The Grey NATO – 370 – TGN Book Club 5

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Granado.

It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches.

This is episode 370 and it's probably brought to you by the always growing T.J.N. supporter

crew.

Thank you all so much for your continued support.

And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegranado.com for more details.

My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacey.

James, we can add books to our superlatives at the top of the show this week.

Yeah, we're doing a book club.

How are you doing?

Books.

Yeah, good.

I think the longer we do, looking back at some of the previous book clubs that we've

done, I was in less of a reading mode in my life.

I've really kind of amped that up in the last year or so.

I blame Jack Carr to a certain extent as I had to buzz through all of his great stories

a little while ago.

But yeah, I always look forward to book club and we don't do them that often because I think

you're kind of really asking a lot of people to like, this will be four books.

And I think for some people, that's about what they read in it, right?

Yeah.

Or more.

I definitely know people who don't read four books in a year.

And for me, I would ideally do that in a couple of months, maybe a little less if you're

really into the book or if it's not that long.

Yeah.

But yeah, we don't do these a ton, but I do get excited about them because if we do them

once a year, I've probably read a couple books I really enjoy per year.

So we can definitely get to that list.

Yeah.

I think of the general calendar for the year.

Don't forget the Vancouver and Montreal timepiece shows are coming up and tickets are available.

Vancouver is the weekend of Saturday, April 25th.

And Montreal is the weekend of Saturday, May 30th.

I will be at the Vancouver show.

We're doing a party the Saturday evening with marathon at Rolldorf and Co.

We will have an RSVP available to the Slack members and then on eventually to a broader

episode of the show coming up, but those plans are in place.

So if you've got things going on Saturday evening, this should be sort of the last, I think

probably the later last stop of the night, sort of thing over at Rolldorf Co, basically

a repeat of last year, which is a great time, very much looking forward to it.

But you can find out more if you're looking for tickets at timepieceshow.com.

And as ever, we appreciate being able to partner with them as, you know, a chance to go

to the show and maybe record some episodes and do a fun party with marathon and that sort

of thing.

Yeah.

Jason Hutton sounds like he's a busy guy and he's, he's, but back to back months and

then Toronto.

And he's, it sounds like he's straighted to take over all the provinces in Canada with

a timepiece show at some point.

It's a big season.

Right.

For sure.

All right.

Well, beyond the upcoming timepiece shows, and of course, we're right on the edge of watches

and wonders.

So there'll be an adjustment to our schedule there, but we'll share that in next week's

episode.

How have things been on your end?

Any, any fresh cat updates or otherwise?

Geez, it's been a very eventful week here.

Yeah.

Where do I start with the cat update?

Certainly.

So last week I announced Smitty's name and not long after, just a few days after we recorded

that episode.

I picked up Christy from the airport.

She'd been out in California and flew home, got home from the airport, came in the back

door and Smitty was a licking blood off of her back leg and we got a bit worried as

you would and called the emergency vet drove down.

This was about 10 o'clock at night.

The vet took a look at her as we were filling out the intake form, came immediately back

out and said, your cat is having kittens.

Oh my goodness.

So they said, perfectly normal.

Cats know what to do.

You can take her home.

She'll take care of it.

Put her in a warm, dark place, check on her every hour or so, she'll deal with it.

So we bring her back home, did what they said, set up a little box, warm place by a radiator

and check down her.

And I guess you could say fortunately, I would say unfortunately, but in our case fortunately

she gave birth to two stillborn kittens or premature fetuses by the look of them.

Because Chris Soul wrote me when I told him about it, nature is metal.

She ate most of them.

They were just kind of this tiny bit of afterbirth basically and consumed them and went on with

life.

She was purring and playing by the next morning.

And we were sort of thankful that she didn't have a litter of six kittens that we would

have had to deal with since we basically just became new parents of a kitten in the past

three weeks.

So for one thing that answers the question whether she was spayed or not, which we will

be doing promptly.

So we don't run into this again, but yeah, it was a very eventful, I guess you could say

12 hours.

I mean, it was pretty shocking wild thing to happen.

Yeah, you're really entering like a pet intense phase of your life here.

You know, you're very nearly just zero to 60, four droopled in in like weeks, your number

of pets.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I guess nature had another plan.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy.

So that was the excitement.

I think that was on boy, it must have been the last Monday or Tuesday night.

Yeah.

It was after we recorded.

So, yeah, that was last week.

And then, you know, before that, we had this big snow storm.

And then yesterday, two days ago, it was 80 degrees.

I mean, it was like I was out in shorts.

You know, people were lying at the beach with the lake still frozen over nearby.

It's just it's a wild time here.

And kind of an interesting kind of quirky weekend, there's an annual, what they call

the urban sap tap project here in Minneapolis.

Oh, yeah.

I saw this on your Instagram.

