Boom! Welcome to Books & Biceps, the only newsletter for sophisticated meatheads where I share updates on my upcoming books and projects, weekly book recs, interviews with my fellow authors, workout motivation, sports stuff and more. If someone forwarded you this email: Join 30,000+ other readers here.

I’m in the middle of our 11-day summer vacation throughout the southwest, hitting a ton of National Parks with the family. Our tradition continues… As does my summer road trip reading list:

I always bring a big stack of books. Usually, one that I'm in the middle of reading to finish, one I've been waiting to read and one that has to do with our trip.

I'm so pumped for the stack of books I took this year.

We're visiting the Glen Canyon Dam and the Hoover Dam, which I've always been fascinated with, so I'm in the middle of "Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of the Hoover Dam" by Michael Hiltzik.

This book is incredible. It’s a combination of the history of the southwest, exploration, expansion, engineering, hydraulics, politics and geography and it’s a deep, cool read. And as an added bonus, as we go through the tour and drive to the dams, I can share every annoying dad fact about it to my kids. Big win.

I'm also excited to read "The Plunge: Maverick Swimmers, an Unlikely Quest and the Transformative Power of Cold Water" by Chris Ballard.

I've had this book on my radar for obvious swimming reasons and it looks great. Huge props to Ballard for not only writing about the subject, but getting in the icy water and winning events. Cannot wait.

And I finished Brad Thor's non-stop thriller, Choke Point, a few days into the trip and loved it. This was my first Scot Harvath book and it's a ton of fun.

COOL NOTE: We're lining up a Books & Biceps interview about the book with Brad, so be on the lookout for that coming soon!

Hope you've got some great trips lined up as well. And if not, just hop in the car and hit up a National Park. They're the best.

When I get away from my desk to take a break from writing, I like to get wayyyyy away from my desk. On the first day of our Southwest National Parks tour we made it to the top of Cathedral Rock. About 95 degrees out but no humidity like South Florida. Doesn’t bother me nearly as much.... The hike was steeper and harder than I’d heard, though. Lots of scrambling and a few tight spaces but man, it was awesome. Incredible views. Took the long way down and it felt like a million air squats haha:

Day 2: Top of submarine rock. Then chicken rock. And then down a steep spot called devil’s bridge in a jeep. And then a bunch of other cool rock formations and lookouts on our adventure… the wildest thing to think about is that if we were standing in all these spots millions of years ago we’d be at the bottom of the ocean. And millions of years from now who knows? But today, a meathead and his family took some pics…. If we were here in the fall, we’d have a shot at seeing some black bears. Maybe we’ll come back for the Bear Brawl animal auditions for the eventual movie:

Day 3: Legendary day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and I gotta give my family credit. Almost wrote a physical check our butts couldn’t cash. Took off down the Bright Angel trail loaded with water bottles and energy and about an hour down, when we hit the rest station turnaround everyone was toast. Rule is it takes 2x as long to hike back up and it was HOT. We rested. Hydrated. Took a ton of stops but made it back up. Absolutely insane views. Big horn sheep racing past us. Some hairy moments for my daughter who doesn’t love hikes or heights but everyone sucked it up… even when it got physically hot and difficult.

Took 3 and a half hours. But the lesson, as always: do hard things. Push yourself sometimes. We created a lifetime family memory. And each drank 36 ounces of gatorade in 30 seconds at the top haha. Beyond proud of my wife and daughter for pushing through. And my son who even volunteered to take my 25 pound pack the last half mile up.

One day I legit want to have a nature photography gallery from all our national park trips… been getting better and better at taking some sweet photos… this one is Top 5: Sunset at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon:

If you want to follow along on the rest of this trip, or to get daily updates and videos on my books, training and more cool daily stuff, follow me on Instagram here.

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 Father’s Day is coming up, I wanted to share my award-nominated short story, One Dad, Two Sons, and the Night the Driveway Basketball Legend was Born, which earned a Notable Mention in the Best American Sports Writing Anthology. This is, despite over a dozen books and two million (really) words of columns and cover stories for magazines the last twenty years, the most personal, best piece I’ve written.

If you’ve ever shot hoops in the driveway with your dad or your kids or your siblings, then you have to read this. I promise you, it is 100% true. This happened. I still can’t believe it. Enjoy:

I got the final draft of Bear Brawl for approval the other day and the final copy edits have commenced. That means right after I get back from my trip, we’re locking the manuscript and I won’t be able to get any more Books & Biceps Hall of Fame readers into the acknowledgements section at the back of the book.

We’ve got several pages of readers already and it’s so awesome. If you’ve been thinking about pre-ordering to have your name in the book, this is the last shot. I’d love to see your name in there. It’s so cool. You can be part of an iconic thriller forever!

Fired up for this? Me too! Pre-order the book ASAP if you want to get your name IN Bear Brawl.

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.

→ WANT TO BOOK THE TITLE SPONSORSHIP FOR JUNE???? Get in front of 29,000 awesome readers who focus on: reading, wellness, fitness, nutrition, entertainment, sports and more!

Previous sponsors include Nike, Random House, Netflix, Huel, HubSpot, SFH Nutrition, La Touraine Watches, Precision Skincare and more…

Download our media kit here:

→ Reply to this email for rates and availability.