💪Books & Biceps 417

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Long before you ever heard the name Michael Crichton of ER and Jurassic Park fame, he was a medical student who helped pay his tuition by writing books.

While he was in med school, he was afraid that his professors would think poorly of him for having one foot in medicine and the other in publishing, so he wrote under a few pseudonyms, the most prolific of which was John Lange.

Using Lange as a pen name, Crichton wrote a series of action/adventure books on all kinds of cool characters involving interesting plot lines and stories. Knowing the blockbuster success that Crichton would eventually have makes everyone an expert while reading these books in hindsight. People like to say “early Crichton” to describe them or they say stuff like “shows flashes of the talent that we’d eventually see” and other phrases like that.

Grave Descend is my first “John Lange” read and I’d say that this book is Crichton having a good time writing. He’s not tackling huge scientific breakthroughs or trying to come up with a book that would kill at the box office eventually. This is a book that you can tell comes from a love of pulp novels and gruff characters and detective stories.

In this case, we’re introduced to James McGregor, a motorcycle riding, rough-around-the-edges salvage diver in Kingston, Jamaica. He’s rugged and uncouth, but good at what he does. That’s how he found himself being hired to find a rich man’s yacht that sank under mysterious circumstances. The book has a Magnum PI feel to it. There are mobsters, fraudsters, locals, lots of beautiful women, tough guys, somewhat good guys, bad guys and plenty of diving, underwater discovery and cool specifics about salvaging. The entire atmosphere of the story is also cool because it all takes place 50 years ago, when Crichton wrote it. No cell phones. No internet. No social media. Just great dialogue, cool scenery, interesting characters, nice twists and a fun story. And more humor than you’d expect.

I brought this book on our short vacation to the west coast of Florida and I had a great time reading it, especially at the beach. I think you’ll enjoy the hell out of it. Check it out here.

It’s always cool to discover people who you’ve never associated with fitness getting in the gym. In this case, a video popped into my stream on Instagram and I thought it was AI. Seriously. But it’s real! Check out Mr. Deuce Bigelow, AKA, Mr. “You Can Do It!!!”, AKA, Adam Sandler’s favorite co-star, Rob Schneider, talking about getting fit.

I had absolutely no idea that the perennial co-star of Grown-Ups 1 & 2 was packing on the muscle in his 50s. Look at this dude. Not huge, but surprisingly fit:

If the “Making Copies” guy from SNL is getting yoked, then you can too haha.

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. This week I decided to share the long and exciting road to publishing Bear Brawl. I’ve always found behind-the-scenes stories fascinating and I think you’ll enjoy this one for sure. I tried to answer every single question I’ve gotten about writing the book from many of you this past year all in one place. Give it a read and hit me up with anything else:

And if you need a little inspiration, check out swimmer Mighty Mo, who is racing in the 50M backstroke in the insane 105-109 AGE GROUP!

What do you think of this sweet new Bear Brawl promo graphic? My son says it’s “tough” and I agree. Very tough:

You can pre-order Bear Brawl on AMAZON HERE, or at BARNES & NOBLE HERE or at BOOKSHOP.ORG here. Appreciate you all!

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. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Midlife Male and a Top 10 US Masters Swimmer in the 50 and 100 butterfly.

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