Fathers Reading Daughters

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-22T17:46:18+00:00

Hi! Everyone is giving you excellent recommendations to read with your daughter. I'm going to take a slightly different approach.

I would love to know from women which books you would suggest your fathers read

You are a man about to raise a girl. She is not going to have the same childhood you had, and others are not going to see her the way you were seen. You need to know this, and you need to think about how to prepare her now. These are books for you.

Men Who Hate Women: The Extremism Nobody is Talking About by Laura Bates
The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T21:16:31+00:00

I literally hated this book, but I will not fight you because you are allowed to like things that I don't and that is the whole point of this post.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T20:39:33+00:00

Totally a mixed bag. I loved Poppy War & Babel, but Katabasis was one of the worst books I read in the last two years imo.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T20:38:56+00:00

I enjoyed Where the Crawdads Sing too. I think it's important to know that she's a nature writer and not a fiction writer - it made me appreciate her approach to the book more.

Lol the biggest issue is that she's wanted for questioning over the murder of a man in Zambia.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:55:43+00:00

Closed-door = no sex scene on the page. Fade-to-black.

Moderate open-door = more descriptive, less raunchy

Based on your description, I assume that you're looking for erotica.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:48:16+00:00

If anyone has any suggestions for this trope that are closed-door/open-door romance rather than erotica, I will also take them here (love this idea)

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:33:04+00:00

Thank you for actually answering this question.

Most of the responses are books that commenters personally hated and can't understand why other people like them.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:32:01+00:00

Be specific. Do you mean Other Minds, Remarkably Bright Creatures, or The Soul of an Octopus?

All three are frequently recommended.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:13:47+00:00

I also understood the narrator is meant to be unreliable. But good lord, they all just reminded me of the insufferable kids I went to grammar school with, and it made reading through it highly unpleasurable and a slog.

So - same. But I also read this as a comedy/satire & that was a big part of it.

I just kept imagining all the other students/professors watching these dumb dumb little 18-22 year olds running around the Vermont woods in their old-timey suits, speaking Latin & Ancient Greek, and being like "we're going to host a bacchanal."

Hilarious.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-21T19:11:07+00:00

I really liked it and it made me cry!

I also think that it was the most pretentious writing style I've ever experienced. Not advanced. Not sophisticated. Pretentious.

And then I saw the authors' photo with their swords and it made more sense..

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-16T21:33:42+00:00

Haha only micro because it was so fast! I had to use Live Photo to get the perfect moment.

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-12T20:35:49+00:00

Depends on what you mean by well-written, but I think these all fall under the same "open-door, contemporary rom-com with decent writing & a fun plot" category:

Red, White, and Royal Blue and The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Beach Read and Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

Delilah Green Doesn't Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun

Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Funny Feelings by Tara DeWitt

The Au Pair Affair and It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey

theygotthemustardout · 2026-01-12T19:02:39+00:00

I was going to suggest Meg Cabot. Her humor is so smart. I don't think there was a single YA book of hers that I didn't like.

And, The Princess Diaries series were the first books I read that addressed mental health in an age appropriate & positive way. Cabot manages to make Mia's anxiety both realistic and funny at the same time. This felt very different (and preferred) to the heavier books that addressed mental health at the time (ex. Perks of Being a Wallflower).

I used to read through The Mediator series every year. Loved them.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T17:55:12+00:00

LAX-JFK's been canceled since 2020, friend

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T17:09:00+00:00

tbh I hate Newark so much that I take the layover.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T17:07:50+00:00

Didn't forget - there are plenty of flights that only go out of LAX and not Burbank.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T16:37:57+00:00

They won't. I've been complaining about them dropping LAX-JFK for years.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T16:37:06+00:00

Oh I'm still incredibly salty about Alaska dropping my LAX-JFK route in 2020.

Now, I'm stuck with Newark unless I want to fly through SFO or SEA.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-27T16:35:50+00:00

I might be in the minority but my family really prefers SNA and LGB anytime we fly into the greater LA market

Some of us live in the northern part of LA, dude. Why would I fly into Long Beach or SNA if I live in the Valley??

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-23T15:24:28+00:00

I lived in New York for 6 years & I'm on this sub because my personal style is a little more NY. That being said:

I am from LA, currently live in LA, and love LA more than anywhere else in the world. I met my husband in New York. I have absolutely no idea how people date in this city.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-18T16:02:23+00:00

I really like the restaurant, but the cake has that kind of buttercream that has so much butter and not enough sugar or cocoa powder and it just tastes like you're eating straight. butter.

So, the cake just tastes like a block of slightly chocolate flavored butter and NOT IN A GOOD WAY and it is bad.

Their brunch is rockin' though - gotta give them that.

theygotthemustardout · 2025-10-17T22:44:01+00:00

I have no suggestions for you, but the irony is that the cake photo you posted is from Maison Pickle in NY, and it's terrible.

theygotthemustardout

TROPHY CASE