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Fields of Fire by Ryan Steck

I discovered Ryan Steck’s newsletter, The Real Book Spy, that focuses on news, reviews and updates on just about every major thriller or mystery released every year a few months ago. It’s a great follow and I look forward to getting it.

After I found the newsletter and read it for a bit, I learned that Ryan was ALSO an author. Obviously, I’m partial to newsletter writers who also author books haha, so I immediately ordered the first book in Steck’s Matthew Redd thriller series.

This was a fun read for several reasons.

First, the book follows a young, bad ass Marine Raider who has been kicked out of the Marine Corp. He’s at the very start of a promising career and then, through one bad decision, it’s all taken away. I liked this angle a lot. So many books are about a veteran special forces operator or an in-his-prime operator (and those are great!), but I liked the idea of following a guy whose career was snuffed out before it even started, leaving him with all of his skills and no way to use them in the real world.

Of course, being a thriller, Steck quickly gives Redd reasons to use his skills, haha.

And that’s the second reason I enjoyed this book. It takes place in Big Sky Country, way out in the middle of nowhere. It also involves the murder of Redd’s father, horses, ranches, small town politics, big money, an interesting storyline with an ex-girlfriend, and Redd returning to a past life and a rediscovery process of what to do when the one thing you always cared about (being a Marine) is taken away.

Like so many of the excellent books Steck reviews, his own work follows all the best traits of a thriller: fast moving, surprise twists, new information given out at interesting times, great fight scenes, cool tentpole action sequences and more.

If you’re looking for a fun summer read, give Steck’s book a shot here.

Most social media gimmicks that people film to get views are dumb. And maybe you’ll think this one is dumb, but it’s my kind of dumb.

This dude decided to set up a bench press, bar and plates at a gas station and when guys rolled up to the pump, he offered to fill their tank if they could bench 225. Even typing this makes me happy. What a simple, fun, goofy, meatheady idea that most people won’t care about but that I (and I think you) will love.

It’s fun to look at the guys and try to guess if they’ll get the lift, have trouble or crank out a ton of reps. This man, 61, is my favorite so far. Watch:

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 I spent the last 8 days driving for 17 hours, through three states and a bunch of National Parks, I put together a column about the whole experience that I know you’ll enjoy. Fun Stuff. Interesting Observations. Cool Tips. It’s all here:

Fired up for this? Me too! Pre-order the book ASAP if you want to get your name IN Bear Brawl. I am handing in the final edited manuscript on July 1st, which means you have FIVE DAYS to get IN the book and then that’s it!

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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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