and must do it, for everything depends upon her success.

This story is for those interested in special abilities of the mind, enjoy adventure, are curious about life after a nuclear holocaust, or take pleasure in reading about people who’ve overcome incredible odds.

Are the possibilities Carmody suggests so far off? Not in my opinion. We’ve all heard of special abilities. The mind has strengths we are not even close to being understood. We’ve tampered with gene-cells creating strawberries that spoil slowly; replaced human hearts; and have heard of people who’ve bent spoons with their mind and known things before they happened.

Who knows what exposure to certain chemicals or disasters would do to the mind. Not yet anyway. We may destroy all life and intelligence or like in Carmody’s book, end up bettering mental abilities. A dangerous chance none the less.

Carmody sets a good pace, creates interesting and determined characters to care about, and weaves a plot to keep one intrigued and wondering. Her style is natural, entertaining and exciting. Her tale touched me emotionally, and as the peak of the tale came toward its climax and characters changed, grew, accepted truths, and admitted openly their soul, mine was touched. Tears trickled down my cheek. This is one of the reasons I read; to share the baring of souls. Baring eases the aloneness we each carry throughout this life.

This tale is told in first person with great characterization. I’m not sure if third person would have done as well. The main characters share secret thoughts that many of us think of every day, along with worries, concerns, feelings and thoughts of others, admittance of fears, hopes, dreams, desires and more.

I enjoyed “Obrnewtyn & The Farseekers,” and look forward to reading the second book.