Good Talk, Dad: The Birds and the Bees...and Other Conversations We Forgot to Have

by Bill Geist, Willie Geist

Overview

Bill Geist—the beloved, award-winning, long-time special correspondent for "CBS: Sunday Morning," whose debut Little League Confidential was a New York Times bestseller in hardcover and paper—and Willie Geist, the Today Show host, popular member of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," and author of the best-selling American Freak Show—have begun an extended conversation between father and son on areas of mutual interest, agreement, and disagreement.

Told in a unique back-and-forth banter style, the hilarious father-son team will laugh together at the shared journey of their relationship. They'll riff on fatherhood, religion, music, sports, summer camp disasters, driving lessons gone horribly wrong, being on TV, and their wonderfully odd family life. Think Big Russ and Me meets S*** My Dad Says, with humorous observations about professional wrestling as a worldview, raising a kid with television cameras in the kitchen, and anything and everything else that comes to their witty minds.

The Geists decided to write this book so their children and grandchildren would have a record of their unusual father-son relationship. The book is remarkably funny, as well as poignant and sincere, especially in light of Bill's announcement that he's been diagnosed with Parkinson's. With its lighthearted look at the crazy things fathers and sons go through and the unique bond those experiences forge, the book is sure to be a must-have gift for Father's Day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455547210
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/19/2015
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	809,910
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Bill Geist is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including City Slickers, Little League Confidential, The Big Five-Oh, Fore! Play!, and Way Off the Road. Geist has won numerous Emmys and in 2011 was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the hundreds of "singular, informative, entertaining" pieces he has done since joining CBS in 1987. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service as a combat photographer in Vietnam in 1969. In 2018 he retired from CBS having battled Parkinson's disease for twenty-five years. Geist lives in Riverside, Connecticut, with his wife, Jody. They have two children, Willie and Libby, and four grandchildren.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The Birds and the Bees…of Which We Dared Not Speak 5

Chapter 2 Letters from Gang Camp 21

Chapter 3 The Red Jeep 37

Chapter 4 "Dad, this really sucks" 55

Chapter 5 A Sledgehammer Christmas 71

Chapter 6 Yuletide at Grandpa George's Zoo 77

Chapter 7 Baseball, Fathers, Sons…and All That 87

Chapter 8 A Four-Year-Old, a Football Game & Dora the Explorer 129

Chapter 9 Talking to Teens About Drinking (Once They've Reached Their Thirties) 145

Chapter 10 Our Birthday Party for Elvis 161

Chapter 11 Willie, Uncle Herb & Mick Jagger: A Journey Down the Garden State Parkway 173

Chapter 12 The Talk We Really Never Had: Vietnam 187

Chapter 13 The Family Business: From the Fisher Reporter to 30 Rock 203

Chapter 14 Parkinson's: The Denial Treatment 243

Chapter 15 Bend but Don't Break: The Geist Parenting Style 255

Chapter 16 When Bill Became "Bumpa" 295

Epilogue 303

Acknowledgments 307

Editorial Reviews

"[D]elightful... it is lovely, loving and a must read."—Star-Ledger

"A witty memoir."—Parade

"I loved this book. It's no surprise the Geists have such broad appeal. I want them to be my dad and brother."—Jim Gaffigan, author of New York Times bestseller Dad Is Fat

"Bill and Willie are the wittiest duo I know. Their stories are hilarious. Reading this book made me feel like I grew up a Geist!"—Andy Cohen, host of Bravo's Watch What Happens: Live and author of New York Times bestseller Most Talkative

From the Publisher

"Bill and Willie are the wittiest duo I know. Their stories are hilarious. Reading this book made me feel like I grew up a Geist!"

Andy Cohen

"I loved this book. It's no surprise the Geists have such broad appeal. I want them to be my dad and brother."

Jim Gaffigan

Reading alternate segments filled with understated humor, two engaging broadcast celebrities deliver well-written, wry accounts of their lives together as father and son. The younger Geist, Willie, the smooth and secure “Morning Joe” cohost, performs his part of the book flawlessly as he shares his youthful adventures, his lifelong appreciation of his father, and some fascinating stories about his current family life and television career. The elder Geist, Bill, an equally funny writer, gives a performance that is just as spontaneous and genuine in his sections of the book. His delivery will remind many of the late Andy Rooney. The audio is a satisfying, entertaining look at a great father-son connection, and a refreshing reminder that TV stars can be warm and generous human beings. T.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2014 - AudioFile

2014-04-22
Two veteran raconteurs face off to cover over four decades of family myths and legends.Co-host of NBC's Today 9 a.m. hour and MSNBC's Morning Joe, Willie Geist (American Freak Show: The Completely Fabricated Stories of Our New National Treasures, 2010, etc.) joins his father, columnist and TV journalist Bill Geist (Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small Town America, 2007, etc.) in canonizing both great and not-so-great moments in parenting and coming-of-age. The authors banter back and forth in their discussions of everything from a nonexistent father-son sex talk to Willie's summer camp to coaching Little League. Then there are the tales of underage drinking, how to cook up a fake ID, the family's Elvis cult and an uncle's/brother's pharmacopeia perfectly timed for special events. As in most families, there is one car handed down through the generations, in this case, a Jeep CJ-7. The authors interleave the chapters with sidebars entitled "Geist Date in History" that highlight small events that bear marking—e.g., the day Willie met Donald Trump. Willie also includes a previously published story about taking his daughter to a Columbia University football game. The Geist family, the authors note, often perform rites of passage late, so this book is a chance "to cover our father-son bases retroactively." It's clear most of these stories have been told countless times; they're practiced and well-paced. However, new material about Bill's Vietnam tour and his battle with Parkinson's disease contain further revelations and have not been polished over the family dinner table. A strong father-son relationship shines through.Heavy on bad-boy behavior and sports, the book should come with a six-pack of cheap beer. A quick read that is not for everyone.

Kirkus Reviews