Book Reviews

Daddy, where’s your vagina? The Giveaway Thursday, 03 December 2009 09:44 Written by Joeprah

With the holiday fast approaching, what better time to do another giveaway? I know, I know—we just finished up a giveaway. Right now you’re probably thinking, “Will Dad Blogs ever stop giving stuff away?”

The same time you’re thinking that we are all like, “Why would we ever stop giving stuff away?” And, in the spirit of being benevolent, we announce the Daddy, where’s your vagina? giveaway.

The Giveaway

Up for grabs are three autographed paperback copies of the new book, Daddy, where’s your vagina? What I learned as a stay-at-home dad. A little information about the book is order I suppose.

DWYV is a parenting book written for the education and enjoyment of both dads and moms. This highly entertaining book is written from the unique perspective of a stay-at-home dad. With over nine years experience as a full-time dad, Joe Schatz has learned a lot and in DWYV he shares those experiences effectively bringing the reader on an epic and insightful journey from diapers to minivans, from rookie to experienced parent and from a guy with good intentions into a father.

Oh, did I mention that I wrote the book? So, yeah—I can totally vouch for its awesomeness.

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Daddy, where's your vagina? Friday, 06 November 2009 15:48 Written by Joeprah

So, I just gave my final thumbs up for the book I have been working on since late May. I am very excited and very anxious. Since it’s so early in the process, the book is only available for purchase through the publisher’s website which you can get to from the book’s website.  Even though it is very, very early on there has already been some controversy. A group of stay-at-home dads from Richmond, Virginia were up in arms about the cover and title. Here’s a couple of responses:

“….myself and several other dads from my group do not find the title appeasing.  In fact we find it somewhat offensive and distasteful.  You know as a SAHD for 9 years what we face and deal with on a daily basis with the community and other SAHM’s.  I am not sure if the title is something your daughters may have said and that is what stuck but even knowing what the book is about, I would never buy it just because of the title.  The excerpts I read was entertaining and thought provoking for those who do not know what we do and would be good reading but I know I would never want that lying around my house for others to see, with that title.  The interesting thing is that myself and many others from this group are very laid back and find humor in much of what we do or how we are viewed.  We have a good sense of humor and most of our email base and get together’s deal with fun and laughing.  I know I do not find the humor in the title, if that was another avenue you were going.”

Moments later I received this email:

“…I feel very compelled to share a concern I had with your book cover.  (Someone’s name) mentioned the titled you have chosen (I wondered how many women would be offended by a book about working women entitled, "Mommy, where's your penis?"), but didn't say anything about the photo you have selected.  Intentional or not, it appears that a small female child is looking up at your private area.  The title about "vaginas" would make it impossible for readers to miss the connection.

I personally think this is a very inappropriate cover and one that I would not like my children to see, or one that I would like to explain.  It would be for that reason that your book would not be welcomed in my home, regardless of richness or humor of the content.”

Score! Controversy and people debating my book based on just the title and cover. I know there will be folks that will have issues with the cover and may pass on the book because of that, but I think there are many others that pass on books because the cover didn’t grab their attention—I didn’t want to be that book, but those aren’t the only reasons for the title and cover. My interview with myself:

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The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad Sunday, 30 August 2009 04:53 Written by Book Dads

The 40-Year-Old Version: Humoirs of a Divorced Dad

Author: Joel Schwartzberg

“In short, it took divorce to make me a better father,” writes Joel Schwartzberg early in The 40-Year-Old Version, a collection of forty insightful and humorous essays about fatherhood and life. The topics of these brief essays vary widely over a range of fatherhood experiences, and many of them deal with how he is learning to reinvent himself as a newly divorced father. They range from adjusting to his son’s disinterest in playing sports or watching the Super Bowl (“’Nachos help,’ I told him.”), to his first time dropping his kids off at school as a divorced dad (“Does something about my demeanor shout ‘part-time parent!’”), to his encounters with children’s television (“One fateful afternoon, Charlie and I came upon ‘little boy catnip’ – Power Rangers.”) He also writes about many of the other idiosyncrasies of modern life, including greeting cards (“Birthday cards are probably the most popular of all greeting cards, but why do so many of them treat aging past 40 as something that deserves sadistic ridicule?”), his British-accented GPS (“She once disappointed me by suggesting a sudden left turn across a four-lane highway – and a concrete median – to get to a children’s bowling party.”), and Valentine’s Day (“At one Target store, I saw Spiderman valentines, Darth Vader-themed valentine chocolates, and military camouflage tattoo valentines.”). The 40-Year-Old Version is filled with honesty and wry humor about the unexpected roads that life and fatherhood can take us down.

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The Boy's Fitness Guide Thursday, 20 August 2009 13:17 Written by Book Dads

The Boy's Fitness Guide: Expert coaching for the young man who wants to look and feel his best

Written by Frank C. Hawkins, Rares “Nick” Morar, and NBA Star Gheorghe Muresan

One of the challenges for modern fathers is teaching and modeling good health and physical fitness habits for our children, especially for boys. This wasn't a requirement for our own fathers, but with increasing rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles (including among young people), establishing lifelong healthy habits has become a vital skill for children to learn. This is an especially important role for fathers (and uncles and even grandfathers) to play with their sons, since they can be a boy's strongest model for what it means to be a healthy adult male. Of course, most adult men have a hard enough time maintaining a healthy lifestyle even without the added demands of parenthood, so how will we find the time to teach fitness to our sons?

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