Yeah.

It's kind of co-led by the Parks Commission and then a private group of enthusiasts that

does this every year.

You know, when as a Canadian, I'm sure you're aware of this and proud of it, presumably

given that the maple leaf is on your flag.

The maple trees start to run sap when the days are above freezing and the nights are

below.

And so, the urban sap tap project is trying to get people in Minneapolis if they have maple

trees to tap them.

You know, you just drill a hole, put a tube in into a bucket and collect the sap and then

they do this big boil at a nearby park on a Saturday in March.

And so, this was this past Saturday and I volunteered to help out keeping the wood stove

stoked and boiling some sap and it reduces down to maple syrup.

And there was a sauna setup.

It wasn't ideal for a sauna because it was 80 degrees, so there weren't many takers

for that, but they had a pancake feed and they had a live band and it was just a really

good time.

So, it was great.

I'd love to maybe I'll get my act together next year and announce it a little sooner

earlier in March on TGN and try to get some local folks out there and have some fun because

it was a really good time and the pancakes were good and it was just a good way to spend

a Saturday morning.

Hard to beat a pancake in maple syrup.

It is what it is.

I'm maybe not the guy that wants maple chicken wings or maple cookies or maple glazed squash

or whatever, but I do like it on pancakes or waffle.

It's a great treat even if you don't have an insane sweet tooth.

Yeah, and it's amazing too.

You know, it's the ratio of sap out of the tree to syrup is 50 to 1, like gallons if you

look at it that way.

It's just an incredibly labor intensive process to boil all that sap down, but it's what makes

maple syrup for one thing very expensive, but also pretty special, so yeah, it was very

cool.

Yeah, I need to be part of that.

And then I've got some big news.

I've, you know, a while back, I had kind of thrown my hat in the ring to be a competitor

in the Defender Trophy, which is Land Rover's kind of updated version of the old cigarette

advertising camel trophy from the 1980s and 90s, has submitted a video and filled out

the application, along with many other people, and never got a response.

I never, never heard if I got it or not, and our good buddy, Brock Stevens, who's been

a guest on TGN.

Yeah.

Oh, Brock, fellow Land Rover and diving enthusiast, Brock did get the call quite early on.

I think he was, he had submitted his stuff like within the first week, opening up back

in December or January.

And I kind of just thought, oh, well, I didn't make the cut.

Well, I got a call last week and turns out I've been accepted.

So I'm going to be taking part in the, in the North American selection round for, they

select two Americans and two Canadians from these, these three sessions that are taking

place in British Columbia in mid-April.

And the top four people, I guess, then from there, move on to the international finals,

which will be in somewhere in Africa in October.

So, you know, I'm excited, I couldn't say no.

I mean, it's just, it's kind of a, not quite a dream come true, because I, you know,

I never really, even, this wasn't even on my radar, up until they announced it just

a few months back.

But, you know, how can you say no?

I just regret not doing this, and I think it'll be a lot of fun.

So I've got some, you know, fortunately fitness training has been going well, but there's

some skills training, orientating and high lift jack operation.

I actually have a high lift jack, so I should dust that off, and she'll refresh my memory

on how to use that and winching and that sort of stuff.

So, yeah, it's exciting.

I'll have more updates as the time comes, and of course afterwards, I'll give the full

lowdown in late April, the show after I come back, but yeah, I'm pretty excited about

it.

It should be great.

It should be fun.

Yeah, I'm super excited for you.

It's a great turn of news.

I read your story on your sub-sack about, you know, not getting selected, and I like that

either they changed their mind or were just kind of slow on the callback, so this is

great.

Right.

It should be a proper adventure, too.

Yeah, it should be.

And I'm excited.

I've kind of gleaned where they're doing it and kind of what the format is.

I watched, they've already done the Japan trials, and there's a video on YouTube kind of showing

some highlights.

I'm going to get some intel, nice, from the Japan trials and the types of activities.

I think it'll be a little bit different, but yeah, so exciting stuff there.

Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty advantage for you.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

And in your end, you're just, you're in your every other week mode of travel here.

Just got back from Geneva.

It's like Geneva, New York, Geneva, New York.

Yep.

Yeah, it was a, it was a quick trip to Geneva for a shoot, photos of what you'll see sometime

in April.

But it went well.

Happy on that front to a great success with the Godox IT32.

We spoke about on a previous episode.

I now have two of them and the trigger and the Lyca trigger came in.

So everything's working really well with that system.

I was blown away because we shot or I shot, um, yeah, the better part of like probably 700

some odd frames in a day.

Wow.

And I think that I think the flashes were down, you know, the battery has three lines

and it was down one line.

So theoretically, two thirds, maybe, maybe it's more like a half, um, who knows how they're

doing that math.

But I didn't expect them to last all the way through.

