Cousins Ryan, Mak and Nainoa reunite in Las Vegas for a birthday party.  

(**SHOW NOTE: We are still meeting as a book club but haven't been able to record our recent gatherings.  We plan to resume recording for our next book which should be posted next month.) Cousins Ryan, Mak and Nainoa travel to Seattle to celebrate the year in which they all turn 40. Field recordings of their trip plus their rendition of "Come As You Are" by Nirvana.

***Note: This episode is actually not related to a book.  We were all in town for Thanksgiving and wanted to sit down to record a podcast for posterity. :)

As leaders of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, their mission was one many thought impossible: help US forces secure Ramadi, a violent, insurgent-held city deemed “all but lost.” In gripping, firsthand accounts of heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories, they learned that leadership - at every level - is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails. 

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana... and an East Texas honky-tonk... and, without a doubt, inside the heart of God. It unfolds at a Hollywood hacienda... an upscale New York gallery... a downtown dumpster... a Texas ranch. 

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, four men had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded was the result of a character that had been forged by life experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because he possessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships - and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to avoid capture/repatriation and guide her family to freedom.

Chester Nez, the only surviving member of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, shares the fascinating inside story of his life and service during World War II.

Based on recently declassified material, exclusive personal interviews, and extensive research into the French Resistance, The Lost Airman tells the tense and riveting story of Arthur's trying months in Toulouse - masquerading as a deaf mute and working with a downed British pilot to evade the Nazis - and of his hair-raising journey to freedom involving a perilous trek over the Pyrenees and a voyage aboard a fishing boat with U-boats lurking below and Luftwaffe fighters looming above.

In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.

A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice - from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

Shocking his stodgy colleagues at the exclusive Reform Club, enigmatic Englishman Phileas Fogg wagers his fortune, undertaking an extraordinary and daring enterprise to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days.

"The emotional heart of the story lies with one rower, Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not for glory, but to regain his shattered self-regard and to find a place he can call home." Our first episode for what we anticipate to be a monthly podcast on books.  Thanks for joining us!