Life ... Death ... Dads On Paper.

"The thing you need to know about me is that I am George Corrigan's daughter, " begins the prologue of Kelly Corrigan's "The Middle Place." The memoir is about survival from cancer (hers and her dad's) and its backstory is about when you begin a dream. She told USA Today that "publishing seemed so 'fluky'," but facing the possibility of death — hers and her dad's, again — started her to consider their connection, among other things.

And death also plays a part as Julia Wright finally brings to publication her father's unfinished novel, "A Father's Law," tracing a policeman's inquiry into his son's (possible) crimes. Wright is the daughter of novelist-of-the-American-canon Richard Wright, whose novel of murder and race complications, Native Son, became in 1940 the first Book-of-the-Month Club selection by an African-American author.

** Eternity is made from how dad memories are captured. **