I had brought a fairly large battery and some cables thinking I could run them on USB

power.

And I didn't have to.

So small, easy to use, really straightforward, uh, the trigger seems to be good.

For the Rico, I picked up a Nikon phase trigger and Nikon layout trigger, uh, which works

just fine.

$15 for the X5 and, and then my X5 L showed up, uh, the day I got back from, uh, from Switzerland.

But I would have used the X3 L anyways, because you can control each flash separately with

the little screen, which is quite nice.

Um, anyways, it's probably enough flash talk.

Geneva went really well.

It was nice to be out there.

It was nice to be like, you know, relatively warmer climate.

It was like, you know, 15, 16 Celsius out there, which was, uh, a bit of a delight for

a couple of days.

Yeah.

Later tomorrow and about 24 hours, I'm going to head to New York City for a few days of

meetings and some video shoots.

And then we have this event at the Watches of Switzerland, Soho store, uh, it's new Houdinki

happy hour.

It is the last Thursday of every month, 430 to 630 PM.

We picked out a killer selection of beer.

We've got pizza from upside in Soho, uh, should be really good, uh, should be a great

hangout.

I know there's a handful of folks on the TGN Slack that, uh, seem to be planning to

come out, which I'm really pumped about.

And yeah, it's something we're going to grow.

And then hopefully take on the road, uh, depending on where we have editors elsewhere

in the States.

Yeah.

Because Watches of Switzerland has lots of stores.

Yeah.

So I, I just like doing hangouts.

And this way, I only have to pay for pizza and beer, which, you know, from a TGN standpoint,

we know how to cost that pretty easily.

Uh, so I'm able to transfer some technology and some learnings back towards Houdinki,

which I'm thrilled about.

So hopefully we get to see there.

And if not, we'll catch you there at a later date in, uh, in the next few months.

Yeah.

That's all I've got going on.

We're zipin' back and forth.

Everything we're devoting to, like all of my hours right now are, um, setting up for

all of the, the pre-production work for Watches of Wonders.

So all the, all the watches that come in under embargo, uh, all the pre-writing, all the

planning for Reels and, and the rest of this.

And then I'm still cranking out.

We're on to the third pre-production or editing, first phase editing for the, these tutor

videos, uh, from that tutor I did of their supply chain, which I'm pretty pumped about.

So it looks like it's going to be a three video series, uh, cases, bracelets, movements,

dials, that sort of things, uh, which should come out, probably just after Watches of Wonders.

Um, at this point, because, you know, before it's just going to get drowned out by the,

you know, 80 stories that come out that we, so, yeah.

Looking forward to that very much, uh, I've got a couple really good talking watches in

the works.

Yeah.

I think it's just such a busy time of year, but you got to, you got to appreciate, uh,

all of the fun stuff that, that you get to do to make it busy.

Yeah.

Boy, you're going to, you're going to be ready to sit in the dark room and come May for

like a week.

Yeah.

May, May might have to slow down.

Yeah.

Looks like, uh, you know, we've got, obviously, the, the Vancouver show is a little bit

of, uh, almost like a holiday for me to a certain extent.

Just walk around, take pictures of watches and not really work.

Yeah.

Get to see some buddies and, and, and do the party with marathon.

And then after that, uh, yeah, I might, might need to consider, uh, some vacation, haven't

been off since, um, since September, I guess the end of the summer there when my son was

born.

It's been, uh, been a busy phase, but, uh, lots of good stuff on the horizon and definitely

looking forward to, uh, seeing how these hangouts work in, uh, in New York.

So, yeah.

Well, there's a watch us of Switzerland here in Minneapolis, so if you ever want to come

out here and, ooh, okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I wonder if they've got a cool basement.

We'll find out.

I don't think so.

I think it's in the mall of America.

So, uh, well, we might be able to do it in the mall.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Ball hanging out.

That's not very us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Definitely.

I, uh, wrote to our buddy Don Cochrane from Vertex last week and said, should I be done?

You know, he said, he's on a roll lately.

I mean, that, uh, that sort of desert addition, uh, M36 is just such a cool watch.

And, um, you know, I've got an M100, a bronze, and, um, I just, I keep always going back

to their website and looking at the MP45, which is the mono pusher chronograph that

I feel doesn't really get talked about a lot.

You know, I mean, we both got Aqua Lion divers and love them.

I just think Vertex makes such a great watch.

Anyway, um, Don sent me an MP45.

So, um, it, it came a few days ago, um, to check out.

It's one of kind of their press, press review versions, um, and he said, you know, keep it

hold onto it for a while and, and see what you think and, um, boy, I just, I keep swapping

straps on it.

It's the hand wound version.

So the, the MP45 M, I believe they call it.

It's the, the manual mind one.

It is just such a gorgeous watch.

