BEFORE YOU WAKE by Erick Erickson is a series of letters to his children, prompted in large part by the health scares faced by himself and his wife in 2016. Also a Fox News contributor, Erickson expanded his original blog post to a book long format of 10 letters with subtitles such as "God Has a Plan and It May Not be Yours" and "Seeing the World Changes You" -- much to ponder here.

Original blog post: http://theresurgent.com/if-i-die-before-you-wake/

The idea of this book is spectacular. None of us know when our time her on Earth is through, and as such, we do not know how long we will have with our children. We may grow old and watch our children prosper, we may die suddenly and leave a parenting void for our children. Sharing as much as possible with our children about ourselves, our families, our beliefs, and helping mold them into the best versions of them is an important aspect of parenting. Creating narratives such as this book is an amazing manner in which to cultivate their development.

I have two complaints with this book. One, I think that this book would be more powerful and personal if it were written directly to his children. The majority of the book made the children to feel like characters in the story rather than the recipients of the knowledge. Two, at times the author ventured into some "get off my lawn" takes on society, which, while true to him and his point of view, was a bit annoying. The author certainly should not remove these instances, they just annoyed me a bit.

I loved the recipes in the book. Cooking and sharing food is obviously an important aspect of the author's life, and these tangible connections between his family's past and future will be quite valuable. I also loved the quick hit anecdotes in the last chapter. These nuggets of wisdom and family idiosyncrasies will be great for his children to rely upon in the future.

One last note, if you happen to differ politically with the author, please do not hold that against him. Read this book, understand his perspective, and leave with an understanding of what he is trying to accomplish with this book, and not his radio/TV political rhetoric.