The Unexpected Gift of a Lifetime: An Exclusive Guest Post From Wright Thompson, Author of Pappyland, Our June Nonfiction Pick 

Pappyland is a story about whiskey, inheritance and home — or, as my wife has come to call it: Eat, Pray, Love for dads. Fatherhood is the most poignant through line of the book to me, as Julian Van Winkle and I talk about his father and grandfather, Pappy himself, and I think back to my relationship with my own dad, which was cut so short. He never got to read this story or meet his grandchildren or see a book written by his son make the New York Times bestseller list.

The experience of creating Pappyland, and then seeing how deeply it resonated with people — fathers and children especially — has been the unexpected gift of a lifetime. It makes me get my father back, in a strange way, and I hope that reading it will allow you commune with people you’ve lost, and appreciate the people you’re still lucky enough to have, and try to grapple with your own inheritances — the things we are handed from the past to carry into the future, whether that’s whiskey or family or home. I’m grateful you’re considering reading this book, and I hope you find pieces of your own experience inside.