Boom! This is Books & Biceps #367!

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All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby

A few weeks ago we featured an incredible behind-the-book Q&A with my buddy and Edgar Award-winning author, Eli Cranor, about his new book, Mississippi Blue 42. If you love deep dives on character, fiction, scene setting and story development, you’ll want to read it here.

While following Eli’s book launch I saw that he was doing a promotional event with NY Times bestselling author, S.A. Cosby. I saw Cosby’s book, All the Sinners Bleed, on just about every ‘best of’ reading list last year and made a mental note to grab it but hadn’t yet… until Eli’s post reminded me.

Funny how that works. You read and like one book and follow the author and he talks to another author to promote his book and it reminds you to buy that author’s book. Such a perfect way to discover new favorite writers.

I’m sharing all this because holy hell All the Sinners Bleed is brilliant. Cosby is instantly one of my favorite writers. He has such a gift for character depth and dialogue and inner monologue thoughts and the little nuances that do something very difficult and very important as an author:

He doesn’t write to tell you about a character. He writes in a way that you get to know the character. As if the character was someone you’ve hung out with and played ball with and can understand.

I can’t tell you how hard this is to do. There are plenty of fine books that are entertaining that don’t do this. They give you the gist of someone and you’re on your way.

BUT Cosby high jumps over that bar.

His main character in this book, Titus Crown, is the first Black sheriff in the history of his southern county. He was a high school football star and academic whiz who became an FBI agent before heading back to his hometown to serve. But there are layers upon layers to Titus. Physically imposing, yet can quote Yeats and the Bible. Measured and self-aware but simmering with fury. He’s a man trying to convince himself he can settle in his hometown and make a positive change but his ambition won’t let go.

And into this backdrop, we get a local serial killer that must be caught in a town that’s fooling itself about its southern charm, its handling of race, its entire way of life.

The veneer of safety and small town life is slowly stripped away as Titus tracks the killer while dealing with his ex-alcoholic dad, the death of his mother he hasn’t recovered from, his often in trouble-brother, corruption on his staff, his current hometown girlfriend, his ex-girlfriend who knows him better than he knows himself and the weight of being a Black sheriff who the good old boys in the county want to see fail.

Yeah, it’s a lot. But it’s phenomenal. A master class in thriller writing, pacing, Southern noir and more.

Read it.

I follow ex-NFL Pro Bowler James Harrison on Instagram because he’s a monster in the gym and he’s always doing unique, super strong James Harrison-type things.

I normally hate that trope “person x doing person x things” but in this case it applies. In the gym, Harrison is one-of-one. Check out this bungee weight incline bench press set-up he’s got here. Definitely works for increasing stabilizer muscles, but I don’t even know how you’d put this together. Also, I could be wrong but this looks like he’s pressing 335 on this contraption. Incline. Dude’s a machine:

While I love having all guests in the Flex Factory, my favorite thing is when the next generation of Sophisticated Meatheads take an interest in lifting.

My son and daughter will occasionally join me for a workout and it’s great, but of all the younger kids in my family, my nephew Gus has clangin’ and bangin’ in his DNA. He loves learning new lifts. He focuses. He concentrates. He pushes himself. And he has fun, which is the most important part.

Last week he joined me solo for a young meathead training session. None of his siblings. None of my kids. Just me and the little monster cranking weights and listening to the Rocky soundtrack twice through. Slam balls. Hex bar deadlifts. Jump rope. Chain drags. Band curls. All of it. What a stud!

If you’re a guy over 40 and you’ve been looking for a new digital magazine that’s written for midlife men, by midlife men, on the topics that actually matter to us: family, fitness, fashion, finance, food & fun, then join 25K of us at Midlife Male.

I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. Occasionally, I try dumb stuff sometimes so you don't have to. In this week’s column I gave those stupid mouth taping strips a shot to stop snoring. You know the ones... You see the ads with the dude in the beard and his mouth taped... Or some guy sleeping soundly on a pillow with a strip of black covering his lips... They look absurd...

And trust me, I planned on dunking all over these things and even had some great jokes planned to bash them. But I can't lie... If you snore, snort, poof, wake up with your mouth open and dried out and gross... Read this. Link in the comments.

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I love reading books and occasionally re-reading books, but what I’m terrible at, and don’t like doing, is taking notes while reading a book. I know plenty of authors and readers who do it, but it’s not my thing. I find that it messes with my flow and interrupts my thoughts and, the worst part, it feels like homework. And we all hate homework.

However, I like to reference ideas and stories from books that I’ve read in my own writing and thus, my dilemma: how to take notes without, you know, taking notes.

The answer: Shortform.

I use it to refresh my memory on books I’ve already bought and read all the time - like my own note taking service haha. It’s especially useful for a monster book like Ferriss’s 4-Hour-Body.

Sound good? Want to try it?

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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.

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