Thomas Fleming’s Mysteries of My Father: An Irish-American Memoir is a heartening, sometimes painful, instructive tale about immigration that humanizes the ethnic clashes and odd dynamics cinematically explored in such films as Gangs of New York and In America. Fleming examines his father Teddy’s life with a mixture of anguish, warmth, admiration, exasperation and, ultimately, respect and love. Teddy Fleming is depicted as a strong-willed, wily individual, extremely devoted to his wife and son, but not always able to articulate his emotions or handle the turmoil inherent in his career as a politician in New Jersey. But he instills in his son the importance of loyalty, integrity and personal strength. Fleming, a noted historian and the author of 40 books, adeptly divides his territory here into biographical, reflective and analytical portions, paralleling his personal development and evolution with that of his parents. He takes the reader inside a colorful and sometimes rather bizarre environment in the process. Most importantly, Fleming shows how the lessons gleaned from his father and mother positively affected later choices he made. He also provides insight into early 20th-century urban America, using Jersey City as a mirror of an era when political maneuvering and strategy were far less subtle and community identity was the key ingredient in determining one’s destiny.

Mysteries of My Father opens with the moving story of the return of a gold ring Fleming had been given by his father. The ring had been lost three decades earlier while he was visiting the Argonne battlefield, the same place his father had fought in World War I. From that gripping start, the book simultaneously presents the history of the Fleming family and a wonderful coming-of-age narrative. These twin chronicles vividly show the reader how and why Thomas Fleming’s father played such a key role in his life and reaffirm the importance of parenthood in shaping one’s character. Ron Wynn writes for the Nashville City Paper.

reporter Jim Huber tells the story of his father’s terminal illness and the transformative effect it had on their relationship in his fine new memoir, A Thousand Goodbyes. In their last six months together, Huber and his father bridged the emotional distance that had lain between them for years to find authentic compassion and love. An Emmy award-winning journalist, Huber, in telling the life story of his father, realized for the first time that his success grew not only from his own hard work, but from the foundation provided by his parents. It’s an emotional journey that he writes about with admirable honesty and a fresh eye for the father-son relationship.

In 1998, 78-year-old Bob Huber discovered he had liver disease, apparently resulting from a tainted blood transfusion nearly five decades earlier. Despite the diagnosis, Huber, who worked as an underwater welder in the Pacific during World War II and delivered mail in Ocala, Florida, before retiring, displayed a strength of character his son could only admire. Huber has produced a poignant memoir in the spirit of Tuesdays with Morrie. The book artfully weaves together stories of Huber, his father and the scores of celebrities and everyday people the author encountered in his role as a sports journalist. Personal anecdotes of golf greats Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and other sports heroes are included.

Though he reported touching stories for his television show The Sporting Life, this time around, Huber is participant rather than reporter. He handles his new role with grace and skill, consistently avoiding the twin ditches of oversweet sentimentality and forced drama that mar so many memoirs. Huber brings the reader along in such a way that he or she is not expected to merely mourn with him. Instead, readers are invited to share in a more complex realization about universal themes how we are changed forever by what we desire and by the preciousness of our relationships with those we love.

Michael Epps Utley writes from Nashville.

<B>Lederer’s winning hand</B> With a poetic eye and precise, sardonic wit, Katy Lederer has shuffled through her biographical deck to produce an intriguing new memoir, <B>Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers</B>. Dealing out the details of a sheltered childhood, Lederer begins her book with a tempestuous account of family life on a New England boarding school campus, and of a young adulthood spent bouncing between two career choices: professional poker player and writer.

