Hey bookies and bookers, I’m hoping for help when it comes to good reading materials for someone who may need some help being nudged towards reality and morality.
That sounds bad when I type it out, but I’m sure y’all know what I mean. My dad has always been my hero – he raised me to be a good person, he’s kind and compassionate, and he’s more intelligent than I am! But through the years he’s drifted more and more conservative, to the point of not believing climate change, rolling his eyes and saying snide comments when a female kicker gets an opportunity on a college football team, and he’s just generally filled with anger and hate at the world.
It breaks my heart. He’s a good person deep down, and I think books are a good way to tap back into that. Specifically, I’ve always felt fantasy books have “progressive” values, and I’m hoping to find some that don’t beat you over the head with that message!
Our mutual love of Harry Potter is what gives me hope. We also read A Song of Ice and Fire back in the day (before HBO) and he was a big fan of those books as well – though now I would worry they’re a bit heavier than what I’d want to give him in retirement and as a “re-entry” to reading. He stopped reading for joy the last ten years and has only read conservative books from Rush Limbaugh and the like.
So far I’ve introduced him to some Sanderson – the first Mistborn, and Frugal Wizard. I’m thinking Project Hail Mary is next (though I’m a bit concerned he’ll roll his eyes at the climate change mentions and it’ll put him off…).
I’d rather not be limited by my own reading experiences (though I would likely read any of the recommendations before endorsing myself)!
Does anyone have recommendations with this goal in mind?
Has anyone tried this themselves?
Any other sort of advice is appreciated as well, thank you all!
by ItsPittz
1 Comment
I can relate, as I also have several relatives who have so far been twisted by fear-mongering and hate their opinions are almost unrecognizable as the people I knew growing up.
At least it sounds like your father is willing to read. My relatives aren’t. And hopefully he’ll still have some level of reason. Mine have even argued that I don’t understanding something (which they had absurdly wrong), even though I wrote and edited news about it for a decade.
Anyway, one of the best things about reading, particularly fiction, is that it teaches empathy, and being able to see from another’s perspective goes a long way against narrow-mindedness.
The first I’m thinking of (at least that he won’t toss aside or be upset at being asked to read) is ***All the Light We Cannot See*****, by Anthony Doerr.** It’s a moving story set during WWII, with two main characters, a blind French girl and a German boy who loves radios and gets admitted to a National Socialist school. The reason I think of that one is the reader sees how twisting and insidious Nazi propaganda was, what was demanded of them, and in one of the classmates, what can happen when someone refuses.
Other than that, there are several novels that help understand how different the American experience is as a minority. A few include:
**Louise Eldrich’s** ***The Night Watchman***, about the fight against Native American dispossession in the 1950s. Another novel focused on Native Americans and their treatment is **Tommy Orange’s** ***There There***, set in modern Oakland. His follow-up, ***Wandering Stars***, goes from the 1800s (and the Sand Creek Massacre) to the events in the first novel.
**James McBride’s** ***Deacon King Kong***, set in the New York Causeway houses in the late 60s. It’s humorous and has interesting characters. It’s much lighter than, say, **Colson Whitehead’s** ***Underground Railroad***, or **Toni Morrison’s** ***Beloved***, which more directly deal with slavery and their aftermaths.
Finally, a more direct, non-fiction essay is **Ta-Nehisi Coates’** ***Between the World and Me***, framed as a letter from an African American man to his adolescent son. But from the sounds of it, I doubt your father will read it. But if you think he’d give it a chance, then yes.