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Find Your Perfect Franchise at MyPerfectFranchise.Net
Orangebloods Owned! Contact Andy Luedecke (aka @Andy MyPerfectFranchise.Net) anytime at:
aluedecke@myperfectfranchise.net
(404) 973-9901
www.myperfectfranchise.net
It's rare that something happens in high school recruiting that just completely shocks me. These are 16 and 17-year-olds making decisions, after all. Ask anyone who's ever been a 16 or 17-year-old about the decisions they made at that age. If they can remember that far back, and if they're anything like me, they'll tell you that they are mildly surprised they are still even alive.
Furthermore, with Rueben Owens, Texas fans have extra reason to think he might be just a little flaky in making such an out-of-nowhere pledge: Owens, of course, was committed to Texas from February of 2021 until mid-June or so. Owens is a player I've always personally sort of penciled in as likely to be back in the mix for Texas before all is said and done (and he could still be), but that came with the caveat that I sort of saw him as a bit of a wild card who was hard to predict. Sort of in the mold of a Zach Evans from a few cycles back. In short, I said to start this column that it's rare that something surprises me in recruiting, period, but the fact that I'm surprised by something that Rueben Owens of all people did -- it's even more telling of just how out-of-nowhere the post-official-visit pledge to ... LOUISVILLE(?) ... was to hear about.
Owens is the No.1 RB in the country and Louisville, from all appearances, is not a school that Owens has any major connections to, outside of a reported relationship Louisville QB commit Pierce Clarkson, who recently played with Owens in a 7v7 tourney in Las Vegas. Louisville was 6-7 last season (4-4 in the ACC), 4-7 (3-7 in the ACC) in 2020, and 8-5 (5-3 in the ACC) in 2019 all under current HC Scott Satterfield. It is not a program/coaching regime that is trending up in the win column, and it is actually looking like a tenure from Satterfield that resembles other historically unsuccessful tenures that peter out after a decent start. Louisville is clearly having a recruiting surge, though, and Owens' commitment is one that team sites and local bloggers are calling "historic". The last 5-star commit (Owens is rated as a 4-star by Rivals, but as a consensus 5-star when taking the grades of all the scouting services into consideration) that landed with the Cardinals was Michael Bush back in 2003. On top of Owens, Louisville is sitting on what looks to be a current Top 10 class featuring not only the QB Pierre Clarkson, but also his St. John Bosco (CA) teammate, WR Aaron Williams (4-star) another Cali product in WR DeAndre Moore (No.74 overall on the new Rivals100) as well as a 4-star edge-rusher out of Georgia in Adonijah Green.
Given today's landscape, one would have to figure that promises of NIL money are coming into play somehow. A coach with the unimpressive record of Satterfield always needs to make a splash coming off three years with little to show for it on the field, and NIL makes a recruiting splash a lot easier. Just ask Steve Sarkisian following up a miserable 5-7 season with one of the best OL recruiting classes we've seen at Texas -- a group who was not-so-subtly reminded that there would be a "pancake factory" type of NIL fund that was targeted toward the big men in the trenches. Universities can't pay recruits with NIL money and the rules about how prospective student-athletes can be "promised" NIL money in the event that they do come to the school is a very blurry haze of gray as we are still in the wild west portion of the name, image and likeness era.
However, it's hard not to at least connect the recent announcement in the Louisville Courier-Journal of the launch of the "502 NIL Collective". “We have a group of younger people that wanted to build a collective to help the athletes monetize themselves and do it in a way that is forward thinking,” The Collective's founder Marc Spiegel said. “It's new age. It's not just a bunch of old money pulling together. It's digital. It's an experience.”
Now, if it were me and I was a student-athlete, I'd be perfectly fine with the outdated "bunch of old money pulling together," as long as the money was ending up in my pockets. I've never been too picky about that sort of thing. But every school has to go their own way to try to distinguish themselves somehow. As stated in the Courier-Journal article, Louisville's foray into this sort of collective represents the 72nd such organization in the nation. Even if NIL was used as an aid in the recruitment of Owens and other top members of UL's 2023 class, it's still a major accomplishment for the Cardinals to be able to be landing Rivals100 guys with no on-field momentum (or reason to believe it is coming, outside of pure alchemy).