It's, it's 40 millimeters, um, in diameter, I, I'm not, uh, top of my head, I'm not sure

of the, the thickness, but it's maybe 12 millimeters.

So it's not, not too much of a cheeseburger.

And, uh, and it's just got that great, those great 3D loom, um, it's a dual register chronograph

with the mono pusher, um, display case back with a, uh, SW 510, um, hand wound movement

in it nicely finished.

It's, uh, it's a great piece.

I mean, I, I, I think you and I were exchanging messages a few days ago and I, uh, Vertex

is really, really up there in my top, you know, three or four favorite brands.

I mean, they, they just don't make a bad watch.

I mean, he, he, Don really has a design thing going.

I mean, he's got some great history to pull from, but, uh, you know, the quality's always

been great.

The packaging, customer service, the straps, um, just, just really, really great stuff.

And I'm really enjoying wearing this.

I think I've talked a lot in the past about the M60, the Aqua Line and the Diver, uh, which

I got from you.

And I really like, I think it's probably among my favorite steel dive watches, uh, definitely

around its price point, but that I have in, in my collection, I really enjoy it, uh, wears

really well, feels distinct kind of, kind of for me, like, uh, I feel like I've transitioned

a lot of my, the sort of way I felt about Braymont, um, when it was still under the English

brothers, I've kind of passed that to, to Vertex.

It has that smaller cottagey, very Britishy appeal to it and, and the design seemed kind

of rooted in something that I can, I, I have a footing in personally.

Yeah.

Uh, yeah.

So I'm, I'm not surprised that you're enjoying the MP 45.

Hopefully that, uh, the next time we see each other, maybe you've still got that with

you and I can take a look.

But I mean, the M36 remains on the list.

I've said it a few times on the show, uh, I think it's a great looking watch.

Finally got to see one in person, um, at our Thanksgiving hangout, Frank had his, and,

uh, just a good thing.

And yeah, the, the Aqua Line has been great.

Oh, I'd definitely gonna be one of my go-to's for the summer.

Yeah.

I like how compact their lineup is too.

It's like, you know, they've got a field watch, a dive watch, and a chronograph, um,

in a few different sizes and colors and things.

But like, they're just, it's a really tight collection and just really well-made stuff.

So yeah, congrats on that.

For sure.

And you've got something classic on, nothing, it couldn't be more different than what

I'm wearing.

Yeah.

It's fairly different.

But hey, it's still a good steel sports watch or sports adjacent watch.

I was wearing, I threw it on the other day and I didn't even, oh, be honest, I didn't

even set the table.

But I'm wearing it for a couple of days with the wrong date.

Uh, and that's my Rolex Datejust, my 1601 with the linen dial, the kind of silver linen dial.

Uh, it just wears so nicely in that, you know, you look down and it's kind of like, uh,

I don't know, it's, it, there's like a weird nostalgia to just seeing a Datejust, an older

one.

Yeah.

Even if it's not my nostalgia.

I like it a lot.

It wears really well.

It's definitely comfortable.

If I, you know, yesterday we were going out to see some family and I was in a big chunky

sweater and it just kind of works for that vibe.

Yeah.

But it's been a great watch.

I picked it up when I became editor in chief for Haudenke, who was sort of the celebration

watch for that.

I got it from James and analog shift and I've been wearing it a ton.

I just, you know, linen dials really speak to me, especially the sort of like silver tone,

the nice bright bezels really nice and it's on a nice jangly bracelet.

So it makes me happy even if it's, you know, not as maybe core to my, uh, my normal as

a, uh, vertex or even, uh, you know, my explorer too or something like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

I'm good enough.

I'm glad you're still, uh, glad you're still enjoying that pulling it on every now and

then that that watch deserves to be worn.

That's a great one.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, let's jump into some book club.

So on the off chance that this is your first ever book club.

Welcome.

This is the fifth outing.

We started it back in May of 2021 as part of the isolation tapes.

We were not doing as much, uh, during the sort of second era of the pandemic there in

the spring of 2021 and we're reading more.

So in the show notes, you can go back and check, uh, volumes one, two, three and four out.

If you want to find other books to read, uh, but the formats are very straightforward, uh,

for this episode, Jason and I are each going to suggest two books that we've read not so

long ago or in the, in the recent past and that we really enjoyed.

Uh, so pretty straight forward, uh, Jason can probably kick his off with one of my favorite

nonfiction authors.

Uh, so Jason, do you want to go first?

Yeah.

Sure.

Um, yeah.

And since you mentioned it, um, I will kick it off with a great nonfiction, uh, book

that I just read, um, that was actually turned into a television series, um, about, you

know, pretty interesting era in history, kind of a dark era, um, the troubles in Northern

Ireland.

This is, uh, say nothing by Patrick Radden, Keith, um, Radden, Keith, uh, interesting guy.

