June 2018 Must-Haves

Every month I publish a list of blogs, podcasts, books, products or anything else I consider to be a must-have or must-do. Hope you enjoy this month’s list.

Reading

  • Fearless – The Adam Brown Story by Eric Blehm  – Easily the best non-fiction of the last month. Adam Brown was a Navy SEAL whose persistence in the face of seemingly insurmountable personal odds is nothing short of remarkable.
  • An Abundance of Katherines by John Green – I’ve read all of the John Green books (I think), but this one is likely my favorite. Great for bedtime reading and a neat story to boot.
  • Factfulness by Hans Rosling – I dig Rosling’s style and have always enjoyed his TED Talks. The book is solid and in the vain of Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, which was a seminal book in my life. This is a great book to reset all the crap you hear about how bad things are.
  • Looking for Alaska by John Green – I know. Two in one month? But I was on a roll and checked them both out from the library. This is Green’s first book and is more like Fault in Our Stars. Worth reading.
  • Bad Blood by John Carreyrou – The inside story of Theranos. I’m just getting started on this one, listening to it instead of reading. It’s gripping.

Watching

  • All or Nothing: All Blacks – I know nothing about rugby other than you have to be a bad-ass to play. After watching this series, I still know very little about rugby, but I’ve confirmed that (a) you do in fact have to be a bad-ass to play and (b) I desperately want to go to New Zealand
  • Silicon Valley – As with GoT last month, I am late to the party. I started watching this when it came out and I couldn’t get past my hatred of Richard Hendricks. For some reason I gave it a 2nd shot and have been rewarded. The one-liners of Erlich Bachman alone are worth the price of admission. Bachman is another legendary HBO supporting role in the vein of Ari Gold (perhaps the best ever)
  • Wild Wild Country – A documentary about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I remember all of this going down when I was in school, but I was so far removed from it I don’t think I realized the scale. Really good so far. I’m just getting going

Listening

  • J. Cole – KOD – I have my kids to thank for this one. Have to be in the right mood, but when I am this treats me right
  • Ben Rector – Magic – I’m a sucker for piano playing singer-songwriters going back as far as I can remember. Ben Rector is my favorite in the genre right now. New album. Good stuff. The video for Old Friends is pretty neat, too.
  • I’m sad to report that I’ve stopped listening to the Tim Ferriss show. From the eight minutes of ads at the start to his incessant references to prior guests and himself, I can’t take it anymore. I tried listening to the Karli Kloss episode because I was really interested in her story, but… nope. Amazing guests, but it’s not worth the Ferriss tax.

As you get ready for the 4th of July here in the US, if I have one ask this month it’s to read Factfulness and take a look around. Life is pretty good, particularly if you’re reading this or that book.

As Ben Rector says, “You can’t make old friends.” Hope you get to spend the holiday with some of yours.

Thanks as always for reading.