Make no mistake: as weird as this all is, it certainly isn't ideal for Texas. Owens is an awesome prospect. I made this short and very professionally-produced video at the time of his commitment to Texas highlighting some of the things that I thought were so special about his game.
Texas fans will say that the Longhorns should just lay in wait for Owens and stay after him. Heck, if Texas hits big with Arch Manning, we've seen that Owens cares a lot about following a QB that he has a great connection with to a new place. Furthermore, if NIL was any real selling point for Louisville, I'm sure it wouldn't take but a few minutes of previewing what Texas has on offer to put any of those advantages for UL in the rearview mirror. Austin also happens to, you know, not be a 1021-mile, 14 hour drive from El Campo as Louisville is. The issue will be getting him back on campus. But believe it or not, though, Owens says his recruitment is done. Over.
Ketch doesn't believe him, and neither does Johntay Cook.
Soon enough, we'll find out whether Sark does.
Getting Caught Up on the Book Reviews
With a lot of work to get done around the house and a few lazy long-weekend days by the pool, I've listened to quite a few titles on audiobook since doing my last review of "The Lincoln Highway" on June 1st. Time to get those knocked out!
First, a book that will not be added to the reading list:
The Sorrow Hand by Dwight Holing
From the Publisher: Harney County, Oregon, 1968: Nick Drake has a chest full of medals and enough demons to fill a duffle bag. He's been trained to kill, but never retrained to rejoin society. Drake flees to the lonesome high desert in search of redemption and takes a job patrolling wildlife refuges where the only conflicts are keeping out stray cows and ticketing poachers. But then he stumbles across a girl's body ritually placed in a gully. Her murder is only the beginning, and Drake must face humanity's heart of darkness once again if he's to stop a killer from turning even more gullies into graves.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Ever since I got done reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, I've noticed I've become pickier and more judgmental about different authors' writing styles. When you have a wordsmith like Towles at front-of-mind, the diction, pace and flow of the prose really sticks out when it is nowhere close to that standard. Unfortunately, this was the case with this book. If you can't hook me as a reader after 25% of the book when the book is about a young Vietnam vet in the late-60s struggling with heroin addiction ... who is a game warden drawn into mysterious murders ... I really don't know what to say. The description of the book checked every box, but I just couldn't get into it. I had to put it down and move on. Maybe it had a *little* to do with the fact that I was very interested in finishing it so I could start on the new Peter Zeihan release. Regardless, it doesn't make the reading list as I give it zero stars.
Blue Heaven by CJ Box
From the Publisher: Blue Heaven is the break-out novel from C. J. Box, the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Joe Pickett series.
A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother are on the run in the Idaho woods, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder—four men who know exactly who William and Annie are. And where their mother lives.
Retired policemen from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the local sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. Now there's nowhere left for William and Annie to hide…and no one they can trust. Until they meet Jess Rawlins.
Rawlins, an old-school rancher, knows trouble when he sees it. He is only one against four men who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses. But in this thrilling mystery novel from C.J. Box, these ex-cops don't know just how far Rawlins will go to protect William and Annie…and see that justice is done.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: You'll be able to tell in this series of book reviews that I am in serious withdrawal from the Joe Pickett book series because I read two books this month by the same author (CJ Box, who I guess I now have to call one of my favorite all-time writers) and another book not by him, but a murder-mystery involving a game warden with unique personality quirks. I was especially interested in Blue Heaven because it was not part of a series that was sure to suck me in like the Pickett books did, but still was thought of as some of Box's best standalone work. As usual with Box's work, I didn't want it to end but was certainly satisfied with the pulse-pounding action that the excellent storyline set up. The characters in this one are easy to root for and/or despise and the it's hard to imagine a more appealing summertime page-turner. I give it 4.5 stars.
