Sh*t My Dad Says, by Justin Halpern

I received Sh*t My Dad Says for Christmas this year; the Twitter feed is mildly amusing but after watching a couple episodes of the terrible TV show I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Luckily, the book is easily better than either of the other media forms the topic has taken. The stories around the various tweets give a depth and meaning that simply can’t be captured in 140 characters. Humor I expected, but the author’s connection to his father and the warmth in their relationship was surprising.

Having a couple of boys myself, two of the quotes in particular hit close to home. “You’re ten years old now, you have to take a shower every day....I don’t give a shit if you hate it. People hate smelly fuckers. I will not have a smelly fucker for a son.” “No. There’s no scenario where I’d eat a human being, so you can stop making them up and asking me, understood?” Halpern’s father apparently doesn’t have a filter, saying out loud exactly what every father of a boy must think from time to time.

First Sentence:

“Well, what the fuck makes you think Grandpa wants to sleep in the same room as you?”

Who Can Save Us Now? edited by Owen King and John McNally

I do enjoy a good comic. This short story anthology is all about superheroes and their nemeses; not the famous ones like Superman and Captain America, but B-list heroes like Manna Man, the Rememberer, and the Meerkat. None of these tales are spectacular, but none are terrible either—a remarkably even collection. Each story has a great accompanying illustration by Chris Burnham; unfortunately some of them span two pages with the focus in the center, meaning the heart of the picture is buried in the spine. Overall, this is a pleasant distraction well worth your time.

First Sentence (from the Introduction):

In 1938 a gawky, bespectacled man walked through a door, and when it opened again, a benevolent giant in red and blue tights emerged, gave a wink, and lifted right off the pages of ACTION COMICS #1 and into the sky.