City of Thieves by David Benioff – Episode 8

Transcript for SEO 🙂

All right. Welcome back to another installment of the Buddy Book Club. Thanks for checking us out. I’m here with my good buddy Keith, to break down some best sellers this time around. We’re talking about City of Thieves by Dave. David Benioff. Yes, that David Benioff, half of the Fame shown runner duo of Game of Thrones. This is his second novel written in 2008 and his completely fictional story of two young men surviving the siege of Lennon Grad during World War II. I thought it was true. Wait, it’s completely fictional. Yeah, so it wasn’t his grandparents, not even loosely based on it completely fictional. Both his grandparents were born in the United States. I really wish you didn’t tell me that. I’m just glad we made it through reading it before we found this out because I really think that affects it. I was like, the best part of the story. Is it’s true? It’s insane. I mean, I get over that by thinking, you know what so much crazy shit happened during World War II that I’m sure something like this happened. So to all the listeners out there who haven’t read this book yet, I apologize, but I’d say read it. And hopefully if you’re listening, that means you have read it and you can follow us along here because we’re not really going to be breaking down the story too much. We’re really just going to be having fun talking about a few different categories. If you’d like to reach out to us regarding this book or any of our past or future episodes, you can visit our website Buddybookclub. Com or slide into our DMs on Twitter or Instagram Buddy Book Club podcast. You can listen to us on itunes, so please download and subscribe. Keith, what we have here is 250 pages of historical fiction, specifically a coming of age thrillerish set in one of the bleakest parts of World War II. Is this up your alley? That’s right up your alley. I think I told you I had read this. I don’t know when maybe when it came out, because I can’t imagine I wasn’t big into reading in 2008 ish but some way I read this book and I remember just like one or two scenes I didn’t really remember very well, and I remember thinking it was good. But the second reading this is maybe because those are the books we’ve read recently, but this got propelled. This is a top book for your boy here, out of what we’ve read or in general, I think in general not it’s going on a list of I think it’s a guy’s book I wouldn’t necessarily recommend to a girl. It’s in the mind of a guy. It’s a 17 year old guy. But you know what I mean? It does a very good job of representing a 17 year old guy and what he’s thinking, but also somehow wrapped into a war. Yeah. I mean, it’s a bromance. Really, exactly it’s a buddy book. It’s a buddy book club. I like it. No, but yeah, this is a great read. Again. I think it might be in the top ten for the kid. Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely if someone hit me up was like, hey, I need a good beach read and I’d be like, Are you into historical fiction? World War II? If you say yes, this is what I’m going for totally up my alley as well. I fucking love World War II stuff. I don’t know why I just can’t get enough of it. I think I played the original Medal of Honor game on PlayStation, like four times through such a great game. So yeah, I’m into this, but this story takes place during the first week of 1942. Usually we’re familiar with the American side of the war, but this explores some of the Russian side. Our main characters, 17 year old Lev and his cohort Kolya, a young Cossack soldier, are sent on a quest to find a dozen eggs. That’s pretty much the story. It’s a harrowing journey fraught with cannibals Nazis and ever present hunger, but it’s a page Turner, that’s for sure. It’s nothing else. It’s a page Turner. So we like to go through a few different categories. We talk about the characters we liked in this book. Stock up and stock down, love hate. We like to cast a movie if it was ever to be made. Sometimes the books we read, they actually do have a movie out which puts a nice spin on things and go through some quotes that we like throughout the book, usually one or two. But beforehand, as is tradition here we like to go through a libation based on what is referenced in the book to get everyone’s whistle wet before we break down the further categories. So this book, unlike some of the other books we’ve read recently, didn’t have a lot of booze. I guess when you can’t really have bread then there’s not going to be a lot of booze references, but there were a couple I’m going to get this one out of the way because I know we’re definitely not drinking this and that’s wood vodka and it is what it sounds like. It’s not sold liquor stores around here so I won’t be drinking it and it supposedly makes you go blind. But yeah, it’s vodka made out of wood, which I guess wood has enough sugar to turn into alcohol. So why not? Although the idea I can’t imagine the amount of wood you’d have to use to get some booze out of it that you could just otherwise use for staying warm, but it has a lot of endless puns like Would you drink this trade off might go blind, but worth it. Alright, what I will be drinking, though, is referenced throughout the book and that is schnapps, obviously of German origin, but it was actually also the first booze I ever really drank some peach schnapps. Oh, wow. Yeah. My sister woke me up. I think I was probably like, 14 or 15. She was a few years older. Like, woke me up and was like, try this. And it was like, peach snobs and Sprite fucking dirt widely. Listen to Paul podcast worldwide. National we’re worldwide. Sorry. That’s what I meant. Yeah, that’s it snitches get stitches. Yeah, well, she’s pretty square in general. I think this is probably like, maybe her highlight, but. Yeah. So peach tops is what I started with. So I decided to go with that, mixed it with a little peach, Polar seltzer and a splash of vodka. And here we are, covered with I like that a lot. Yeah, it’s actually quite refreshing. Anything muddled in there? A little muddle or. No. No, but you could do, like, some Mint leaves. Peaches are not in season right now, right? Like, if you got a good legit peach and throw that on there, I think it could be a nice little model for the kids. They are not in season in the summer. In the summer. Maybe we’ll bring this back up, but I’ve got my peach stop strike here. I know you’re on the Bushlight vibe. We haven’t got them on his sponsors yet. Bushlight, whatever coffee you’re drinking, but let’s dive into the categories, actually. Hold on. Keith speaking. When was the last time you had a shit? Great topic, honestly, because I do talk about that a lot. It’s been eleven days for me. So when it finally comes, you’re invited to my shit party. We can jump into their favorite characters, and I can do. Well, that was really me bearing the lead for my favorite character because I’m going to start off with who it was and that’s Coley 100%. Such a great fucking character. Not only was he willing to drink the aforementioned wood vodka, but he’s calm and under pressure, whether it be when he was in jail with Lev or during the whole Cannibal interaction, he just laughed in the face of cannibals. I mean, even his reason for being put in jail