Back of Beyond by CJ Box
From the Publisher: Edgar Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box delivers a thriller in Back of Beyond about a troubled cop trying to save his son from a killer in Yellowstone.
Cody Hoyt, although a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his friend Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like the suicide of a man who’s fallen off the wagon, but Cody knows Hank better than that. As Cody digs deeper into the case, all roads lead to foul play. After years of bad behavior with his department, Cody is in no position to be investigating a homicide, but he will stop at nothing to find Hank’s killer.
When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a multiday wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park—a pack trip that includes his son Justin—Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild. In a fatal cat-and-mouse game, where it becomes apparent the murderer is somehow aware of Cody’s every move, Cody treks into the wilderness to stop a killer hell-bent on destroying the only important thing left in his life.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Another CJ Box novel, this one the first of the Cody Hoyt series. (How does this dude have time to write all these books?!) Hoyt is a much different character than the Mr. Buttoned Up "Dudley Dooright" as Nate Romanowsi describes Joe Pickett; in fact, Hoyt is sort of the opposite as a drunk, an addict and a chain-smoker who has made terrible decisions in life. The only similarity between the two leading characters is that both Hoyt and Pickett are both kick-ass law enforcement officers with a knack for getting themselves in trouble and cracking the tough cases. I have yet to read a CJ Box novel that I wouldn't reccomend and that continues to be the case here. I give it 4.25 stars.
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
From the Publisher: The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: My Goodreads algorithm must have factored in the fact that I had given such a good review and rating for The Lincoln Highway that it served me up another recommendation for a book about an Odyssey-type, coming-of-age adventure for a somewhat-troubled, yet undeniably likeable group of straggling vagabonds from a bygone era. It's actually a relatively fast-moving book once it gets going, but it is meticulous in its development of the main characters. While it's teens and kids who are the main characters of the book, the themes are larger-than-life and important. It's an exciting adventure with very sweet moments. I give it 4 stars.
- Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 06-21-2022)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars - I will review every book I read, but only list those that I awarded 3.5 stars and up here).
Lonesome Dove (5 stars)
Joe Pickett Series by CJ Box (5 stars)
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
Disunited Nations (5 stars)
Lone Survivor (5 stars)
The Lincoln Highway (4.75 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
The Wanderers (4.75 stars)
Project Hail Mary (4.75 stars)
Blue Heaven (4.5 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
Back of Beyond (4.25 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Son (4.25 stars)
Unfreedom of the Press (4.25 stars)
The Time it Never Rained (4.25 stars)
This Tender Land (4 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
Ready Player Two (4 stars)
When Christmas Comes (4 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The End is Always Near (3.75 stars)
Second Wind (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
The Boy From the Woods (3.5 stars)
The Frackers (3.5 stars)
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANY BOOKS YOU WOULD RECOMMEND, PREFERABLY THAT ARE AVAILABLE ON AUDIOBOOK. MANY OF THE BEST BOOKS ON THIS LIST HAVE COME VIA RECOMMENDATIONS ON ORANGEBLOODS.
Find Your Perfect Franchise at MyPerfectFranchise.Net
Orangebloods Owned! Contact Andy Luedecke (aka @Andy MyPerfectFranchise.Net) anytime at:
aluedecke@myperfectfranchise.net
(404) 973-9901
www.myperfectfranchise.net
It's rare that something happens in high school recruiting that just completely shocks me. These are 16 and 17-year-olds making decisions, after all. Ask anyone who's ever been a 16 or 17-year-old about the decisions they made at that age. If they can remember that far back, and if they're anything like me, they'll tell you that they are mildly surprised they are still even alive.