He's, uh, kind of been kind of an investigative journalist.

He's written a couple of books and he actually was the guy behind the podcast Wind of Change,

which I've recently also listened to, um, about the, the CIA's use of the Scorpion song,

Wind of Change to, um, kind of, uh, alter some public opinion in, in East Germany, um, during

Cold War, um, that's a bit of an aside, but say nothing is, is just a tremendous book

about, um, specifically about a very particular case during the troubles in Northern Ireland.

This was when, um, the IRA, the Irish Republican army was, you know, kind of waging war against

the, the British, um, to, to gain independence for Northern Ireland, um, and kind of reunite

it with the Republic of Ireland.

And there was an abduction and a, the disappearance of a, of a woman, a mother of, I believe it

was like 10 kids, um, and, and it kind of remained a mystery for decades.

No one was quite sure where she went or who abducted her, who killed her.

Um, and that's kind of sets the framework for this entire book and, um, you know, it gives

the whole background of, you know, the, the leadership of the IRA, how they conducted

their operations, um, the British response, um, really, really well done, incredibly detailed

research.

I, I came away from this book just marveling at what it would have taken to, yeah, sift

through the archives and do the interviews and the travel and the reading that would have

gone into the making of this book.

And it was, it was written and released in, I believe 2021, it's, this is a book that

I, you know, I'm sure he was working on during the pandemic, um, I always think about that

time.

And I think like, you know, you've talked about the, the isolation tapes and kind of, we

were doing more reading.

I think just a lot of people were just digging in and doing big projects that they've kind

of set aside that require just a lot of solo head down time.

And, uh, this must have been one of those because, um, it's just, it's just tremendous.

And to kind of look at both sides of that conflict that went on for so long, um, and really

got kicked into kind of the high gear, if you will, in the early 70s with just a lot

of bombings and assassinations and disappearances and violence in Belfast and Northern Ireland.

And you kind of come away from this story with a very conflicted view of whose side do

you take?

Where are you sympathizing with when it comes to this?

And I'm sure there's some strong opinions from, you know, some of our listeners, you

know, maybe people who grew up in the, in the UK or in Northern Ireland or Ireland, um,

and it's, it's just tough.

I mean, there were atrocities on both sides, um, obviously a lot of bloodshed and violence.

But, uh, in any case, this book kind of goes right down the middle.

There really isn't much, um, you know, kind of, uh, opinions about, you know, which side

to take on this one, he kind of just goes straight down the middle and just does this tremendous

amount of research.

And it really, it was really a great, I mean, I knew something about the troubles and

I read and see movies and things about it.

But this kind of get a really great thorough background on it.

And maybe I want to kind of dig in a little further and read some more and watch some movies

and things.

Yeah.

Say nothing.

Patrick Raddenkief.

Really good stuff.

Have you read this one?

I've read an excerpt and then added it to my Kindle list and then just haven't bought

it.

Yeah.

I read the sample that you can get the chapter to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's absolutely fantastic.

This is Patrick's second time on the, uh, on the book club as he did, uh, a book that

I really enjoyed and mentioned in, uh, I think book club three called Rogues, two true

stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks.

It's awesome.

Right.

He's just, yeah.

Such a good writer.

Yeah.

I don't think it matters what he's writing about.

Yeah.

Um, that level of research, that level of a consideration, that ability to remain, like

you said, kind of far enough away from it to not have, uh, ethical or moral statement.

Mm-hmm.

Is, uh, is something that I, I just think he does a really good job of, of trying to paint

both sides of an argument while remaining relatively indistinct on his own.

Yeah.

Um, and, uh, yeah.

His, his books are great.

I don't think you, I don't think there's a bad one.

Yeah.

And for me, he's, he's in there with like, I, I know that if I see, uh, Malcolm Gladwell,

I'll probably find it interesting and enjoyable.

Yeah.

And the same thing, like if I see Gladwell's on a podcast that I like or if I see that

Rod and Keith is on a podcast, I like, I'm going to be interested in any Jacobson

after we talked recently about, um, nuclear war, a scenario has also been added to that

list.

Just these really talented, uh, writers that, yeah, that do that all that hard work to

make sure that the story comes together correctly.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He's awesome.

Yeah.

I'll have to pick up the book you read.

Good ones.

It's, uh, forgot about that one.

It's fun.

And it's nice because that one's like, you know, it's a compendium of multiple articles.

Yeah.

So it's not just one story.

Yeah.

So you can pick it up and read a couple.

And then that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Good one.

Say nothing.

All right.

Yeah.

A good reminder to, to move that one up the ranks on the Kindle.

Yeah.

All right.

What's your first?

My first one this week is, uh, a book I spoke about back, uh, as early as I went back

through the show, that's as early as episode 281, which must have been back when I was

reading this.

Yeah.