was great. He was just out hunting for some trim, like respect. And most importantly, he was concerned about other people’s bowel movements. I mean, hey, what a guy. Yeah, that’s spot on. This is a Keith character all day. Complete wildcard. He’s confident but also insecure. He’s a salesman, but he’s also super genuine. He’s sex crazed, but he’s also intimate. He’s a fighter. He’s a lover. He’s everything that you want from a person. He’s literally the best character we’ve read by far of any book, in my opinion, selfless. He has so many good characteristics. He’s one person you want at the party, at every party, the type of person that brings the energy that brings the enthusiasm. Yeah, he has what we like to call here, the Austin Power Factor. Be him. And women want to be with him. First call from Austin Powers we love completely agree. And I also said I really resonate with him because I haven’t been able to take a ship for multiple days in many instances. So just really, do you want to dig deeper into that for the greater world to hear? I mean, no, we’ll take that off the podcast. All right. Well, I’m not scared. I grew up like the kid from American Pie, the guy that had to go home to use the bathroom. That was my vibe. I remember in middle school, I just go to the nurse. I was sick just so I could go home. Yeah, I was a very stern home pooper, and we eventually took a trip in my early 20s to Europe. And because of that, my body just froze up. Couldn’t go for a few days, no matter how much espresso I was pouring down my Gallet. It just wasn’t doing anything for me. And in those trying times, you realize how important it is to have somebody at your back just being like, hey, man, we’ll figure this out. It’s going to be okay. Did you have a valve movement? You know, back in the daytos, I would just search every floor to see, find one that’s empty. You need a private time. You needed to be with your own thoughts. I can’t take a shit with someone sitting next to you. I just can’t do it. Yeah, it’s a moment for reflection. Exactly. I never took it in all of elementary, middle or high school, ever. My body knew it was so ingrained that once I got home right away, I would need to. And I’d be like, oh, shit. Look what Cole has brought to us. He’s brought this out of us. This intimacy around bathroom habits, which often isn’t discussed in our culture. We just put it to the forefront. Thank you, Cole. Yeah, I will say there are some honorable mentions. Lev is kind of a tough sell. He figures it out at the end, but he’s a sweet young boy who’s, like, romantic. He has these ideas of what things are and what they should be. And in this war strewn world, he still kind of is just a genuine, nice person, even with dead bodies lying around him. So he’s up there as well. I mean, there’s not a lot of characters in this in general, and then I would be remiss if I didn’t mention FICA because she’s the ultimate badass. She’s young sniper in like this. Ndvka I forgot what the KGB SS. Yeah, it’s basically pre KGB, but she’s just like, badass sniper. So, I mean, we’re going to get into that later, but I have to mention her in the favorite characters storyline because, of course, I mean, this book wouldn’t be the book. It is. If it were in the brain of Koya. He’s like, the straight man. So you kind of needed that in order to make his character that much better. So I think that was fine. Yeah. Agreed. So this book, like we said, takes place over pretty much a week, which I like, it’s not really jumping around a lot. There’s obviously some references to past things that happen, but it’s just kind of the story of these guys hunting eggs for a week. And within that, there are a few scenes that jumped out to me. I’d like to know what you liked most throughout reading this book. Yeah. The only scene that I actually and I just vaguely remembered it from the first time I read it. And I was like, was that in this book because I’ve read a bunch of World War Two books like, you and I was like, I feel like that was in this book was the prisoner scene where when they first go to prison? No, when they line them up to see who’s literate and who’s not. Oh, yeah. So that was such an amazing scene. It kind of really encapsulates everything about this book, the ups and downs where 1 second, you’re joking around and, hey, things aren’t as bad as they seem. And then all of a sudden, the next thing you know, people are getting lined up and shot. And it’s just like, this quick turn right when you think the enemy isn’t maybe that bad, maybe they’re human. You find out they’re not really. And it’s just like, this is war. This is how brutal things are that really, really stuck with me. I got goosebumps reading that. It was very similar to Game of Thrones, actually, which is David Benioff did where like, one scene. It’s a fancy wedding. The next scene, everyone’s dying. So it’s kind of like that. I really liked it. What about you? Well, just on that subject quickly. That scene is like, great. Obviously. I liked every bit of it. It reminded me a lot of have you seen Band of brothers, the HBO series? I recommended it multiple times. I’ve gotten like, two episodes in, and then I always kind of get bored of it. They don’t even go to Europe until, I mean, in, like, the ratings, they do like the episode ratings like, the first episode is the worst rated episode. I love it. It’s like a setup store. But once they get to Europe, it’s fucking insane. And the book by Stephen Ambrose is phenomenal. But it’s pretty much like scene for scene like the miniseries so well done. But there’s a scene in there where basically, they have these German prisoners, and this Lieutenant offers them all cigarettes. And the German prisoners are pretty happy, and they’re all getting their cigarettes. Turns out one of them is from the United States. His dad was in a German, so he went back to fight with the Nazis. And then the next thing, the Lieutenant just shoots them all. It was just like, Holy fuck. So, like, you’re talking about how crazy war is and whatnot that’s what it reminded me of when I read that scene. I think some other great scenes from this book, the Situation with the Cannibals in the apartment. The whole hunting cabin theme was harrowing for sure. That was amazing because you’re up so many ups and downs. At first you’re completely with them. I’m like, yeah, these chicks are betraying everyone. They’re pouring themselves out. Then you immediately turn on to their side, and, oh, shit. I guess they didn’t have any choice. I thought that was a really good scene of where you could see both sides of things, and you didn’t know whose side you should be on at the end of it. Yeah. And everyone’s survival is different. Exactly. Everyone’s trying to survive. And so there’s no right or wrongs in war when you’re trying to survive, right? Obviously, there are lots of rights and wrongs in war from the Nazi perspective, which I think we’ll get into. But just in terms of people trying those girls just like, oh, wow. They’re living a lap of luxury. It’s like we get raped every night. Right? Exactly. Do you want to do that? And then one of the other ones I liked was the opening scene with Lev’s apartment building. I think that was just a good way to set up where we like, for a set and