Lederer grew up on the fringes of a disordered family, the youngest of three siblings, children of a prep school English professor and a brilliant, puzzle-mad, alcoholic mother. Nights were often dominated by her parents’ feverish fights over money, days by her mother’s restless, alcohol-fueled despair. And always, there were card games. "If money was what kept us at a distance from one another, then playing games was what brought us together," Lederer writes. "I’d gotten it into my head that the playing of games was the same thing as civility and that friendly competition was the closest thing to love we’d ever know." This tenuous togetherness evaporates as Lederer’s siblings and mother abandon the family circle for the promise of excitement and wealth in New York. When brother Howard descends into the seedy world of underground gambling, he leads the trio and eventually the author into the Janus-like world of professional poker. Poker Face is a paradoxical saga, sad and funny, its contrary nature clearly reflecting the author’s struggle to find a solid place within comfortable terrain, far from her disenfranchised, emotionally chaotic childhood. A strange tension builds as Lederer flirts alternately with the Machiavellian life of a high-stakes gambler and the more soulful existence of a poet. For a time, the appeal of gambling’s unvarying, clear-cut agenda to win at all costs seduces her: "It wasn’t that I believed in the security of money . . . Rather, I liked the very orderliness of greed. It was clear. There was nothing confusing about it." For an intriguing fly-on-the-wall peek into the grimy, glitzy world of high-stakes professional gambling, with its colorful characters, lingo and razor-edged lifestyle, Poker Face can’t be beat. And neither can its author, it seems, who has discovered that a truly winning hand is the one that wields the pen. <I>Alison Hood writes from San Rafael, California.</I>

But what if you never had a chance to know your own mother? In Motherland: A Memoir, Pamela Marin writes a first-person account of her quest to know the mother she lost to bone cancer in 1973, when she was 14. Since her father removed all evidence of her mother’s existence after her death and her mother had been a very private person, Marin had little to go on but her childhood memories so she embarks on a journey to Tennessee, Chicago and California to find her. “What was I doing, exactly?” Marin asks herself as she begins to interview a woman her mother went to art school with in Tennessee. But she answers her own question: “A daughter wants to know about her mother. Simple as that.” And that knowledge is empowering.

Linda Stankard is a mother and a daughter.

Of course, we remember the Big Things: the first kiss, the first real love, the first job, the first child. But we also measure our lives through our recollection of smaller pleasures: that sunrise service on the beach; the sleek dress that made you feel like a grown-up for the first time; that perfect meal in that perfect trattoria in Rome.

Author Hilary Liftin’s smaller pleasures almost always involve refined sugar. She measures her young life in candy corn, peanut butter cups and conversation hearts. Candy and Me: A Love Story is her bon-bon of a book about growing up with a sweet tooth. Liftin has had an ordinary enough life suburban girlhood, good college, a series of slightly tiresome boyfriends and jobs before finding the right one of each. But her psychic world is truly Candyland. As a child, she bonds with her brother while she eats confectioners sugar from a Dixie cup. She has her first serious romance during a summer that she’s fixated on Junior Mints. In the process of dumping her, a later boyfriend tries to placate her with Bottle Caps a particularly cruel gesture, because they’re her favorite candy.

Along the way, she educates us about the great universe of candy production. Did you know that fudge was invented when someone made an error making another candy? That Necco manufactures more than 8 billion conversation hearts during the Valentine season? I didn’t, but I do now. Liftin writes with the light charm and humor appropriate to her topic. Life may be difficult, but candy is always pretty dandy. And whatever your craving, growing up is about learning to balance the sweet and the sour.

Anne Bartlett is a journalist in South Florida.

Seventeen-year-old, college-bound Lauralee Summer never thought the details of her life were so extraordinary that they would show up in newspapers and soar over the American airwaves. But after she won a wrestling scholarship and, as a result, got interviewed by the Boston Globe and Associated Press, her story went nationwide. The ubiquitous headlines proclaimed triumphantly: “Homeless to Harvard.” Summer’s curiously titled memoir, Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars, reveals a fatherless, nomadic life lived with her rarely employed, eccentric though loving mother. Constantly moving through the dreary, often dangerous confines of homeless shelters and flimsy welfare housing, they had no car, no bank account and little money for food or clothing. Summer’s schooling was erratic, but she loved books from an early age. Not until she reached high school did she find the mentors and activities (especially competitive wrestling with an all-male team) that moved her toward self-acceptance and into the privileged realms of Harvard. Requests for network television appearances came pouring in after the surge of front-page press. Summer was aghast when, during a nationally televised interview, the host asked her what it was like to be homeless and gave her only 20 seconds to reply. Being forced to provide an abbreviated response eventually led to the writing of her memoir. And in the telling, Summer admits she has claimed her place in the world and built herself an authentic home. Using the constructs of her life poverty, neglect and isolation and her Harvard education, she has created a clear window into the shadowy, disenfranchised world of impoverished women and children. If the walls of Summer’s house are a bit rough-hewn, hers is a sturdy and honest dwelling. For it houses a young writer who possesses courage, heart and social compassion, who has, in the words of an anonymous, homeless youth, “learned patience from statues in a thousand parks, and joy from dogs without collars.” Alison Hood writes from San Rafael, California.