It's called Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame, Adjeb Ragnia.

Oh, yeah.

And I absolutely do adore this book so that I don't ramble uncontrollably for way too

much time.

I will just read a synopsis I found online, uh, in a near future United States.

The prison system has merged with entertainment through the criminal action, penal entertainment

program where incarcerated individuals called links fight to the death in televised gladiatorial

matches for a chance at freedom after surviving three years in the system.

Wow.

This novel follows Loretta Thurwar and Hamara Hurricane stack stacker to black women and

lovers who are the reigning stars of the Angola Hammond chain known as the Chain Gang All-Stars.

Thurwar nearing her freedom grapples with the emotional weight of leaving her fellow links

behind while the system corporate, while the system's corporate owners, the game masters

manipulate the rules and narratives for profit and control.

So it's, I would say it's like a very adult take on like, um, the hunger games in some

ways.

Yeah.

Um, only with, with this sort of gladiator, these are prisoners.

So you get into their past and, and a consideration of whether or not they even deserve their

freedom.

And of course, if this abject violence has created anything valuable, uh, they, they,

and it's not just from their perspective, it's from some of the audience level perspective.

It's a really interesting, well written, exciting sort of thriller, um, that really touches

on various elements of critique of the prison system and also the idea of entertainment,

the idea of, you know, violences, entertainment, all these sorts of things.

I really, really enjoyed this book.

It's from 2023.

Um, I believe it won.

I was a finalist.

Sorry, it was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for fiction.

Wow.

And uh, it reads really well.

It's quite a fast read.

I found at least and it was kind of unlike anything I've read in the past, you know, there's

thematic elements to things like Lord of the Flies and there's a lot of, um, I think

parallel, strong to like war literature as well at the same time.

Uh, yeah, I enjoyed this a lot.

I've recommended it before, but now this gave me a chance to put it proper into a book club.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I do remember when you talked about this one that's, uh, that sounds really good.

But I love that sort of near-future dystopian sort of take on things, and yeah, it sounds

like a good one.

I'll add that one to my list.

That's great.

Yeah.

And I mean, as much as I may not be a huge sci-fi fan when it comes to like TV and movies,

when it's done a certain way like more Blade Runner than Star Wars, for example, I get

more into it.

Yeah.

And I think you can see some of that in some of the past books that I've suggested even

even going back to book club two, I suggest, of stories of your life and others by Ted

Chang.

Oh, yeah.

And anything you could read by Ted Chang's incredible, he's the guy that, you know, the

his story became the movie arrival.

And that's a great story, but his books are full of really, really intelligent considerations,

kind of black mirror adjacent in some ways.

Yeah.

In terms of tone.

But yeah, I definitely, I can get behind the future sci-fi dystopian stuff if it's done

a certain way, for sure.

Cool.

Good one.

Yeah, I'm glad you revisited this because I remember you mentioning it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And what have you got for your second?

I don't know this one.

Yeah.

Second one.

Wild sprawling novel called North Woods by a very talented writer named Daniel Mason.

This was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

And just an amazing book called North Woods by Daniel Mason.

And it uses, if you kind of read the back of the book or hear a blur about it, you might

be like, OK, this sounds kind of weird, but it's, I'll just read a bit of the blur.

A sweeping novel about the single, a sweeping novel about a single house in the woods of New

England, told through the lives of those who inhabit it across the centuries.

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their

humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants.

In English soldier destined for glory, a pair of spinster twins survive war and famine,

a crime reporter, a love-loan painter, and paraphrasing at this point, a stalking

panther, a lusty beetle.

I mean, it's just, it has this bit of, I don't know if I'm using the term correctly, but

magical realism, it goes across history, and what's really fascinating about it is, yeah,

each era and person are people that come through this property, this home, which is a very

loose kind of, the house itself and the property are kind of a vehicle for which, by which Mason

uses to kind of describe what's going on in history in these people's stories.

So it's less about the place and more about the things that happen there.

And he, the way he weaves in some of the linguistic oddities of, for instance, this soldier

who kind of is there at the beginning, who's British, and that we're talking like revolutionary

war period.

So the language used is from that era, and it's a little bit difficult to read, it kind

of challenges you a little bit, and then as you move through history, right up until,

you know, basically modern, modern era, the language changes, and the chapters are in

different formats.

Some might be a journal entry, some might be a newspaper story, some might be, you know,

first person, and it's all woven together in this incredible tale that feels kind of

timeless and old fashioned.

It's just, it kind of really pulled me in.

And I've talked about this book with some other people, and I know of one person who just

really disliked it and had to put it down and just didn't care for it.

And then a few others who just love it, and it's been featured in, you know, Christy had

this as part of her book club, and I think that's why we were reading it together, was

kind of as she was working her way through it.