setting kind of thing. Just like where we are, what the situation is, like, breaks down how hungry these people are, what they’re eating, the whole idea that they’re kind of patrol for their block and just looking at what happens in the sky and then just how shitty the Russian government is when they find a paratrooper and it takes love to prison, because basically kind of loot to this guy. For me, though, my favorite scene, I think, was the cannibal apartment scene just because it felt like a horror movie. And I thought it was so well described and I could almost see it in my head. And we’ve talked about this before, like, at least I have on this pod where my favorite scenes are. Those ones that while you’re reading it, it’s just manifesting itself in your vision, even though you’re not seeing anything. And it was just like, black and white, this grungy apartment. And when they said the human limbs and stuff were on meat hooks in the back and there’s like, a bullying cauldron, like some of this stuff, I don’t even know if it was written in the story. It’s just become part of how I saw this, imagined it. Yeah, it was awesome. And it was actually frightening. The idea that this giant man is going to now cut you up and put you in that pot. It was like, you just had that, like, get out. It would have been a horror movie if it wasn’t for Kolya’s demeanor makes you, like, drinking levity to the situation somehow, like, the most scary thing of all time. You’re like, all right, call you serious. We’re good. It’s fine. If he was in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it wouldn’t have been a scary move. Wow. What the hell are we doing here? These guys killing people. Let’s get out of here. I really like that cannibal scene, but I’m with you on yours as well. I thought that was really well done. Let’s get into some stock up, stock down, starting with stock up. This is a vague category, like we talked about every week, but it manifests itself, and it redefines itself in new ways. And how is it going to manifest itself this week? Keith, what do you have for stock up? I was going to say this overlap, but I’ll start off with it since we were just talking about it. The cannibal scene cannibalism stock up, hear me out, hear me out. I’m hearing you. They’re starving, right? And he’s like, and there was a brewing pot and a rack of ribs. Did you lick your lips a little bit? Come on. Like a rack of ribs. Another human. I know candles really hasn’t made a comeback in any way, but it’s a Penny stock right now. And I thought you might want to invest here a couple of other tidbits because I just saw not equalizer what’s the movie with Denzel in it anyways, what happens in the movie is there’s cannibals in that as well. And they’re like, look at their hands. Everyone’s looking at people’s hands to make sure if they’re cannibals or not, which I had to look up, which is real. It’s basically called crew or disease or crew. I was literally about to say, oh, wow. So yeah, it’s basically like mad cow disease, but you get it from eating people. So I guess the question becomes, how much would you have to be paid to eat a piece of human knowing all the factors? I don’t know if I should. I don’t know if I should put this on the air, but I’d be down, I’m down, I’m in. So the caveat would be you’d have to tell me I wasn’t getting guru or any other stuff, and I’d be clean from human stuff. But let’s just say, I mean, I love Dystopian books, Dystopian movies and stuff like that. So if I’m in a situation where I’m starving or I’m on an Island, I’m looking at the Porter or the Cook who survived the crash with me, and I’m licking my chop. I’m ready to go. I mean, Stephen King actually wrote a book about this that was kind of interesting. I haven’t read it, but the idea is basically a surgeon finds himself on an island and slowly cuts away parts of his body to eat them because he’s starving to death. But, yeah, fucked up. But, yeah, I think I would be down into your question of what part I would eat. I’m a dark meat kind of guy. So I think you’d have probably some nice choices in the glutes somewhere that’s what I’m going for. It’s the biggest muscle, but there’s lots of muscles created in there. I feel like put that in a stew. Maybe it should be delicious. What do you think? You’re the Cook. I’m not really sure. I don’t know where the filet Mignon of the human is, but maybe I’d go for that. I don’t think we have it. It’s part of your back. So it’d be like, your tenderloin. I don’t know if we have or if we do. It’s probably minimal. Yeah, maybe some ribs. Then maybe that’s where I’m going. Yeah. And I would say, here’s the thing to tie it back to the beginning. If you were to tell me you eat this piece of human meat. And from now on, you can argue, aka, take a shit whenever you want. At any time you want, you literally have complete control of it for the rest of your life. I would do that in a heartbeat. That’s a price that there’s no amount of money worth that to me. It’s a weird tie in lamp. Also, this question in for you, too. How much salary would you take less to have a private bathroom? I mean, yes, we’re working from home now, so it doesn’t really matter. But if you were at a big office with a huge public bathroom, how much would it take less to have a private one? I mean, I have to make a lot more money. I wouldn’t take that. I find myself, as you said before, I’m pretty good at finding a secret bathroom. I’ve always been good at finding a secret bathroom. Everybody would have, like, 20 stalls lined up in these big offices, and there was, like, 18 people in there. I’m like, oh, my God. I would quit. I couldn’t do that. The smell alone would I would have to go with noise canceling headphones in. I would have to just not make eye contact. Yeah, I’ve worked in a big Corporation for long enough that I think I’m over it now. I think I got through that part of my life, especially also because I saw the CEO of a 5000 person company walk into a bathroom and take the most vicious BM, like liquid diarrhea BM. Because I was washing my hands when he walked out and walked out like he owned the place. I would have been head down. Shame. You would have been able to not only smell the ship, but also smell my shame, and he walked out. No big deal. Hey, how are you? I was like, wow. Okay, I get it. I got to get over this. I got to aspire to that’s what HEOS do. Apparently, I’m glad you’re keeping stock up. As ridiculous and nonsensical as it has been in the past. For my first stock up, I’m going with big wood, big stock up to big wood or the wood industry. Okay, go on. I know you’re talking about your bedroom habits, but go on. No. Not only does this book show the importance of wood for heating purposes, I mean, people were burning their very expensive pianos just to stay warm, but they’re using wood like Bubba from forest Gump, wood, wood, vodka, wood bread, wood leaves for the horses. You can put wood in anything, you know. So for the wood industry, I mean, they should start expanding outside of just lumber and firewood and start looking into wood based alcohol bread. That’s 75% wood shaving. Yeah. You know, that hipsters would be all over that, too. That seems like a no brainer. Super sustainable. Yeah. Okay. So big wood stock up. I’m buying into