There was a time when the art of memoir-writing was generally relegated to the rich, famous and powerful. Not so nowadays, when complete unknowns if their tales of dysfunction or triumph over challenges are resonant enough get published fairly readily. Augusten Burroughs fits the new mold, having gained recognition with 2002’s Running With Scissors, the true-life account of his strange upbringing and nightmarish youthful experiences that was a national bestseller. Burroughs’ follow-up memoir, Dry, charts his recent struggle with substance abuse. The topic here is not a new one, but the author’s flippant, knowing style makes this book a cut above other entries in the genre.

Dry finds the author in his mid-20s and carving out a high-paying career in New York advertising. After mounting episodes of personal irresponsibility force his colleagues to hold an in-office intervention, he is whisked away to the Proud Institute in Duluth, Minnesota, where he undergoes a recovery regimen tailored to the needs of homosexuals. Burroughs completes the program and returns to the Big Apple, sober but cautious. He reclaims his job and attends AA meetings with the appropriate enthusiasm. Alas, he also meets a fellow recovering addict named Foster, who entices him back into addictive behavior. When a dear old friend finally succumbs to AIDS, Burroughs falls completely off the wagon. But once again, he dedicates himself to getting straight, armed with hard-won knowledge. “The good news is you do learn to live without it,” he writes. “You miss it. You want it. You hang out with a bunch of other crazy people who feel the same way and you live with it. And eventually, you start to sound like a cloying self-help book, like me.” In truth, Dry is anything but cloying. It’s a smart, revealing book that should please those readers who enjoyed Burroughs’ previous memoir. Martin Brady is a freelance writer in Nashville.

<B>Remembering Dear Ol’ Dad</B> With Father’s Day fast approaching, we’ve taken the opportunity to delve into several new books that examine the bond between fathers and children. Whether you’re interested in a gift for Dad or a chance to ponder the importance of a father’s role, these four selections offer meaningful ways to mark the occasion.

<B>Keeping his priorities straight</B> Offer dad a little love and encouragement with <!–BPLINK=0071422226–><B>My List: 24 Reflections on Life’s Priorities</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (McGraw-Hill, $14.95, 80 pages, ISBN 0071422226), an inspiring book that will get him to focus on the important things in life. Based on the hit country single written by Nashville tunesmiths Rand Bishop and Tim James, the book will help readers put the song’s powerful message into play. With a foreword by singer Toby Keith, who made the single a chart-topper, the book advises readers to set and achieve simple goals that can make life more fulfilling, including going for a walk, playing catch with the kids and sleeping late. It’s a rewarding little read, filled with sparkling photos, Bible verses and memorable quotes, that’s just right for stressed-out dads. And the enclosed CD of the single will keep him humming. <B>Doing his fatherly duty</B> A father follows his son into the world of scouting in <!–BPLINK=0151005923–><B>Scout’s Honor: A Father’s Unlikely Foray into the Woods</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (Harcourt, $24, 368 pages, ISBN 0151005923). Author Peter Applebome was never a Boy Scout himself, so he was surprised (and a bit dubious) when his son Ben decided to join Troop 1 of Chappaqua Falls in upstate New York. As he learns to camp and canoe along with the boys, he discovers the rewards of the great outdoors and a deeper connection with his son. Applebome comes to appreciate his son’s decision to join the troop, chronicling his journey from skeptic to Scout with humor, ease and honesty. <I>Scout’s Honor</I> will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the outdoors and the crucial, ever-evolving father-son bond.

