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Whalefall: A Novel by Daniel Kraus

If there was ever a trial in court to find the answer to the question:

“Do people really judge books by the cover?”

And if I was the lawyer presenting the case for ‘yes, people do all the time’, then Whalefall would be my ‘Exhibit A’.

I mean… Look at that cover. It’s glorious. It’s intriguing. It tells a story in itself. In fact, I had never heard of Whalefall or the author before the cover stopped me dead in my tracks at Barnes & Noble a while back.

Then I picked it up and read the quick log line and I was in:

“The Martian meets 127 Hours in this “powerfully humane” (Owen King, New York Times bestselling author) and scientifically accurate thriller about a scuba diver who’s been swallowed by an eighty-foot, sixty-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out.”

Done. Bought it right there.

This is why I spend so much time making sure the covers for my books like Bear Brawl are compelling and have a killer log line.

Rarely is a cover amazing and the book sucks.

Case in point: Whalefall is an awesome, unique, exciting and engaging book.

It takes you deep into the world of scuba diving and whales and adds in the element of redemption and a ticking clock and both of the main characters (a son and his gruff, legendary diver dad) are distinct and excellent… It’s a very fast read, but only because you’re flipping pages quickly to see what’s next.

It is such a cool concept and the level of difficulty on executing it was super high, but Daniel Kraus got it done. I can’t recommend the book enough. Get it here.

AND…. Read it now, because the movie trailer was just released this week and I promise you’ll want to read the book first. The movie looks really cool, but I think you’ll appreciate it and enjoy it more if you’ve got the full background of the book going in.

Check it out:

We’ve seen some incredible home and private gyms over the years here at Books & Biceps, but my appreciation level for this one is off the charts. Maybe it’s the Celtics green theme for one of the floors, or maybe it’s the homemade dumbbell sets... Or maybe it’s the restored old school Nautilus machines… Or maybe it’s ALL of that combined, but I gotta say, this is one of the coolest gyms ever by Harley Pasternak (and we have an interview with him coming up over at Midlife Male):

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 us at Midlife Male.

I’m the Editor-in-Chief and I write a column every Tuesday called The Manologue. And since it’s summer, I wanted to share a life lesson I learned while working construction in high school with my mammoth, larger-than-life foreman, Big Jim. If you ever worked construction, then you knew a guy like him and he taught me something I carry with me to this day:

Now, after you go run through a wall, come back, dust yourself off and pre-order the book ASAP if you want to get your name IN Bear Brawl.

Yes, I’ve dedicated a section in the back of the book for all of you. Forever. We’re calling it the Books & Biceps Hall of Fame. Every reader who pre-orders in time gets in. And every sale, even this early, counts so much. And now we’re down to the wire. I should have the final edits for the book back in the next few weeks (because I’m reading the audio book in July).

Once we go through those edits, the manuscript is locked and we won’t be able to add your name to the Hall of Fame.

GRAB YOUR COPY OF BEAR BRAWL:

I appreciate you reading Books & Biceps every week. This book is going to be our moment. Our time to show the publishing world that we want these books. We want Bear Brawl.

Jon Finkel is the award-winning author of Macho Man: The Untamed, Unbelievable Life of Randy Savage, 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, The Life of Dad, Jocks In Chief, The Athlete, Heart Over Height, “Mean” Joe Greene and more. His books have been endorsed by everyone from Mark Cuban, John Cena and Tony Dungy to Spike Lee, Kevin Durant and Chef Robert Irvine. He has written for GQ, Men’s Health, Yahoo! Sports, The New York Times and has appeared on CBS: This Morning, Good Morning Texas, Good Morning Chicago, and hundreds of radio shows, podcasts and streams. Jon was recently profiled in The New Yorker about the awesome community he’s built around his Books & Biceps newsletter. They describe him as “a gym rat’s Reese Witherspoon”. Reply to this email for any media requests.

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