the wood industry because if they start doing some, what do they call that? Horizontal business moves? I went to business school. Yeah, that sounds right. Horizontal moves into some other industries. Then there’s a lot of opportunity for growth. What else do you have to talk about? I had twisting her ankle, being life or death. So essentially, when they were running through the forest and the snow, if you twist your ankle, they basically die there. Which if you’ve ever twisted your ankle, it’s almost like you die. Have you ever done this before, in the basketball court or anywhere? It’s the worst thing ever. And I was just like, yes, that spoke to me, even though I’m not in World War II stricken Russia. But it made sense to me. I don’t understand how that stock up. I’m just saying the people understanding the severity of a twisted ankle that stuck up. It’s going back up. Now. We appreciate that. But when you twist it on the basketball court, I almost died out there. I leave the ankle on the court, kid. Yeah. Little Gordon Hayward vibe for stock up. For me, there’s a couple of good pop culture references which have come into pop culture since after this book was released, one being Baby Yaga, which is like the Russian Bogeyman. This was referenced after the encounter with the cannibal, but then later used in the John Wick movies. And John Wicked was called The Babyaka. And they didn’t specifically or explicitly say what the babyaga was so like from watching John Wick, I understood another pop culture reference. When Lev, who’s the Russian? Excuse me. The Nazi bad guy in this, the ultimate bad guy. I forgot his name. Obviously, I didn’t do my research. Yeah, I have a tidbit on that next, but I can’t think of his name. So when they’re playing their chess game, he opens up with the Queen’s Gambit, which has now become like, the most popular Netflix show of the year or of last year. I don’t know which one it was, but either way, once again, they didn’t go into it. I would have no idea what the Queen’s Gambit was, right. I still don’t know what the Queen’s Gambit is, but I know it was the title of a Netflix show that I thoroughly enjoyed. So pop culture references stock up. Did you have anything else for that title? Last one was again, this is a longer one, but falling in love with every girl when you’re 17, which left kept on doing that spoke to me. When a girl say Hi to you or you’d pass by a girl, you just instantly fall in love with them when you’re that age. I mean, I still do it a little bit now, but, yeah, this book nailed it. They really nailed, like a new girl would show up and he’s like, oh, I’m going to marry this girl. Yeah, 100%, which is true. That’s like a true thing that happens. So I really crushed it. Yeah. I mean, I’m buying that stock. Anyways, I saw Christina Ricci in the movie Casper and also now and then, and I was convinced I was going to find her and marry her when I was ten years old. I was like, there’s 100% last week. No, I did see some Christian rich movies lately, though, but she’s moved on from me and I moved on from her. Another stock up. I had my last one as well was Russian literature. We don’t talk about Russian literature at all in our society. I don’t feel like or at least the circles we hang out in. Granted, they’re not, erudite circles, but I think probably the only Russian literature I knew previous to this was like War and Peace, which is referenced to Nova Gogol, and many more were referenced throughout this book. And it got me thinking that, you know, we should maybe think about adding a Russian classic to our list of future podcasts. My grandfather says they’re great. So just saying, I read a Gentleman of Moscow, and there’s a lot that’s heavy on that. It’s him basically debating people about Russia versus other countries, like Russia versus the US and the great musicians and the great authors and poets and everything. So it’s very heavy on that. And Russia definitely kind of doesn’t get its fair shake, I guess in a lot of instances. And this book kind of brings some of that out in history wise. Yeah. I mean, the arts in general. I just used literature for La, too. There was a ton of other, like Russian art that was referenced in the book, and I think we should look more into that. So I’m just saying now we get to the other side of the coin. Stock down. What do you got? Yeah. And Glorious Bastards stock down. I think they kind of stole. This is what you were referencing. Like, the bad guy. The bad guy is basically stolen and inglorious bastards from this book. Glorious Bastards came out in 2009. This was in 2008, and the bad guy in both of these is like fluent in multiple languages, basically can look right through someone and tell if they’re lying or not. He knows instantly loves a Jew. Basically, he knows Koala is not illiterate, which is kind of obvious, but he basically calls everyone on their bullshit instantly, which is kind of an inglorious bastard bad guy trait. And then the tables turn on them at the last instant when they think they’re in control of everything, which is kind of what happened in that movie as well. So I thought they were very similar when they were like, yeah, he’s super smart and he speaks all these languages. I’m like, that sounds familiar. Wow, that’s not good, considering Quentin Tarantino has been accused of stealing a lot of stuff throughout his cinematic career. Oh, really? Yeah. That’s like a big thing with Tarantino. I mean, I’d say it’s more of an homage thing than a stealing or bad artists or something. Pay homage. And like, good artists steal from other artists. Quintino, Sorry, but keeps giving you a stock down. My stock down is for the Russian government. Not great. The Russian government. It looks pretty bad in the Soviets. They do some pretty fucked up shit to their own prisoners than their own people. I mean, Lev almost gets shot because he tried to take a nip of some dead enemy paratrooper snaps like that, was it? He legitimately took a sip of some alcohol and crashed, right? Yeah, that’s going to be referenced in this podcast as well. Don’t you worry. Okay. Yeah, I know this as well, but so the stock is even further down. His dad getting murdered or sent to Siberia for writing some poems like Yikes. And then at the end of the whole thing, they get told, hey, we need these eggs for this cake. It’s a big deal. We’ll save your lives, which they really shouldn’t have had their lives on the line. Anyways, we’re talking about one guy trying to get some ass and the other one who’s just trying to drink some snaps in order for them to get these very important eggs. And then at the end, Colonel Gretchco has three dozen eggs that he flew in for his daughter’s wedding. Anyways, as these guys just put everything on the line for some eggs. And Additionally, people are starving in the streets. So Russia not treat their people well. Stock down. I’m out. I’m selling the one thing I wish we could have had in the book was Koya having that conversation with the general because, you know, he would have been so fucking cocky being like, motherfucker, we risk our lives for these eggs. We’re going to the wedding now. I wanted to hear that conversation that will be touched on later. I’m not happy my stock down was also Russia, but not the government.