<B>Adopted fathers ease a boy’s painful loss</B> Moved by reading about the victims of 9/11, many of whom left behind families with young children, writer Kevin Sweeney was prompted to recall his own experience of losing his father when he was three years old. The resulting memoir, <!–BPLINK=0060511923–><B>Father Figures</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (Regan, $22.95, pages, ISBN 0060511923), is both a nostalgic recollection of growing up during the 1960s in a large Irish-Catholic family and a perceptive exploration of grief’s long-term toll. Comforted by friends, neighbors and teachers and mentored by a stoic older brother, the young Sweeney bravely soldiers on after his father’s death. At the age of eight, he decides to "adopt" three adult men to serve as his role models and guides to manhood. Each man unknowingly lends valuable assistance to the boy on his sometimes painful journey through childhood and adolescence. Poignant without being maudlin, Sweeney’s story beautifully conveys the significance of a father’s role and offers hope that even the most profound of life’s tragedies can be endured and overcome.

<B>Death opens a door</B> It’s never too late to repair your relationship with your father (or child). That’s the message of Barry Neil Kaufman’s inspiring memoir, <B>No Regrets: Last Chance for a Father and Son</B>. Kaufman was a successful author, counselor and father when he received a call from his own 83-year-old father, who had just been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Despite a long-standing rift between the two, the father’s illness is greeted by Kaufman as an opportunity for reconnecting with his parent. "Even if he never knew or understood me, I could, at least, come to know him if I opened my heart," Kaufman writes. The two eventually put their difficult relationship behind and forge new bonds that comfort both the ailing father and his determined son.

<B>Remembering Dear Ol’ Dad</B> With Father’s Day fast approaching, we’ve taken the opportunity to delve into several new books that examine the bond between fathers and children. Whether you’re interested in a gift for Dad or a chance to ponder the importance of a father’s role, these four selections offer meaningful ways to mark the occasion.

<B>Keeping his priorities straight</B> Offer dad a little love and encouragement with <!–BPLINK=0071422226–><B>My List: 24 Reflections on Life’s Priorities</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (McGraw-Hill, $14.95, 80 pages, ISBN 0071422226), an inspiring book that will get him to focus on the important things in life. Based on the hit country single written by Nashville tunesmiths Rand Bishop and Tim James, the book will help readers put the song’s powerful message into play. With a foreword by singer Toby Keith, who made the single a chart-topper, the book advises readers to set and achieve simple goals that can make life more fulfilling, including going for a walk, playing catch with the kids and sleeping late. It’s a rewarding little read, filled with sparkling photos, Bible verses and memorable quotes, that’s just right for stressed-out dads. And the enclosed CD of the single will keep him humming. <B>Doing his fatherly duty</B> A father follows his son into the world of scouting in <!–BPLINK=0151005923–><B>Scout’s Honor: A Father’s Unlikely Foray into the Woods</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (Harcourt, $24, 368 pages, ISBN 0151005923). Author Peter Applebome was never a Boy Scout himself, so he was surprised (and a bit dubious) when his son Ben decided to join Troop 1 of Chappaqua Falls in upstate New York. As he learns to camp and canoe along with the boys, he discovers the rewards of the great outdoors and a deeper connection with his son. Applebome comes to appreciate his son’s decision to join the troop, chronicling his journey from skeptic to Scout with humor, ease and honesty. <I>Scout’s Honor</I> will be enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the outdoors and the crucial, ever-evolving father-son bond.

<B>Adopted fathers ease a boy’s painful loss</B> Moved by reading about the victims of 9/11, many of whom left behind families with young children, writer Kevin Sweeney was prompted to recall his own experience of losing his father when he was three years old. The resulting memoir, <B>Father Figures</B>, is both a nostalgic recollection of growing up during the 1960s in a large Irish-Catholic family and a perceptive exploration of grief’s long-term toll. Comforted by friends, neighbors and teachers and mentored by a stoic older brother, the young Sweeney bravely soldiers on after his father’s death. At the age of eight, he decides to “adopt” three adult men to serve as his role models and guides to manhood. Each man unknowingly lends valuable assistance to the boy on his sometimes painful journey through childhood and adolescence. Poignant without being maudlin, Sweeney’s story beautifully conveys the significance of a father’s role and offers hope that even the most profound of life’s tragedies can be endured and overcome.

