Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

Matterhorn

I'm 125 pages into this book, and I can't put it down. It's a novel about the Vietnam war. I remember picking up The Things They Carried in high school with huge excitement and putting it down with huge disappointment.

Matterhorn is everything I hoped The Things They Carried would be.

It's the story of one Marine Company on a hilltop in Vietnam, largely told from the perspective of one of the Second Lieutenants commanding a platoon. It perfectly captures the monotony, minutia, and misery of the day to day experience of war.

The author makes you feel the fear of the firefights while conveying that they last minutes in days that last hours.

The rest is filling sandbags, playing cards, eating awful food, battling jungle rot and trench foot, and standing watch, staring into the pitch black night at an enemy you're sure is there but never appears.

The best part of this book is the author. Karl Marlantes was a young officer in Vietnam. He spent 40 years processing the war and writing this novel, which largely seems to be a fictionalized version of his experience.

It's gripping, funny, tragic, and thought provoking, and I can't wait to read it before bed every night. If you're interested in Vietnam, war, combat, or leadership, I highly recommend this book.

39 Lessons on the Way to 39

I enjoy Ryan Holiday's birthday articles every year, but I think this was one of the better ones from the last few years. It's filled with gems, but these were a few of my favorites:

• Harder is what makes me better. It also keeps life interesting. 

• You can’t make withdrawals from accounts you haven’t made deposits in.  

• Writing is about the progress you make from doing it. AI can give you an essay, an article, a book, or a briefing. What it can’t give you is the person you can only become by doing the writing yourself.

• If power gives you less power over your schedule and your day, is it actually power?

• There is a cost to everything we do, everything we agree to, every commitment we make. We have to spend our time wisely because we are paying for it with our lives. 

Michael Pollan's Best Writing Advice

I've enjoyed Michael Pollan's writing over the years. The Omnivore's Dilemma was an incredible book that changed the way I think about food.

This was a fun interview on Pollan's writing process, but it was also filled with the stories behind his interesting projects throughout his long career. If you've enjoyed any of Pollan's work, you'll also enjoy this conversation.

Workout of the Week

I'm pausing the Workout of the Week section for now because I'm not doing many CrossFit workouts these days. This newsletter has always been about following my interests, and that's why I haven't missed a week in more than six years. Fitness is still a big part of my life, but right now, it's not interesting enough to share with you.

Quote of the Week

“If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it.” - Cormac McCarthy

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Talk soon,

Joe