Participant #1:

That’s good. It’s actually being sieged. They’re like, it’s getting dark out. We’re literally going to die in an hour. I’m like, Jesus Christ. Like, where is this? Antarctica? It just sounds terrible, let alone. I mean, the cold, obviously, but this just seems like there’s death at every turn. And that doesn’t include the war they’re in. Everywhere they go. It’s just like I might die here for the kids. We’re talking about a starving people. If you were with Anthony Bourdain on a no reservations trip during the siege of St. Petersburg or Lenny Grad, I wouldn’t want to go there. I would say this is a bad trip, but if you went now, I could imagine it would actually be quite nice. So Russian listeners don’t listen to Keith. I’m buying the stock. All right? He’s selling it. I’m buying Bull market. That’s all I had for stock down really was the Russian government. I’m sorry. I have one more and it’s being able to read or being literate. It gets you killed, kid audiobooks.

Participant #1:

So I guess we’ll talk about this now. You read the audiobooks. I usually read the books. Typically, I appreciate you said read audiobooks. I really appreciate that because I’ve heard people get uppity with me about listening or reading. Rather, I should say audio. I love listening to audiobooks. I am an audible subscriber. I want Audible to sponsor us here. I think they’re great. I think they’re a great way to read. And this book, supposedly from what I understand, was read by Ron Perlman, aka Hellboy. Oh, okay. Thing is, if it’s a good audio guy or good author, you don’t even think about who is reading. You’re just like, this is good. It’s a legitimately a famous actor. That’s reading you a better time story. Why wouldn’t you like that? People who besmirch audio books should be shot, like laughs be. All right. I like how I learned that word from the WWE. There was some British guy that was like, the bad guy against the Rock. And he’s like, Are you besmirching me right now? And he’s like, Besmirching. He said, doesn’t matter if you’re besmirching me. And that’s how I learned that word. But anyways, wow, you can actually learn some things from pace fighting Besides the WWE. What do you love about this book? Tough segment. But there we are. Yes. I thought the pacing was perfect. It was an adventure book. It just flew by constant ups and downs. There’s no lulls. There’s no, like, we need to force character development. It was just all seemed natural. It’s the ultimate buddy adventure. It also does a perfect job of I think I mentioned this before, but getting in the heads of, like, a 17 to 21 year old. I think it’s literally perfect. Full of piss and vinegar. A lot of the coming of age books have always been Super Dramae and super thirsty. Exactly. In people’s feelings. This is just like it should be that. But it’s not. It’s in a war zone. It’s like, I’m hungry, but it’s not. It’s the opposite of that. I can imagine being this person. So, yeah, I thought it was amazing. And then the history and everything around it was great. What about you? I can dig it. I can dig it totally. I think I read this book in three or four sittings. We always talk about on this part how we know it’s a good book when you look down at the clock and you think ten minutes have passed and it’s been an hour and you’re like, Holy smokes. I’ve just been immersed. So I love that note. Love for me was the way that he showed human ingenuity in these horrible times. So, like, people have to get by one way or another. And the thing I’m going to use for that is the library candy, which is basically made from boiled down book bindings, which is glue. And there are collagen. I think it’s kind of like Jello, like they used horse hooves and stuff like that for book binding, glue. And so there is protein. So technically it works, and they framed it as candy, and they were willing to not only pay for it, but they use it as, like, bartering purposes, too, later in the book. So, hey, good for you guys. Smart. I assume that was real. That’s one of those things where I felt like, oh, wow. I’m learning something. And this is like, crazy. Yeah. That’s probably another thing I loved about this book was he made it feel like this was a true story. It started off with the Princess Bride kind of vibe of him sitting down with his grandfather and telling a story. But that story in itself was made up. But the whole time you’re reading it, you felt like, oh, this is really what went on. So whether that be, like, good research by the author or whether this was just his writing style and the way that he immersed us in what was going on, I believe it all I even know, even like, the signs when Cole runs up to those guys, it’s like, hey, what are you doing when they were blacking out the street markers and the numbers, it was like, oh, so that when the Nazis come in here, they don’t know where they’re going. That was definitely something that people did during World War II. So stuff like that, those little details, just all those tidbits. Yeah, for sure. My last one for Love was just World War Two snipers. I love any sort of World War II sniper talk. And one of the main characters, Vika, is a sniper, and she’s obviously a complete badass, but in general, in World War II, there’s not many better than the Russians. I’ve loved the idea of the badass Russian sniper since I saw Enemy at the Gates, like we talked about earlier, Vasilisa, who was a real person played by Jude Law in the book. Well, it wasn’t book and then turned into a movie, but just the whole thing was super cool. And I think because I saw him at the Gates, I was even more into Vica, and they also referenced Ludmila Pavalchenko. I think Vika talks about her or someone else did. And for those that don’t know, she was a super badass Russian sniper credited with 309 confirmed kills. And that includes her only being active through June of 1942. And her story is actually similar to the fake story. I don’t think this is actually true for Viciliza. Where her first fight? She didn’t even have a weapon. She was like one of the other people that didn’t have a weapon and then had to pick up a weapon off of a down soldier. So pretty bad ass and vasilisaitsef. He kills his 1st 32 Germans with a standard issue rifle, not even a sniper with no scope. So he’s badass too. Russian is a general super