A fount of wisdom from thousand sourcesMay 25, 2006 5 out of 10 found this review helpful
Russert has accomplished a gigantic workload, and distilled, in this book,a very important aspect of human life. The weight that our relationship with our fathers wields, becomes a little bit more transparent. A courageous book, and unusual in its topic, but a must-read, even if you don't agree with many examples.
10 star great bookMay 24, 2006 93 out of 107 found this review helpful
Ok a book like this may seem sappy, but trust me there are enough stories and variety to speak to everyone. Personally I loved his chapters on fathers titled Forgiveness, The Protector, Baseball, Mr. Mom and Daddy's Girl.
Reminded me a great deal of Tom Brokaws book from people who wrote him after his excellent book The Greatest Generation which is also a must read book in my opinion.
Mr. Russert is such a gifted writer. The kind that you pray will write another book, and then another. There are enough stories of such a wide variety that the book will appeal to males as much as it will to females.
Great gift for Dads as well as their kids. Though provoking and so much wisdom that one comes away a wiser person. A wiser parent.
Mr. Russert and his wife Maureen have one son but having read Big Russ and Me: Father and Son--Lessons of Life and then this book, one comes away wishing a dozen more had been dropped on their porch.
Good Father's Day MaterialMay 23, 2006 16 out of 20 found this review helpful
"Wisdom of Our Fathers" purports to help fathers to "get it right," and to understand that sometimes the little moments can make a big difference to a child. The book is the outgrowth of close to 60,000 overwhelmingly positive letters and e-mails about mostly ordinary men - sent to Russert in response to his earlier book about Tim's own father.
A big theme is that the most precious things a father can provide are time, attention, and love. Another is that many of the fathers were relatively silent and modest, while a third is how often the sons and daughters are often acutely aware of how their fathers never said "I love you."
While each person's story is short, they are well-focused, and do achieve Russert's objective. Getting there takes readers off to basic training, weddings, graduation, going to ball games, giving a child a new bicycle, helping a stranger, providing wisdom in short phrases, etc.
Really nice :->May 23, 2006 18 out of 22 found this review helpful
In 2004, Tim Russert wrote his first book (about him and his hard working dad, and the amazing example that he set for Tim everyday) and it struck a chord with so many people. He then was inundated with emails about their own dads from people who were touched by that book. Tim has compiled some of the emails and letters together to make this bok (60,000 were received). Some of the common threads in these letters were that these fathers were not superheros, but normal people and the number one gift they gave all their kids was their time. It's all about the small moments, encouragement and simple things that to kids, is better than all the money they could have been given. One funny example is a guy writing in about his dad who was diagnosed with prostate cancer and would not do any treatments for it, but wanted to stay around and 'romance' his wife. Over 8 years later, the father is sending his son the obituary for the oncologist who diagnosed him in the first place. A girl called Kerry grew up with a stutter, and all it would take for her to stop was her dad just taking her hand and telling her it's OK and that was all she needed. There are so many heartwarming and fun and moving stories in here that make you appreciate what you have (or had) and if you have a strained relationship with your dad, this might give you a chance to correct what needs to be fixed. This is such a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think everyone can gain something from reading this. It also will make a great gift to your dad, husband or son for Fathers Day.
Great book about Dad just in time for father's dayMay 23, 2006 63 out of 72 found this review helpful
This book by "The Grand Inquisitor" of Meet the Press, is largely what you would expect - a variety of touching vignettes from sons and daughters throughout America written about both big and little moments with their fathers that became big life lessons for them. Most of them are largely positive - a father telling his daughter that he would marry her if he could to help her get over a break-up with her boyfriend, the touching response of another father to his son telling him that he was gay, one son even using memories of learning to shave with his dad as a child to get over the post-traumatic stress of being a crime victim - specifically the scars from the attack that he saw on his face each morning as he was shaving. However, don't let that make you shy away from this book even if your father was not a great person. There are other letters where the writer has had a terrible role model, such as one man whose father was largely absent from his life due to his chronic drug addiction who ultimately died in a hotel room of an overdose when the man was still a child. The lesson that this son got from his father - "My father missed out on getting to know a terrific son". Thus, there really is something in this book for everyone no matter what your relationship with your father is or was. I highly recommend it, especially if you liked Russert's book about his relationship with his own father - "Big Russ and Me", since it was the publishing of that book that caused all of the people with stories in this book to write to Russert describing their own experiences with their fathers.