Furthermore, with Rueben Owens, Texas fans have extra reason to think he might be just a little flaky in making such an out-of-nowhere pledge: Owens, of course, was committed to Texas from February of 2021 until mid-June or so. Owens is a player I've always personally sort of penciled in as likely to be back in the mix for Texas before all is said and done (and he could still be), but that came with the caveat that I sort of saw him as a bit of a wild card who was hard to predict. Sort of in the mold of a Zach Evans from a few cycles back. In short, I said to start this column that it's rare that something surprises me in recruiting, period, but the fact that I'm surprised by something that Rueben Owens of all people did -- it's even more telling of just how out-of-nowhere the post-official-visit pledge to ... LOUISVILLE(?) ... was to hear about.
Owens is the No.1 RB in the country and Louisville, from all appearances, is not a school that Owens has any major connections to, outside of a reported relationship Louisville QB commit Pierce Clarkson, who recently played with Owens in a 7v7 tourney in Las Vegas. Louisville was 6-7 last season (4-4 in the ACC), 4-7 (3-7 in the ACC) in 2020, and 8-5 (5-3 in the ACC) in 2019 all under current HC Scott Satterfield. It is not a program/coaching regime that is trending up in the win column, and it is actually looking like a tenure from Satterfield that resembles other historically unsuccessful tenures that peter out after a decent start. Louisville is clearly having a recruiting surge, though, and Owens' commitment is one that team sites and local bloggers are calling "historic". The last 5-star commit (Owens is rated as a 4-star by Rivals, but as a consensus 5-star when taking the grades of all the scouting services into consideration) that landed with the Cardinals was Michael Bush back in 2003. On top of Owens, Louisville is sitting on what looks to be a current Top 10 class featuring not only the QB Pierre Clarkson, but also his St. John Bosco (CA) teammate, WR Aaron Williams (4-star) another Cali product in WR DeAndre Moore (No.74 overall on the new Rivals100) as well as a 4-star edge-rusher out of Georgia in Adonijah Green.
Given today's landscape, one would have to figure that promises of NIL money are coming into play somehow. A coach with the unimpressive record of Satterfield always needs to make a splash coming off three years with little to show for it on the field, and NIL makes a recruiting splash a lot easier. Just ask Steve Sarkisian following up a miserable 5-7 season with one of the best OL recruiting classes we've seen at Texas -- a group who was not-so-subtly reminded that there would be a "pancake factory" type of NIL fund that was targeted toward the big men in the trenches. Universities can't pay recruits with NIL money and the rules about how prospective student-athletes can be "promised" NIL money in the event that they do come to the school is a very blurry haze of gray as we are still in the wild west portion of the name, image and likeness era.
However, it's hard not to at least connect the recent announcement in the Louisville Courier-Journal of the launch of the "502 NIL Collective". “We have a group of younger people that wanted to build a collective to help the athletes monetize themselves and do it in a way that is forward thinking,” The Collective's founder Marc Spiegel said. “It's new age. It's not just a bunch of old money pulling together. It's digital. It's an experience.”
Now, if it were me and I was a student-athlete, I'd be perfectly fine with the outdated "bunch of old money pulling together," as long as the money was ending up in my pockets. I've never been too picky about that sort of thing. But every school has to go their own way to try to distinguish themselves somehow. As stated in the Courier-Journal article, Louisville's foray into this sort of collective represents the 72nd such organization in the nation. Even if NIL was used as an aid in the recruitment of Owens and other top members of UL's 2023 class, it's still a major accomplishment for the Cardinals to be able to be landing Rivals100 guys with no on-field momentum (or reason to believe it is coming, outside of pure alchemy).
Make no mistake: as weird as this all is, it certainly isn't ideal for Texas. Owens is an awesome prospect. I made this short and very professionally-produced video at the time of his commitment to Texas highlighting some of the things that I thought were so special about his game.
Texas fans will say that the Longhorns should just lay in wait for Owens and stay after him. Heck, if Texas hits big with Arch Manning, we've seen that Owens cares a lot about following a QB that he has a great connection with to a new place. Furthermore, if NIL was any real selling point for Louisville, I'm sure it wouldn't take but a few minutes of previewing what Texas has on offer to put any of those advantages for UL in the rearview mirror. Austin also happens to, you know, not be a 1021-mile, 14 hour drive from El Campo as Louisville is. The issue will be getting him back on campus. But believe it or not, though, Owens says his recruitment is done. Over.