But yeah, it's pretty amazing, and I just, I can't recommend it enough.

I mean, give it a try.

I can't say everybody's going to love it.

It's a, it's really an example of, again, like Radden Keefe with saying nothing, like

this book must have taken some serious research and effort.

And I'm just, I'm so impressed and humbled by a writer that can just put together a book

like this.

It was really, really amazing.

Yeah.

I don't think I've ever read synopsis of a book quite like this.

This sounds fascinating.

Yeah.

I like the ones where you get multiple timelines that kind of connect together, Emily St.

John Mandel does this really well.

Sea of Tranquility could easily be on a, you know, a book club in the future.

That one gives you a few different timelines that all kind of converge at a place, which

is quite interesting.

Oh, yeah.

Thousands of years apart in temporal quality.

But yeah, no, this looks, this looks fascinating and definitely added to the list.

And yeah, the Goodreads Choice Award is not, not to be under, under appreciated.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Looks like a good one for sure.

I don't know.

Have you read other Daniel Mason?

I haven't.

I, after I read this, I picked up another one of his, the name escapes me, but I started

it.

And I think I read it a little too soon after reading this because a lot of language and

kind of techniques overlapped and it felt a little repetitive at that point.

Maybe I'll try again later because I think he's very talented, of course, but this one just

really stood out.

Good stuff.

Well, that's, that's your two.

You've got some nonfiction and some fiction in there, two very different books, but both

seem very highly regarded.

For my second of the day and final, we're looking at a book that I, I think I spoke with just,

just when I was reading it in the last, what month or so.

And this is the getaway by Jim Thompson.

It's a 1958 crime novel that follows Carter, Doc McCoy, a highly skilled criminal recently

released from prison as he plans a final bank robbery with his wife, Carol, a former

librarian who's become his partner in crime.

A high school smoothly, but chaos erupts when their volatile, accomplice, Rudy, piehead

torrento attempts a double cross, leading to a series of betrayals, murders and a relentless

pursuit by law enforcement and torrento himself.

And that really only gets you about halfway into the book.

Wow.

I found out about this from Anthony Jettelenex book club.

He recommended it.

It's not a very long read.

It's been turned into two movies.

I believe I've definitely seen, I've seen the later one, but I haven't, if I've seen the

original movie with Steve McQueen, it's been, it was so long ago that I might be conflating

elements of it with other Steve McQueen films.

That said, I don't think either of the movies matter to me now that I've read the book.

Yeah.

And that's because of the final chapter, which both of the movies avoid because it's so

difficult.

Oh, I've never read anything quite like this.

I've now bought two or three other Thompson's to check it out.

He's known as the dime store Dostoevsky.

This book is full of really complicated relationship nuance, very careful use of language, incredible

storytelling that leaves all of these vague elements of like, who can you trust versus

who can you like reliable narrator or not?

Does this person really know this other person well enough to predict what they might be doing

in these really scary sort of tense scenarios?

Yeah.

And then you get into the sort of runaway getaway scenario that just kind of keeps getting

worse and scarier.

I don't have it in Jason you being a diver, I assume you don't have it either.

I'm not especially claustrophobic, but there is a piece of this book that had me like

almost sweating like my heart rate was up.

It's something else.

This is a really good book and I just there's no way for me to prepare you for the last

chapter.

Wow.

Of it.

I highly recommended.

I absolutely adored it.

It's all like I'll reread it this summer.

I think I could probably do it in a day.

Wow.

Wow.

If I had a quiet enough day, it's a you just absolutely tear through it.

The genre, as I think I've said in past, in past episodes, this genre is called groin

kick.

Oh, my guess is there was probably a whole, well, there is this whole genre like I just

mentioned, but there's probably so many contemporaries to this type of novel, but this feels like the

one that has that like Tarantino touch to it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where as you read it, the consideration of language is so careful.

Like I said, the relationships, the vagaries of trust in like I feel like a lot of crime

novels and you read a lot of them, they're about the crime and then maybe the fallout

of the crime.

This is almost like about what the crime does to the relationships of the people involved

in the crime.

Yeah.

Huh.

And it has this sort of eternal consideration as well.

It's I really, really enjoyed this book.

Huh.

Sounds great.

1958.

I mean, I think, you know, so often I end up reading books from the past 10 years and I

just neglect stuff from the middle part of the 20th century, which is a great era for writing

in general.

And that's.

Yeah.

That's great.

I love the cover art too.

It looks really good.

Yeah.

Like I said, I like this enough to have gone and just kind of blank it, bought anything else

that seemed to be listed in his other top ones, but I don't know.

I don't know for certain if there's anything that's regarded as highly as the getaway.

And yes, as far as the movies go, I don't have a strong feeling about either one.

You know, you can go Steve McQueen if that's more your vibe or I said, brought it a minute

ago.

