Books & Biceps is the only weekly e-mail that combines reading recommendations, exclusive workouts, short biographies of fascinating people, dad highlights & more…

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BOOKS

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides

I am a big believer in book serendipity - the idea that occasionally, through a cosmic quirk or the timing of the universe or through goofy luck, the right book finds you at the right time. This could be life changing. This could be perspective altering. This could be the spark that makes you try something new and exciting.

I’ve certainly read books that have done all of the above, but in this case, I happened to be reading Ghost Soldiers over Thanksgiving. It’s a day where we all try to take time to think about what we’re grateful for, but it’s also a day that many of us get preoccupied with modern day nonsense (traffic, forgetting an ingredient at the store, kids being a pain, etc…)….

For me, we live close enough to my family and my wife’s family that we hit up two full Thanksgivings in one day. Lunch with my in-laws’ crew and then dinner with my family. 2 full meals: awesome. 3 hours in the car: not so much.

On Wednesday night I was thinking about what a pain in the ass the three-hour triangle drive was going to be on Thursday… Then I settled into my chair and started reading and came upon this passage in Ghost Soldiers, about the WWII soldiers languishing in Bataan before the U.S. had to surrender the territory:

“Yet for the men of Bataan, disease was the real enemy, killing them and sapping their morale with even greater efficacy than the Fourteenth Army. Old diseases that modern medicine had long since learned how to treat. Diseases of vitamin dearth…diseases of jungle rot… their bodies coursed with every worm and pathogen a hot jungle can visit upon a starved and weakened constitution - dengue fever, amebic dysentery, bacillary dysentery, tertian malaria, cerebral malaria, typhus, typhoid… gas gangrene… The men’s joints ached with odd swellings and incipient beriberi, a vitamin B deficiency which made the legs feel “watery and pumping with pain” and the heart “thump like a tractor engine bogged in a swamp.’”

If you’re keeping track, that’s like two dysenteries, two malarias and about a dozen ways to be tortured physically while you try and march.

Needless to say, complaining about being in an air conditioned car for three hours listening to the radio seemed a little frivolous after reading this.

Aside from that jolt of reality, the book is spectacular. What the men of Bataan endured, and what the group of soldiers went through to rescue them, is legendary. Heroism. Sacrifice. Guts. The book is a fast read and once you hear the stories of what these men dealt with for 3 years in hellhole prison camps, you will be grateful for the very fact that you are lucky enough to open this e-mail and read it in good health. Buy it here.

BICEPS

Longtime readers of Books & Biceps know that we’re somewhat obsessed with posture in this newsletter. Nothing makes you look older and lethargic faster than crap posture: sloped shoulders, bent forward head and neck, rounded back… Awful. And worse, it can be painful and cause lower back injuries and decreased mobility as you get older.

I’m always in search of new stretching routines/exercises to fix my posture because I write in front of a computer too many hours each day. Even standing for lots of it, and being conscious of my posture, I slouch.

I love this new routine from Alex Bernier. Click on the link below for a quick 15-second video that shows each exercise in the routine.

Posture Care After Work:

This simple routine balances your body at the end of your day.

A few minutes of your time will spare you from potentially debilitating pain in the decades ahead.

2 sets of 30-60s is enough to make a difference.

Here are the 4 exercises.

QUICK FLEXES

For my fellow writers on here, read this:

The 6 essentials of kick ass late night writing from 20+ years of experience.

And how about this incredible, pure 90s photo of WWF stars hanging outside of a hotel:

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Have a great weekend! - Jon