Ketch doesn't believe him, and neither does Johntay Cook.
Soon enough, we'll find out whether Sark does.
*****
Getting Caught Up on the Book Reviews
With a lot of work to get done around the house and a few lazy long-weekend days by the pool, I've listened to quite a few titles on audiobook since doing my last review of "The Lincoln Highway" on June 1st. Time to get those knocked out!
First, a book that will not be added to the reading list:
The Sorrow Hand by Dwight Holing
From the Publisher: Harney County, Oregon, 1968: Nick Drake has a chest full of medals and enough demons to fill a duffle bag. He's been trained to kill, but never retrained to rejoin society. Drake flees to the lonesome high desert in search of redemption and takes a job patrolling wildlife refuges where the only conflicts are keeping out stray cows and ticketing poachers. But then he stumbles across a girl's body ritually placed in a gully. Her murder is only the beginning, and Drake must face humanity's heart of darkness once again if he's to stop a killer from turning even more gullies into graves.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Ever since I got done reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, I've noticed I've become pickier and more judgmental about different authors' writing styles. When you have a wordsmith like Towles at front-of-mind, the diction, pace and flow of the prose really sticks out when it is nowhere close to that standard. Unfortunately, this was the case with this book. If you can't hook me as a reader after 25% of the book when the book is about a young Vietnam vet in the late-60s struggling with heroin addiction ... who is a game warden drawn into mysterious murders ... I really don't know what to say. The description of the book checked every box, but I just couldn't get into it. I had to put it down and move on. Maybe it had a *little* to do with the fact that I was very interested in finishing it so I could start on the new Peter Zeihan release. Regardless, it doesn't make the reading list as I give it zero stars.
Blue Heaven by CJ Box
From the Publisher: Blue Heaven is the break-out novel from C. J. Box, the award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Joe Pickett series.
A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother are on the run in the Idaho woods, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder—four men who know exactly who William and Annie are. And where their mother lives.
Retired policemen from Los Angeles, the killers easily persuade the local sheriff to let them lead the search for the missing children. Now there's nowhere left for William and Annie to hide…and no one they can trust. Until they meet Jess Rawlins.
Rawlins, an old-school rancher, knows trouble when he sees it. He is only one against four men who will stop at nothing to silence their witnesses. But in this thrilling mystery novel from C.J. Box, these ex-cops don't know just how far Rawlins will go to protect William and Annie…and see that justice is done.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: You'll be able to tell in this series of book reviews that I am in serious withdrawal from the Joe Pickett book series because I read two books this month by the same author (CJ Box, who I guess I now have to call one of my favorite all-time writers) and another book not by him, but a murder-mystery involving a game warden with unique personality quirks. I was especially interested in Blue Heaven because it was not part of a series that was sure to suck me in like the Pickett books did, but still was thought of as some of Box's best standalone work. As usual with Box's work, I didn't want it to end but was certainly satisfied with the pulse-pounding action that the excellent storyline set up. The characters in this one are easy to root for and/or despise and the it's hard to imagine a more appealing summertime page-turner. I give it 4.5 stars.
Back of Beyond by CJ Box
From the Publisher: Edgar Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box delivers a thriller in Back of Beyond about a troubled cop trying to save his son from a killer in Yellowstone.
Cody Hoyt, although a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his friend Hank Winters is found burned to death in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like the suicide of a man who’s fallen off the wagon, but Cody knows Hank better than that. As Cody digs deeper into the case, all roads lead to foul play. After years of bad behavior with his department, Cody is in no position to be investigating a homicide, but he will stop at nothing to find Hank’s killer.
