Boom! This is Books & Biceps #356!

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In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathaniel Philbrick is one of my favorite non-fiction authors and one of the best of all time. Just about every book he publishes is an epic, legendary tale based on a true story - even though they read like action movies or awesome documentaries. My favorite is In the Heart of the Sea, which is the story of the whale-demolished ship that Herman Melville based Moby Dick on.

For our family summer trip this year we decided to visit my New England roots. Two quick days in Boston (with an incredible night at Fenway), four in Nantucket and four in Martha’s Vineyard.

While on Nantucket, I couldn’t wait to visit one of the east coast’s most iconic book stores: Mitchell’s Book Corner.

And of course, they had an entire section devoted to Philbrick, who has lived here in Nantucket since 1986. He’s a literary institution unto himself, having won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, in addition to multiple NY Times bestsellers.

Here’s the Philbrick shrine haha:

These are authors goals right here. A dedicated section to all your works in your hometown local book shop. You can’t go wrong with any Philbrick offering, but Heart and Mayflower are incredible and should be on every summer reading list forever.

While I enjoy relaxing vacations as much as the next dude, I prefer to tire myself out before the relaxing begins. And that goes for the whole family. In this case, it meant full-on distance bike rides across Nantucket in the morning, this one spanning 16 miles round trip with an incredible lobster roll lunch in the middle.

I love active vacations where you can walk/bike to see the entire city/island that you’re in. There’s simply no better way to check out an area than on foot or on a bike.

My kids used to roll their eyes and complain whenever my wife and I told them the plans to bike and ride around wherever we were visiting. It took a few trips and plenty of arguments haha - but they’ve come around to finally admitting that they enjoy the time outside and time together exploring new places and overcoming the challenges to complete the hike, walk or bike.

If you’re a mom or dad, you know what an accomplishment that is.

And I think my favorite trek so far was this 3-mile walk we did around the tip of Nantucket along a beach that is only accessible for about 90 minutes during low tide.

Even better, that magical 90 minutes only happens a few times a month at sunset, and we happened to be here. Took this cool shot of my son right in the middle of the walk:

Finally got the whole family up to Fenway for an epic 11-inning game. This is one of my favorite places on earth and it was amazing to share it with my favorite people:

If your mind instantly went to Good Will Hunting just now, then you’ll recognize this spot immediately. It’s where Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) gave Will the speech that truly started their relationship. I never knew where it was and it turns out it was on this bench at the Boston Botanical Garden. Very cool piece of film history from one of my favorite movies.

1) We have a special Father’s Day Issue coming up on Sunday over at Midlife Male. Four fantastic essays from MLM founder Greg and a free e-book from me. Subscribe for free right here to get it in time!

2) This is the single most relatable newsletter about start-ups you’ll ever read. And it’s by the guy who founded Beehiiv, the platform host of this newsletter. His name’s Tyler. His newsletter’s Big Desk Energy. You’ll love it:

3) And if you love Underdog Stories in Sports, you’ll love this. One of my favorite new reads:

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.