badass. Love that stuff. That was it for me. And we’ll get to the other side. What did you hate about it? Yeah. So I got to start off with season 78 of Game of Thrones. Absolutely hated. So I mean, a little bit of this was like, watching I don’t know if you’ve seen Knives out, but watching Knives Out of Star Wars and being like, I really want to hate this movie, but it’s such a good movie because of high value. Why did you hate? Was it the same director? Yeah. Episode eight. That was the same director as the second of the new Generation Star Wars. They ruined that. So I was like, God damn it, I really like this movie. Why couldn’t you have done this with Star Wars? Yeah, seriously. No, but Allstar is a great book. My real hate, I guess the biggest thing for me, which I thought was a true story. So this kind of changes things. But the biggest reveal being that Vika, his grandmother is like, the complete badass of the family. The book starts out being like, I knew my grandfather stabbed two people and all this stuff and like, oh, what a badass my grandfather is. He’s such a hard man. But Vika’s grandmother is the actual badass. Right after I read that part, I thought it was an awesome reveal. At the end. It’s also not blatantly disclosed, not like, oh, my grandmother was Vica. She just says she doesn’t like to Cook, which then you tie back to the beginning. It was perfect ending for the book, like, very Hollywood ending, which I loved. But then I was like, Wait, what the fuck? Why didn’t we get her story? Her story is way better than his egg story. Yeah, but, yeah, that was the biggest reveal was kind of not. I honestly, it was a true story. So that changes things because I’d be like, Bro, your grandmother way more important. But it also made this cool idea that he’s asking his grandfather for this story. Yeah. What the real story is. And it’s like, oh, wow. This is a crazy story. This is amazing. And then at the end of interviewing his grandfather for four days, his grandfather says this, and then he looks up at his grandmother. I mean, I’m making this part up, but he looks up at his grandmother, who gives him a wink and a nod, and it’s like, Holy fuck, grandma Babushka is a fucking badass. Either Jose or whatever. What is it from? Unusual suspects?

Participant #1:

My hate for this book was just the Einstech grouping. Fucking totally despicable characters. I don’t actually hate anything about this book, really. So I just hated this set of characters because they’re so hateful. And the fact that it’s so true, like, the stuff that’s going on is so true. Einstein’s Grouping was a mobile death squad. That a book that we’re definitely not going to read during this podcast because I think it’s a 60 hours audiobook, but it’s called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, and it goes into stuff that was going on. And these mobile desk squads were legitimately trailing behind the general army. And once they overtook a territory, these people would just like, round up all the undesirables and kill them, or at least figure out ways to kill them. It’s super fucked up. I mean, in the first nine months of the war against the Soviet Union, the Insights group organized and helped carry out the shooting of over 500,000 people, shooting up 500,000 people in this story. They get into that a little bit and they talk about the who’s that one Zoya, the other prostitutecaptive that was in the hunting cabin. That story about them fucking sawing off her legs like, bro, are you kidding me? It creeps up your spine. It just like, you don’t realize how people could be this horrible. It really just got me angry. I hated them. And especially because the guy is like, the main bad guy is just like this smug asshole. It made it all thinks he’s so intelligent. I played chess. And you think if someone is that smart, then you’d realize that what you’re doing is so fucked up. But it just makes you so angry. So I hated it because it made me feel so angry about it. But what else did you have for you? Do you have anything else? No. Again, some of them were like, I assumed it was real because the talking with a grandpa about your sex thoughts. When you were 17, I thought it would have been a little bit weird, but if it’s not real, then it’s just like, yeah, obviously he’s trying to get in the head of a 17 year old. So your grandfather is going to be cool. I hope when I’m a grandfather that I’m like, hey, you’re getting any ass? What’s the deal? Yeah, that’s true. One of the things that I hated, we’ve kind of danced around. This was Cola dying at the end, especially because this is a made up story. Why did Kolya have to die

Participant #1:

or even the way he died? Have him die in a better have him die from not being able to shift. Then we’d have something to talk about. I like that. It was just so he had bowed through so many things, and then obviously it’s his own guy that shoots him. It wasn’t some hero story. It was some stray bullet type thing, I guess that’s what I think. It’s more realistic in that sense, in my opinion. Fuck that. Forced Gump survived this. Forced Gump had a bullet jump up and bite him in the buttocks, and he got ice cream and got to shake hands with Nixon or whoever fucking bullshit Coley is an absolute badass, and he gets shot by friendly fire in the ass and dies on the way to the hospital. No, that would have been better. Geico was like, Watch out. We put a ton of landmines down. I thought for sure. I thought this would have been a great ending, too. I thought for sure he was going to go take a shit and finally be able to ship and be like, yes, I did it and then be like, oh, yeah, I’m selling a landmine, but whatever. Just shit on a landmine. Keep walking. I’m about to die. But whatever. I can die in peace now type of thing because his bowels have been attacked for so long. The landmines, the shit is now heading up. Yeah, so that would have been something. Okay, but just him getting shot in the ass and dying from that. He’s fucked up. It was tough, but the movies and books, I like, the best are when they don’t have that hero ending. And it’s not like some great speech or some act of bravery that led them to being killed in the departure where they just open the elevator and he dies. Those my fans. I’m with you there. I wish it was a little more dramatic. Or at least maybe he