When clues found at the scene link the murderer to an outfitter leading tourists on a multiday wilderness horseback trip into the remote corners of Yellowstone National Park—a pack trip that includes his son Justin—Cody is desperate to get on their trail and stop the killer before the group heads into the wild. In a fatal cat-and-mouse game, where it becomes apparent the murderer is somehow aware of Cody’s every move, Cody treks into the wilderness to stop a killer hell-bent on destroying the only important thing left in his life.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: Another CJ Box novel, this one the first of the Cody Hoyt series. (How does this dude have time to write all these books?!) Hoyt is a much different character than the Mr. Buttoned Up "Dudley Dooright" as Nate Romanowsi describes Joe Pickett; in fact, Hoyt is sort of the opposite as a drunk, an addict and a chain-smoker who has made terrible decisions in life. The only similarity between the two leading characters is that both Hoyt and Pickett are both kick-ass law enforcement officers with a knack for getting themselves in trouble and cracking the tough cases. I have yet to read a CJ Box novel that I wouldn't reccomend and that continues to be the case here. I give it 4.25 stars.
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
From the Publisher: The unforgettable story of four orphans who travel the Mississippi River on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression.
In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. With the feel of a modern classic, This Tender Land is an enthralling, big-hearted epic that shows how the magnificent American landscape connects us all, haunts our dreams, and makes us whole.
ALEX'S THOUGHTS: My Goodreads algorithm must have factored in the fact that I had given such a good review and rating for The Lincoln Highway that it served me up another recommendation for a book about an Odyssey-type, coming-of-age adventure for a somewhat-troubled, yet undeniably likeable group of straggling vagabonds from a bygone era. It's actually a relatively fast-moving book once it gets going, but it is meticulous in its development of the main characters. While it's teens and kids who are the main characters of the book, the themes are larger-than-life and important. It's an exciting adventure with very sweet moments. I give it 4 stars.
- Alex's Daily Short Reading List (updated 06-21-2022)
Books I've read or listened to on Audiobook since I've been sharing these reviews on OB (this list is not encompassing of all of my favorite books although it certainly includes a few of them - books I recommend reading/listening to start at 3.5 stars - I will review every book I read, but only list those that I awarded 3.5 stars and up here).
Lonesome Dove (5 stars)
Joe Pickett Series by CJ Box (5 stars)
The Undoing Project (5 stars)
The Accidental Superpower (5 stars)
I Am Pilgrim (5 stars)
Empire of the Summer Moon (5 stars)
Gridiron Genius (5 Stars)
The Cartel (5 stars)
Disunited Nations (5 stars)
Lone Survivor (5 stars)
The Lincoln Highway (4.75 stars)
The 4-Hour Work Week (4.75 stars)
Astroball (4.75 stars)
The Wanderers (4.75 stars)
Project Hail Mary (4.75 stars)
Blue Heaven (4.5 stars)
Dueling With Kings (4.5 stars)
Back of Beyond (4.25 stars)
The Border (4.25 stars)
Wrath of the Khans - Dan Carlin Podcast Series (4.25 stars)
The Son (4.25 stars)
Unfreedom of the Press (4.25 stars)
The Time it Never Rained (4.25 stars)
This Tender Land (4 stars)
Supermarket (4 stars)
Ready Player Two (4 stars)
When Christmas Comes (4 stars)
The Great Alone (3.75 stars)
Hunting El Chapo (3.75 stars)
The President is Missing (3.75 stars)
The First Conspiracy (3.75 stars)
REAMDE (3.75 stars)
American Wolf (3.75 stars)
The End is Always Near (3.75 stars)
Second Wind (3.75 stars)
The Lost City of the Monkey God (3.5 stars)
The Summer That Melted Everything (3.5 stars)
The North Water (3.5 stars)
Deep Survival (3.5 stars)
The Boy From the Woods (3.5 stars)
The Frackers (3.5 stars)
AS ALWAYS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW ANY BOOKS YOU WOULD RECOMMEND, PREFERABLY THAT ARE AVAILABLE ON AUDIOBOOK. MANY OF THE BEST BOOKS ON THIS LIST HAVE COME VIA RECOMMENDATIONS ON ORANGEBLOODS.
