Boom! Thank you to everyone who has shared this newsletter with a friend or fellow meathead. In fact, if an awesome B&B reader shared this with you, add your e-mail with the subscribe button below:
If you’re a new subscriber you’ll love this profile that the New Yorker ran on us.
Last week I shared a list of our Top 12 Favorite Fictional Meatheads and Warriors from books and I’m glad so many of you enjoyed it. If you missed the newsletter, you can read it right here.
My number one overall pick was Spenser from Robert B. Parker’s novels and a decent number of you asked me to recommend a Spenser book to start out with (I believe there are thirty or forty total). If you’re looking for an intro to a classic, old school Spenser, then I’d roll with Pale Kings & Princes for a full-on action book. If you’d like a taste of 1980s Boston and Spenser at his wise-cracking, bad guy fighting best, then Mortal Stakes is a great choice as well.
When Robert B. Parker passed away, Mike Lupica took up the mantle of Spenser for a while (he was decent) and after him, Ace Atkins threw on the Harbor Club training shirt and did an excellent job. If you want to enter the Spenser universe in a more modern time, then you’ll love Cheap Shot.
Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins
Cheap Shot came out in 2015 and it’s the perfect crime/detective story to read with football season starting because the novel is about a fictional star player on the Patriots, Kinjo Heywood, whose son gets kidnapped and he brings in Spenser to solve the case.
There are subtle mentions and references to Belichick and Brady and a few other players, but there are cool scenes in and around Boston (as always with Spenser books) and in Foxboro as well. This book is a great intro to Spenser because you’ve got Hawk (his longtime bad ass partner) and their protege Z, both on the case. Plus you have Kinjo, various bad guys and Spenser digging around where he’s not supposed to, leading to fights and twists and wise cracks. All of these books are quick reads, but this one is a lot of fun if you’re a football fan too. Grab Cheap Shot here.
COOL NEWS: I took 1st overall in a half-mile ocean race this past Sunday morning. As many of you know, I’m a sprinter in the pool. Butterfly and freestyle, so I usually enter these races in the 1-mile and finish somewhere in the top third or top half, but I never win. Me and endurance events aren't really pals, haha. But I was talking to a teammate before the race and he said, "Dude, you should just enter the half-mile and sprint. I think you'd win." Sounded like a good idea, so I did just that. Aaaaand…. Boom! I won.
I even raced out of the water and broke through the tape. All the open water events I've entered across decades and I'd never done that before and I gotta be honest, it felt pretty cool. And the two best parts were that I had my daughter with me cheering as I crossed the finish line and I got to spend the weekend with my "other" parents from growing up, my best friend's mom and dad who have always treated me like a son. Shout out to Mr. & Mrs. C for the good luck! Also: Mr. C has been reading Books & Biceps since Day 1, so he’s a legend around these literary parts! Here’s a cool recap:
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’m sharing one of my most read columns of all time about HBO’s Hard Knocks. This year’s been fun so far with the Seahawks, but as you’ll see in the column, most guys are watching for more than the football:
Just about every NFL team has an elite weight room, but the new set-up for my Patriots is sick. I think my favorite part is the giant image of Pat the Patriot deadlifting on the wall. He shows up a few seconds into the footage:
This week we crept under the 90-day mark until Bear Brawl is released!!!!! We are getting verrryyyy hyped over here. A SWEET new trailer is coming next week, featuring over a half-dozen author blurbs and an incredible bookmark giveaway. Until then, let Trailer #3 hold you over… And be sure to pre-order today!
You can pre-order Bear Brawl on AMAZON HERE, or at BARNES & NOBLE HERE or at BOOKSHOP.ORG here. Appreciate you all!
Thanks for reading - Jon
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.
QUICK FLEXES FOR YOU:
Get the Books & Biceps FULL ACCESS Plan Here: You’ll get every Meathead Media Digital Book, Course & Challenge for one ridiculously fair price. That’s over 300,000 words and 120+ workouts in one place.
VISIT THE BOOKS & BICEPS STORE:
Grab a Thirst for Knowledge Summer Glass! Or our Bench O’Clock Monday Morning Mug! Or the Official Books & Biceps Tee: Enter the store here.
→ WANT TO BOOK THE BOOKS & BICEPS TITLE SPONSORSHIP??? Reply to this email for rates and availability.