Brian O’Leary is back on the pod to talk about the dad book. This is the airport nonfiction, narrative history, and adventure bio, etc. The Wall Street Journal just declared this ‘category’ a dying breed. As Dads with books, Brian and I draft our favorite picks.
We talk Charles Manson and the CIA, why a German U-boat off the East Coast makes Shadow Divers impossible to put down, and the case for James Michener (bestseller nobody under fifty remembers). And a lot more.
Brian’s Substack and podcast (the O’Leary Review):
Gentleman Speculator is from Andrew Flattery at Flattery Wealth Management.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 Nixon on his old man
00:01:00 What a dad book is, and why the Journal called it dying
00:11:00 Books you can actually find at the airport
00:12:00 Chaos, Charles Manson and the CIA
00:18:00 The book your own father gave you, Endurance
00:24:00 Sports, and The Boys in the Boat
00:27:00 The First All-Star Game and the 1932 plot on FDR
00:33:00 Biography, The Wright Brothers
00:39:00 Hidden gems, and the forgotten James Michener
00:46:00 The anti-recommendation, Bernard Cornwell
00:53:00 The GOATs, Shadow Divers and The Sportswriter
00:57:00 What Brian is working on now
