The Council of Dads; My Daughters, My Illness, and the Men Who Could Be Me

New York: William Morrow [An Imprint of HarperCollingsPublishers], 2010. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Format is approximately 5.25 inches by 8.25 inches. x, [4], 240, [2] pages. Signed by the Author sticker on the front of the DJ. Signed by the author on the title page. DJ has some wear and soiling. Bruce Feiler (born October 25, 1964) is an American writer and television personality. He is the author of 15 books, including The Council of Dads, a book that describes how he responded to a diagnosis of a rare cancer by asking a group of men to be present in the lives of his young daughters. The book was the subject of a TED Talk and inspired NBC drama series Council of Dads. His latest work explores the power of life stories. Drawing on interviews with Americans in all 50 states, he offers strategies for coping with life's unsettling times in his new book, Life Is In The Transitions. Bruce writes the "This Life" column in the Sunday New York Times. Feiler is credited with formulating the Feiler faster thesis: the increasing pace of society and journalists' ability to report it is matched by the public's desire for more information. Publications he has written for include The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and Gourmet, where he won three James Beard Awards. He is also a contributor to National Public Radio, CNN, and Fox News. In The Council of Dads, Feiler describes how, after learning he had a seven-inch osteosarcoma, he asked six men from all passages of his life to be present through the passages of his young daughters' lives. The book was featured on the cover of USA Weekend, on The Today Show, and in People. His story inspired the NBC drama series Council of Dads. Best-selling author Bruce Feiler was a young father when he was diagnosed with cancer. He instantly worried what his daughters' lives would be like without him. "Would they wonder who I was? Would they wonder what I thought? Would they yearn for my approval, my love, my voice?" Three days later he came up with a stirring idea of how he might give them that voice. He would reach out to six men from all the passages in his life, and ask them to be present in the passages in his daughters' lives. And he would call this group "The Council of Dads." "I believe my daughters will have plenty of opportunities in their lives," he wrote to these men. "They'll have loving families. They'll have each other. But they may not have me. They may not have their dad. Will you help be their dad?" The Council of Dads is the inspiring story of what happened next. Feiler introduces the men in his Council and captures the life lesson he wants each to convey to his daughters--how to see, how to travel, how to question, how to dream. He mixes these with an intimate, highly personal chronicle of his experience battling cancer while raising young children, along with vivid portraits of his father, his two grandfathers, and various father figures in his life that explore the changing role of fathers in America. This is the work of a master storyteller confronting the most difficult experience of his life and emerging with wisdom and hope. The Council of Dads is a touching, funny, and ultimately deeply moving book on how to live life, how the human spirit can respond to adversity, and how to deepen and cherish the friendships that enrich our lives.