Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #20 - The Summer Reading List

Finkel's Fast Five - Issue #20

June 15th, 2018

I recommend books here regularly but now that it's summertime more and more people have asked me to suggest a good "summer" read. Done and done.

Without further adieu, this special edition of the FF5 is booked solid with...books.

The surfing memoir that I picked to win the Pulitzer Prize after I read it the week it came out (and it did):
True story. I read William Finnegan's brilliant book, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, over a single weekend when it debuted and the next day when I went to work I told my friend that I got sucked into this amazing book about surfing and life and adventure and solitude and experience and that as crazy it sounded, I thought it could win the Pulitzer Prize. You won't regret reading it. Especially on the beach somewhere. Get it now.

Perhaps the best-written, most incredible autobiography I've ever read about shoes...or anything else.
Whether you're a Jordan person or a Nike person or not, the autobiography of Nike-founder Phil Knight, Shoe Dog, will have you rooting for one of the unlikeliest, gutsiest, long-shot success stories you've ever read. What Knight went through personally and professionally to found Nike would not be believed if it weren't true. And the writing is superb. Buy Shoe Dog this instant.

The best true story book about great white sharks by an incredible writer hell-bent on telling the story:
This book is the perfect summer read in many ways. It's true. It's scary. It involves science and great white sharks and a near-death experience. It's also a first-person story told by top-notch writer, Susan Casey. The Devil's Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among Great White Sharks will give you a new appreciation for the ocean's apex predator and the men and women who risk their lives studying them.

The book about scuba diving and World War II submarines you didn't know you needed:
If I had to guess, I'd say of all the books I've ever recommended in my life, Robert Kurson's book, Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II, had my highest success rate. 100% of the people who read it loved it...and I even bought a second copy for people to borrow the summer I read it. The subtitle says it all, but the grind of the search, the death-defying dives, the historical precedent, the quirky and tough characters, and the fluid writing make this book almost un-put-down-able.

The book about the impossible exploration expedition that then ex-President Teddy Roosevelt led into the Amazon that nearly killed him:
If summer is a time for adventure and reading about adventure, you simply will not find a more insane-because-it's-real, ludicrous-because-it-involves-an-ex-president, and well-written book than Candice Millard's masterpiece, River of Doubt: Teddy Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. If you love Roosevelt, Indiana Jones, US history, World History, discovery, triumph, high stakes and stories about people finding it within themselves to overcome unbearable conditions, then you should start reading this book yesterday.

Have a great weekend and a great summer reading season!

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- Jon