dies going like you said with the Colonel, and he argued with the Colonel, and then they decided to kill him there or something. Potent quotables. Did you have any specific quotes throughout this bookaudiobook that you enjoyed? Yeah. I think there was a lot of actual deep quotes that were like, there was a lot of deep quotes that I there’s a lot of philosophical things that were said that were like, oh, wow. That’s actually, like, pretty good .1 of them was that was pretty philosophical. Was who said, she needs to be special. You need warm thighs and a heartbeat, which really spoke to me super philosophical. It really spoke to me at a deep level. So I thought that I laughed at a lot of that one. So that was a pretty good one. The reference was Koya talking to Lev about him being a version, and he’s also the guy that wouldn’t shit on you for being a version. He was like, Bro, let’s go get it. That’s fine. That’s why I love Kolya also, because he wouldn’t rub it into you or kind of make fun of you for it. He’s like, Well, let’s just get after this. Yeah. Coley is the kind of guy who you want to hate at a party because he was more popular than you or people paid attention to him. And then you met him and you were like, Fuck, I can’t hate this guy. He’s just, like, so legit. He’s just like, a good guy. And I think what you said was so on point of just that he wasn’t concerned with his own ego, that he had to kind of step on someone else. He was really just trying to rise everyone up with him. And by everyone, I really just mean love in this story. But he was just like, oh, but you have this problem. Let’s fucking deal with it. Stop. You making fun of me. No, I’m not. I just want to help. Yeah. And he was a guy also, too. Every time you met someone new who’s giving them food, like, ingratiating stuff with them. He was just a good dude. He’d be at the party and he’d see you in the corner and be like, Yo, bro, you need some beers? Here’s a beer. Come over here. We’ll play a game. We’ll get in this type of thing that’s, like, the vibe he gave off, at least in my opinion. So, yeah, he’s Matthew McConaughey and dazed and Confused,

Participant #1:

one of the ones I liked. And it was kind of fit into this narrative of the Russian elite kind of having everything in the Russian peasantry having nothing. The people in the city kind of thought they were better than the farm hands, which is true of the time with industrialization. And then when the war outbreaks and the siege is on the city, you know, the people that are outside the city or the farmers actually have way more assets in terms of food, which is the most important thing. They have access to firewood. But also they have food itself, and they bring it. They smuggle it into the hay market to sell it to the people of the city who are not willing to do anything just for more food. At one point, presumably rich person goes up and offers some silverware for some food. And the person’s like, no, basically, to the price, like, no, I’m not going to take it. And they’re like, Well, I have all this silverware and they’re like, So eat your silverware. Yeah. It was great power to the people. And also at the end of the day, the basic needs of humanity, shelter and food warmth is just so important. And that’s really what it came down to in this novel. And I think that kind of one quick line summed it up so, well, that’s a great point. And I feel like that happens in a lot of revolutions or wars. I feel like I read some book about the Cambodia overthrow, and the same thing happened where people were sick of city people and then all of a sudden, the revolution happens. And people that own farms are the rich people. Now, all of a sudden, the Cambodia stuff, the Camille Rouge, between 13% and 30% of the population of Cambodia was killed during that genocide in fucking sane. Did you have any other quotes? Yeah. So this one was I couldn’t find the actual quote, but the sentiment was basically people that say to be brave should be the guys on the front line, which 100% agree. So basically, Coy was talking about how everyone all the propaganda and everything was like, be brave, like, stand up fight and all these things, those people that are making all that stuff and talking like that, never been in the fight, never been in charge. You respect someone that’s been there and done that. And when they order you to do something, you can respect it. This is everything right. Like, every job you take, anything that’s ever happened. If someone tells you to do something, you have to expect that they do them B have done it themselves. Otherwise, you can’t respect them. The Braveheart mentality where he’s out in the front lines charging, you can follow that guy, but you can’t follow someone that’s just sitting back, being like, go in there die type thing 100%. I actually talked about this at work recently and was basically just saying, like, you want leaders who have been there and done that, you want them to know that not only they’re asking you to do this because they have done it. Which once again, Band of Brothers, Captain Winners, who’s the lead is the epitome of that, even when he’s in the position where he never has to get shot at ever again, he tries to run into the fight to help his people. And from all accounts, that seems to be a true story. So I’m like, yes, but yeah, I love that mentality. And it seemed like that once again, just Benioff does such a good job showing it’s a story about two guys, but he kind of shows the overarching and like, takes a wide view, even though it’s done through the dialogue between two people, you know. So I dug it. I like that one as well. Unfortunately, this script hasn’t been written. No one has bought the rights to this book to turn it into a movie. Benny off that he’d have a tough time selling it because he thinks about it as like his book. But he said he would also have a tough time saying no to a really good director wanting to do it. Peter Weir, who he suggested, which would be very interesting what Peter Weir is for. He’s an Australian director. He did Master Commander, Dead Poet Society, The Truman Show. So there is no movie right now. There’s no movie in the works, so we don’t have any cast out there. So it’s our job to do it. So Peter Weir needs a casting director. What do you got? Yes. So I only casted the two