Boom! This is Books & Biceps #348!

Today’s issue is brought to you by the BRAND NEW ‘Bench O’Clock Monday Morning’ Mug:

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BOOKS

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson

Abraham Lincoln was murdered 160 years ago this week in one of the most shocking and consequential assassinations in all of modern history.

You know all about Ford’s Theater and John Wilkes Booth shouting “Sic Semper Tyrannis” before leaping off the balcony and injuring himself. And you know about Lincoln hovering near death through the night and his passing.

But what you likely don’t know is the absolutely riveting, legit heart pounding chase for Booth that took place in the near two-weeks after the shooting. This book takes off like a rocket ship, introducing you to the major characters surrounding Lincoln and Booth:

Major Henry Rathbone. Major Joseph B. Stewart. Lewis Powell. William H. Seward. Sargeant Boston Corbett. Samuel A. Mudd, David Herold and more.

Swanson does tremendous research about every aspect of the assassination, including injuries sustained by Booth, the trail he took out of D.C. through Maryland and Virginia and even the barn in Port Royal he hid out in. You’ll read about the relentless 16th New York Cavalry, bridge chases, races through woods and the near-misses that could have caught Booth earlier.

There is also a lot about how the original plan was supposed to go, from a kidnapping idea to some crazy, take-over-the-entire-government in one night schemes. You’ll read about who was in on it from the beginning, how the assassination plot started out as a much bigger conspiracy, where it failed and how, eventually, it shocked a nation on the heels of the Civil War.

This is an action movie, a mystery, a detective story and a masterful work of historical non-fiction that any fan of reading U.S. history should grab ASAP.

Check it out here.

BICEPS

This is the post that I saw from Tavi Castro, a shredded, super muscular world record holding free diver:

“3x Guinness WORLD RECORDS 🏆 Combining power, strength, and freediving to push the human potential to new levels. Pulled an anchor up from 42 meters deep, squatted 500kg at 10
meters depth, and Deadlifted 200kg 10 times at 10 meters depth all on a single breath. This is just the beginning…”

I didn’t quite understand what he meant about any of this, until I watched this video, which included his team building an entire gym with squat racks and everything in a giant underwater tank. He’s an aqua meathead and it’s amazing he did all these lifts on one breath. Just…. Watch this. Trust me:

QUICK FLEXES

Every Tuesday I write a new column over at Midlife Male, the fastest-growing lifestyle newsletter for men 40+. I’m the Editor-in-Chief and this week I wrote about something important - your legacy:

STRONG LINKS

1) Do you have your OFFICIAL BOOKS & BICEPS T-SHIRT FOR SPRING? No? THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Let the world know that you’re one of the elite, sophisticated meatheads who reads Books & Biceps by showing off your actual biceps in this shirt. I live in this thing. Grab yours and support the B&B Crew today:

Are you craving 80s & 90s nostalgia?

ALL THESE GUYS WERE, SO THEY BOUGHT: GENERATION GRIFFEY!

If you still wear your hat backward like Griffey, think all the Prime flavors are dumb because Gatorade Citrus Cooler is the greatest sports drink ever, miss Blockbuster and Tower Records, destroyed your friends in Street Fighter, GoldenEye, and NBA Jam, can quote Tommy Boy and Billy Madison, and never missed Stu Scott on SportsCenter —this book, Generation Griffey, is for you.

I ranked 90 of the '90s things that made your dude childhood legendary. A rankfest, if you will. Ninety columns. By me. For you. For US.

Why Generation Griffey?

First, it’s a great name. We’ve got alliteration, “generation,” and the quintessential athlete of that era: Ken Griffey Jr.

Junior perfectly defines the era for late '80s and '90s kids because the apex of his career matches our childhood. From the day he joined the Mariners’ lineup in 1989 through the next decade, nobody embodied '90s style (the backward hat), swagger (the swing, the smile, the commercials), and coolness (the kicks, the cameos, the crossover stardom) quite like Griffey.
His reign atop the sports/celebrity pyramid (alongside Jordan) from his rookie year in Seattle to his move to the Reds in 2000 serves as the perfect bookend for all of us who grew up in the last decade of the last century.

See? Generation Griffey is a spectacular name for this book.

What are we ranking?

Everything. Well, noteverything, but the 90 most nostalgic things that make us dudes smile all these years later: the movies we quoted, the athletes we loved, the cards we collected, the foods we devoured, the shows we watched, and more. All of it. Got it? Good. Let’s go.