Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.
1) Iron Flask Water Bottles
Look, I know everyone has too many beverage receptacles in our homes. And I know that everyone who came of age in the 80s and 90s remembers surviving on water from garden hoses and Mountain Dew. But we are where we are as a society, and hydration is our virtue signal. With this concession in mind, I recommend the Iron Flask water bottle. Its best feature is that it is half the price of more popular brands while being equally as good in quality. It keeps water cold for hours and is easy to clean. It is sturdy–my wife and I both make a habit of dropping ours in the driveway and parking lots regularly just to test this theory. And it doesn’t leak, so you can let it roll around in the car or in a bag without fear of spillage. It won’t win you any Yeti/Stanley/Owala fashion points, but you can be virtuously hydrated nonetheless.
2) Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
I believe this is the best historical novel I have ever read. I first read it fifteen or more years ago and have gone back a couple times since. Pressfield tells the story of one of the most famous battles in history, the battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartan warriors held off the entire Persian army for long enough that the rest of the Greek army could gather and defend itself. The story is not fresh. The ending is known. But the telling of the tale is the genius. Pressfield captures the ethos and pathos of the Spartans brilliantly. He writes of battle with sparse, brutal clarity yet without wallowing in gore and violence. He reveals heroism in the foundational courage, brotherhood, and sacrifice of those 300. And he manages to do all this in fewer than four hundred pages, a feat worthy of adulation all its own.
3) “Summer’s End” by John Prine
Simply one of the most moving, beautiful songs I’ve heard from one of the best to ever lyricize.
