Morning, Greg here!

Welcome to Midlife Male, the fastest-growing, #1 newsletter and lifestyle brand for men 40+. In our first-ever Book Issue, my Viewpoint recommends 12 books that will help you master midlife (they really helped me!), and Jon’s Manologue shares a curated list of thrillers, adventure, sci-fi & non-fiction history sagas he knows you’ll love. If a fellow MLM reader shared this with you, subscribe here:

By Greg Scheinman

I don’t read a lot of books, and of the books I start, I often don’t finish them. I’m the opposite of Jon, who reads like a book a week, cover to cover. Never self-help stuff. Always fiction and non-fiction. I still get them confused. Which one is the true story? Read his list here.

I’ve got ADD and don’t retain much from books, whereas I learn better from watching, listening, and doing. I've interviewed over 250 of the highest-performing men in the world over the past few years and many of them have written books. Sometimes I read them (or parts of them) before we talk. Other times, when those conversations land with me, I buy their books and do a deeper dive.

I do like the types of books where you can jump in at any point and get something out of it, so I tend to lean more toward the self-help, “teach me something” variety. But that’s a never-ending list of “oh look, I have that and this book can fix it,” which can lead to a lot of paralysis by analysis. So naturally, I should give you my book recommendations.

Why? Because if I’m recommending it, it really struck a chord with me. I got something from it. I remembered it. I actually put it to use. Each of these books has changed my life or the lives of people I care about. They’re all evergreen. Not fads. Not trendy. No hype or BS.

I also want to say that it’s okay to not be a voracious reader, much of a reader at all, or an “alternate type” of reader like I am. Magazine articles, newsletters, audiobooks, podcasts. It all counts. I’m kind of done beating myself up over the things I don’t do and becoming more accepting of the things I do.

By Jon Finkel

In addition to being the EIC here at Midlife Male and writing The Manologue column, for our new readers who may not know, I’ve also written a dozen books that have been endorsed by everyone from John Cena and Spike Lee to Mark Cuban and Midlife Male cover guy Chef Robert Irvine. 

I’ve written the definitive biography of the Macho Man Randy Savage (Macho Man), the biography of Charlie Ward (The Athlete), as well as other sports and pop culture books, including 1996: A Biography, Hoops Heist, “Mean” Joe Greene, Jocks in Chief and more.

When I first became an author, I wanted a way to collect emails from my readers, so I started a weekly newsletter called Books & Biceps, where I’d recommend whatever book I was reading that week (I average about 3-4 books per month). If you want to read more in 2026, here’s our column on How to Read a Book Every 10 Days without a single hack or trick.

But back to the reading rec newsletter. I think I sent the first one to 17 people back in 2017 or so… Since then, that personal email has grown to over 28,000 readers and we were even profiled in The New Yorker with the feature titled, “The Meathead Trying to Get Other Meatheads to Read.” Ha. True!

All of this is to say that I’ve recommended over 300 books in the last eight years or so and I give my recommendations a ton of thought. 

As EIC of Midlife Male, I get to see collectively the things you all click on: the columns, topics, recommendations in each of our Fs and so on.

And while I can’t reach out and give each of you a recommendation personally, I put together a list of 6 fiction and 5 non-fiction books that you will love (no self help, that’s Greg’s thing, read his list here). In fiction, I read a ton of thrillers, mysteries, adventures, military books, sci-fi and novels that move quickly (I loathe sprawling, slow, get-to-the-point books haha). In non-fiction, as you’ll see, I love big biographies of fascinating people, deep dives on events or time periods, historical non-fiction and more.

There is a good mix in both these lists, and while I can’t promise you’ll want to read all eleven, I promise you’ll want to check out one from each. And I don’t like just listing books to read. I like to share some context about why I think the book is awesome and why you’ll love it. Little written book trailers from me to you.

Take a look and let me know if you’ve read any of these already and what you grab:

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Troy Aikman on Reinvention, Wrestling Demons and What Success Looks Like

Laird Hamilton’s Blueprint for Ageless Living and Unstoppable Energy

15 Pieces of Wisdom from Chef Robert Irvine

MLM Founder: Greg Scheinman / Follow Greg on Instagram & LinkedIn

Love Greg’s Viewpoint column? Visit the full Viewpoint Vault HERE where he shares his personal insights, experiences and perspectives on everything affecting midlife.

MLM Editor-in-Chief: Jon Finkel / Follow Jon on Twitter/X and Instagram

Love Jon’s Manologue column? Check out the full Manologue Archive HERE where he writes about pop culture, parenthood, sports, nostalgia & everything in between.

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