It's Alec Baldwin.

The first one is a Sam Peckin Pot, so like it's definitely a quality film and that's

sort of thing.

But the generalized sort of outcome for me is just read the book.

It's awesome.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, there we have it.

Book Club Volume 5.

Once again, some good quality picks that I'm going to add to my list.

You had The Getaway by Jim Thompson and Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Ajit Berenia.

Yep.

You had say anything by the fantastic Patrick Rodden Keefe.

Say nothing.

Sorry.

Oh, say anything with John Kusak.

Say anything totally differently.

And you had say nothing from the ever talented Patrick Rodden Keefe and North Woods by Daniel

Mason, which is definitely peak my curiosity.

So yeah, a successful book club for solid new books.

And then we have a collection probably 12 plus going back through the previous four outings.

So with that, tell about a little bit of final notes and we'll put a bow on it for a nice

tight show of this week.

Yeah.

For sure.

Well, as if I needed more dad hats or any sort of cap for that matter, I just couldn't

resist picking up the 200 meter dad hat from our good buddy, Anthony Lane, Tony, Slack

member, designer extraordinaire.

He helped us design the California firefighting charity shirt that we did last summer.

He's a really talented, watch enthusiast and designer, of course, that's what he does

for work.

And he released this line of dad hats.

It's a cotton twill, really high quality, nice, you know, build cap.

I picked up the one that he calls the snowflake.

It's a dark blue with the 200 meters equals 660 feet script on it.

I like this cap.

I like the color of it, but it's also, it's one of those nods.

I hate to do the, if you know, you know, but it's just not so on the nose.

I'm not much for like wearing full-on watch adjacent merchandise or stuff that has like

names and things on it or brands.

So this is just, sure, quirky enough that, you know, you might get some quizzical looks

and some questions from people, but it's just really neat.

It's in the exact script that you used to get on old Samariner dials and Tony's just done

a great job on this.

He's selling it on his, the illustrated watch.com shop, we'll put a link in the show notes

for a very reasonable $37.

So I paid for it with my own money.

He didn't send this to me, well, he did send it to me, but after I paid and I've been

wearing it ever since.

That's a great cap.

So check it out.

Yeah.

Good job, Tony.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Looks awesome.

I love the idea and the reference.

The hat also looks great.

I love a blue hat.

Good, good idea there.

Yeah.

And shout out Tony.

Always a pleasure to see him succeed and put out great new stuff.

Yeah.

Talent and designer and illustrator.

All right.

And mine this week is actually YouTube video.

I've been enjoying this guy Maurice moves on YouTube for the last little while.

I dug into it just before I went to Japan a little while ago because he had all these

videos.

He's a Canadian guy from Toronto.

And he has all these videos about how to travel specifically for given areas, like how

he does.

So he seems to spend upwards of six months of a year kind of traveling abroad, often

in Southeast Asia.

I've watched a few of his kind of gear in EDC bag considerations for Japan.

His favorite stationary stores and this sort of thing.

My daughters enjoy that kind of stuff as well.

And then just recently this past weekend, he put out a video about traveling to the it's

called I traveled to the best city on earth for everyday carry.

And so it's about spending 24 hours in Taipei in Taiwan and kind of buying locally from

cool shops there to build out like an EDC kit for the area.

And some of it's even custom to like certain ways that people live there and that would

be different than say Toronto.

I really enjoyed this video.

You know, he does a lot of sort of travel gear logistics.

The episodes are really fun, they're really well shot.

And he seems to have like an insider's knowledge for some of these areas that he's going

to.

Like I said, the Tokyo ones are really fun.

So yeah, I highly recommend it and especially if you're going to be traveling there.

But even if you just want to dig in from like a EDC sort of and that's everyday carry

for those of you who don't know, it's about like little bags and cases and stationary

and pens and pocket knives and stuff like that.

Yeah.

This looks great.

Yeah.

I see I see some some marina wool clothing in here, which I think is obviously a very

sensible thing for travel for versatile and some other kind of cool stuff that rings

a bell to night eyes.

I see in there things that you've talked about too.

So yeah, check it out.

Got a lot of night eyes, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this is an unofficial final note, but I'll throw out there that season two of ill advised

with Bill Nye podcast has just dropped the second season.

There's first take out.

So yeah, but anyone's looking for more Bill Nye fun stuff there.

So check that out.

All right, we'll put that in the show notes as well.

As always, thank you so much for listening.

If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or

even consider supporting the show directly, which could get you into the TGN Slack or even

a new TGN Signado, maybe even both if you want.

Please visit the GrayNado.com.

Music throughout is CES step by jazz or via the free music archive.

And we leave you with this quote from Oscar Wilde who said, it is what you read when you

don't have to, that determines what you will be when you can't help it.

Music throughout is CES step by jazz or via the free music archive.