characters, but I gave them two options for both. This will be a little tougher because you basically would have to find this would be basically at The Wire. You’d have to find dudes that were young enough that were like hidden gems. Okay, well, on this podcast, we’re allowed to work with any time frame we want. Exactly. So if you wanted to do a young Jude Law, you could do a young Jude Law. Yeah. And also I would make sure that they do whatever accents they want. I hate when they pretend to do Russian accents, and they’re not Russian. Scarlett Witch fucking get her out of here. Elizabeth Olsen. Horrible. Yeah. Just do whatever action we know they’re in Russia. What the enemy the Gates did was perfect. They start out speaking Russian to show you this is Russian people. This is a German person, and then they just start talking normally. So they did that for Hunt of Red October, too, which I thought was perfect as well. It’s just like everyone’s sitting around a table speaking in Russian, and then it slowly turns to English. Yeah. You don’t want me to be taken out of the movie, but anyways, for Lev, I went this one is a rare one, but Matt Sarason from Friday Night Lights, AK, Zach Gifford. Okay. Yeah. So kind of the shy, like reserve dude. I think he could play that perfectly. He obviously showed that in Friday Night Lights, and then my other one was Logan Lerman. Who is? I don’t know if you’ve seen Perks of Being a Wallflower. I haven’t. No, it’s a good one. It’s a little dark, but it’s a good movie. And he’s also have you seen Fury? I have. Yeah. You know, like the Timid Du that joins the Fury Gang. Yes. That’s the same guy. Oh. Okay. Got you. He’s kind of showing that he can play that role of Timid, but also could stab someone if you need. Yes. I mean, you could even truthfully, you could even use his costar in Perks of Being a Wallflower in Ezra Miller, who plays the Flash in the latest Justice League movies. Okay. I haven’t seen those in that. He’s a pretty flamboyant dude, so I’m not sure I wouldn’t see him as that, but yeah, I think he has the look, too. He is like a little silly, but the look is really what I’m looking for. And that’s why I had Timothy Shalomat for Lev, who’s going to be in the new Dune movies. And he’s kind of an up and coming around. He’s kind of the right age. Yeah, he’d be perfect for this. That’s a good call. He can do everything, too. He’s like comedy, and he’s too good looking. That’s the only problem with him. Well, his nose is way too small. We need to get him a big schnaz. Yeah. Prosthetic Department. Get on it. Who did you have for Kola? I had two for this as well. I think you already referenced one. Matthew McConaughey, a young man. What? The thing is, Koya, this is the most important casting of all time. You need someone that is instantly likable, and even when he’s doing bad things, you like him. That’s what you need, man. Mcconnell can definitely do that. The other one I thought would be good. Who already kind of plays this role in every movie is a young Robert Downey Jr. I feel like he could be kind of he has that gift of Gab, but also kind of like the cock of the walk type mentality, which I like that you said, gift of Gab and cock of the walk within 2 seconds. What did I say? I’m in. All right, that sells you. After watching Dunkirk, I thought Harry Styles could play polya. You need someone good looking, that’s for sure. He has to be charming. And we didn’t really get any of that in Dunkirk, but he did show his acting chops in Dunkirk, so I think he can kind of run the gamut of what you need Coley to do, but also be like, fall in love with the guy as well. For other characters. I had Vica. I wanted to use Rose Leslie, who plays Gig Ritz in Game of Thrones. I feel like she definitely could play the part, and we’ve seen her all buttoned up and covered up and being like a bad ass with some men in a fighting situation. So, yeah, just chop her hair short and make her look like a dude. She’s there. And then for Colonel Gretchco, I had cast Leaf shrieb big fan of him in general. He’s also just like a big, menacing guy or can at least play that. And Additionally, he’s already done an Eastern European accent in Defiance. He’s American. Okay. I thought he was Russian now. He’s American. Okay, but yeah, he did that Eastern European accent in the movie Defiance, which is a great movie, and I think he can handle the role. So I’m for the love Tremor, the most important factor. I mean, we already know your answer, but would you recommend this book not to readers, but to everyone? Yeah, I’m 100% in favorite book so far. Definitely one I would recommend. Yes. I really don’t know anyone that wouldn’t like this book. I know it’s definitely more of a guy’s book because it’s a bromance. It’s pretty much just the story of two guys. But after I read this book, I texted my mom and I was like, hey, you should read this book. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So I’m already selling it. If you don’t have anything else, we’ll get these books sold. Don’t worry. I know you’ve got nothing else in the works, but yeah, I’m a huge fan of the book. I recommend it to everyone. I will say it’s not like a big literature book, but as an really enjoyable read. Yeah. Fuck, yeah. Let’s do it. It’s definitely in the top three of stuff we’ve read for sure. Website buddy bookhold. Com teeth. We’ve got another book in the works. What do we read next? Green Lights by Matthew McConaughey. Not Matt. All right, all right. All right. I think we both already started it. I’ll like tune out and play video games and things like that and listen to interviews with Mattie McConnell because I just love hearing him talk. So those book is right up my alley. It’s very different than what we usually do. This is an actual biography or autobiography. We’ll talk about this on the Bot, but, yeah, it’s an autobiography, selfhelp book, poem. A lot of things going on. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and it’s definitely audiobook for sure. So if you’re going to read this book along with us, he definitely Hams it up and acts as he’s reading this. Yes, it’s an act. We’ll get that out next week, and until then, you all enjoy your reading or you’re listening whatever you do. But download and subscribe. And Keith, always good to talk to your brother. Goodbye as well. Bye now.