‘The Family Man’ (Books)

Elinor Lipman, whose urbane comedies of manners are unfailingly witty and insightful, grew attached to John Henry Archer, a minor character in a failed early novel. Now she’s made him the central character in “The Family Man.”

Henry, as he is known, is a good-hearted, level-headed, exquisitely well-mannered gay man, a recently retired lawyer with an Upper West Side townhouse with an empty apartment on its first floor.

Then his ex-wife’s husband drops dead, and Denise, a remarkably self-centered woman, marches back into his life. In stilettos. The marriage, before Henry acknowledged his attraction to men, wasn’t perfect, but he adored Denise’s toddler daughter, Thalia.

No need to divulge the plot details — that would spoil the romp. Suffice it to say that Lipman has created engaging characters and, at a time when the country is debating same-sex marriage, gives us in Henry a gay father so loving, nurturing and kind that any child would be fortunate to have him.

‘Life List’ (Books)

In May 1965, a bored, blue 34-year-old housewife from New Brighton, Minn., focused borrowed binoculars on something that “nearly knocked me over with astonishment,” she wrote later — a black-and-white bird with a yellow head, an orange throat and a flutey trill.

For Phoebe Snetsinger, the sight of that Blackburnian warbler was an epiphany, “a blinding white light” that catapulted her into a lifelong quest to see most of the birds on Earth.

Olivia Gentile stumbled across Snetsinger’s story while working on a feature story about birders. The more she heard, the more fascinated she became, and she set out on a seven-year quest of her own to find out more about this remarkable Minnesota woman.

The result is “Life List: A Woman’s Quest for the World’s Most Amazing Birds,” a biography that’s about much more than a champion birder. It’s about a dream deferred — in a different era, this wistful, poetry-writing mother of four might have become a scientist. It’s about the fine line between passion and compulsion. And it explores Gentile’s question: “What does it mean, ultimately, to live, and die, well?”

Ambient Baseball ScoreCast (Games)

Features: Automatically monitors Major League Baseball game scores, team schedules and division standings wirelessly — no Internet connection required. Scores update every half-inning, and standings indicate wins, losses, games behind first place, streaks and last 10 games results for every team. Uses four “AA” batteries.

Ups: It’s super easy to use and you don’t need to do anything for it to start working. And you don’t need Internet access for this to work — it just pulls data from Ambient’s InfoCast Network. Buttons that switch between teams and divisions need no explanation.

Downs: It’s not for the tech-savvy baseball fan. Because it’s supereasy to pull up this info on a cell phone or Web page at any time — not to mention that any uber-baseball fan probably has ESPN on 24/7 at home and already keeps up with their favorite teams, so why would you want to pay almost $130 for this?

Bottom line: If you’re thinking about getting this as a Father’s Day gift, this is for the dad who wants every gadget and wants to show off … maybe keep it in the kitchen or on the back patio. And it’s also good for the baseball-fanatic grandpa who doesn’t have any Internet access. But it’s not necessary for a wired, tech-savvy fan.