<B>Death opens a door</B> It’s never too late to repair your relationship with your father (or child). That’s the message of Barry Neil Kaufman’s inspiring memoir, <!–BPLINK=1932073027–><B>No Regrets: Last Chance for a Father and Son</B><!–ENDBPLINK–> (New World Library, $22.95, 320 pages, ISBN 1932073027). Kaufman was a successful author, counselor and father when he received a call from his own 83-year-old father, who had just been diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Despite a long-standing rift between the two, the father’s illness is greeted by Kaufman as an opportunity for reconnecting with his parent. “Even if he never knew or understood me, I could, at least, come to know him if I opened my heart,” Kaufman writes. The two eventually put their difficult relationship behind and forge new bonds that comfort both the ailing father and his determined son.

Nevada Barr is sporting a new hat. For her latest book, she has put her deeply creased “writer of mystery thrillers” chapeau on its peg and donned one fit for a venture into the genre of spiritual memoir. Seeking Enlightenment . . . Hat by Hat: A Skeptic’s Look at Religion is a record of Barr’s journey from being a borderline atheist in her youth to a deeply spiritual though not categorically Christian adult. Barr still brings her “sleuthing,” analytical mind to her search for inner peace and spiritual understanding, though the hat she wears for this work is broader-brimmed and not without a bit of bounce and whimsy.

Her upbringing in Nevada (yes, she’s named for her birth state) did not prepare her for the unapologetic talk of “God” and “Jesus” she encountered when she moved to Mississippi, but she was ready to listen. “I doubt a trip to Dixie would bring God into everybody’s life,” she explains, “but when I arrived, I had pretty much exhausted all other avenues. My marriage had gone down in flames. I was clinically depressed, haunted by nightmares, broke and, at the age of 41, embarking on my third career, this time as a law enforcement ranger for the National Park Service.” Her protagonist, Anna Pigeon (featured in such bestsellers as Flashback, Hunting Season and Blood Lure), happens to be a crime-solving park ranger, so Barr’s move to the South was fortuitous in more ways than one.

Despair and loneliness drove her out of her apartment one evening for a walk. The dimly-lit stained glass windows of a nearby church attracted her. She decided to try the door, figuring if it wasn’t locked, she could sit inside and brood alone. The door was open, but there were four women inside; they herded her in, talked with her, made her feel welcome. It happened to be an Episcopal Church Barr stumbled into that night, and she became a member and has “hung her hat” there ever since. From then on, she explains, “I have been on a wonderful journey, sometimes Christian, sometimes not, but always in communion with other people.” While writing from her own experience eliminated the extensive plotting and research required for a novel, Barr explained in a recent interview that this work had its own difficulties. “In some ways, this was easier. For one thing, each chapter is between two and six pages long, so I got to feel a sense of accomplishment finishing each section along the way. I didn’t have to wait for the full closure of a novel.” Still, Seeking Enlightenment was a major undertaking. “I spent about a year on it, but it covers the thoughts of a lifetime,” Barr says. “The hardest part, though,” and here she breaks into laughter, “was when it was actually accepted. I didn’t even tell my editor I was working on it I just did it and then, when I sent it in and they bought it, there was this feeling: Oh no! Have I just volunteered to run naked through Times Square? Because it’s so personal!” But Barr recognized early on in the writing that in order to bare her soul and write honestly about topics like “Sin,” “Prayer,” “Humility,” and “An Argument for Life After Death” (all among the mini-chapters in her book) she had no choice but to use the “I” word. “If it wasn’t personal, it would be preaching,” she points out. “And I didn’t want to do that. And if it weren’t personal, who would identify with it? Women are very personal animals.” Despite her spiritual awakening, there is no “holier-than-thou” tone to Seeking Enlightenment, and it will undoubtedly strike a chord with many women, who, like Barr, are of the “baby boomer” generation. “What we know intellectually and how we behave seems oddly dichotomous,” Barr admits. “I believe with every cell of my being that cigarettes cause cancer,” she says laughing candidly, “and yet I smoke four cigarettes a day come rain or shine.” Seeking Enlightenment . . . Hat by Hat may be the saga of one woman’s spiritual journey, but there is much to identify with and plenty to learn from Barr’s experience. Hats off to you, Nevada Barr!