I’m looking for some suggestions for books for my dad for a Father’s Day gift. He is a retired engineer in his 60s who enjoys fiction and non-fiction. He’s not a super avid reader but likes to have something to read on vacations etc.
Some books he’s enjoyed recently are Project Hail Mary (he read it twice in a row, like I said, engineer); Into Thin Air; A Gentleman In Moscow; Outliers; All The Light We Cannot See. He’s not into classics or fantasy but might be open to some light science fiction.
Thank you!
by Mountain-Mix-8413
11 Comments
Does he like narrative history; that is, history books that read like a novel? If so, almost anything from Erik Larson. My favorites of his are *Isaac’s Storm* and *The Devil in the White City*. The latter one combines the tale of a serial killer and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.
Probably my all-time favorite narrative history book is *Barrow’s Boys* by Fergus Fleming. Its subtitle is “A Stirring Story of Daring, Fortitude, and Outright Lunacy” and it’s about the idiotic British attempts to find the Northwest Passage ~200 years ago.
You said he liked *Project Hail Mary* (I did too) so has he read the author’s *The Martian*? I imagine he’s seen the film.
*The Path Between the Seas* by McCullough
You could get him something by Simon Winchester; e. g. Exactly, or The Surgeon of Crowthorne.
Longitude by Dava Sobel is also good, apparently.
One of Ron Chernow’s biographies (hey, he’s got time to read them) – Titan (Rockefeller) doubles as a history of the oil industry, while House of Morgan charts the development of modern banking. Chernow best know for Alexander Hamilton biography, which is also very good.
Not exactly light scifi, but Greg Egan’s short story collection ‘Axiomatic’ might appeal to an engineering mind.
How about sci fi written *by* an engineer who loves astronomy and physics? Has he read the 3 Body Problem books yet?
Blake Crouch is great for some light science fiction
Quiet, aging engineer whose main interest is building model engines goes off on an adventure: Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute.
Anything by Randall Munroe. Seriously (unless he has them all)
Pillars of the earth
[The Soul of a New Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine)
[House by Tracy Kidder](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/86697.House?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ngm21KIOS8&rank=1)