​The Wild Gentleman Book Club - August, One Year In

​August marks one year of The Wild Gentleman Book Club. Twelve months, a dozen books, a growing table of men. To mark it, we're finally doing a Western classic: Charles Portis' True Grit.

​We'll be meeting on Wednesday, August 12th at 6 PM at Paddy's in Newton.

​A year ago, this didn't exist. Here's how it started — from a recent profile in The Harvest, the newspaper for Richard Banfield's and Devon McDonald's Second Harvest:

​Dennis Keohane didn't retire from anything, but in the post-Covid, post-election cycle, deep in the fog of early 2024, he looked around and felt like something was missing. "I had colleagues. I had acquaintances I could keep an eye on from afar, online. But there was no opportunity for a bunch of men to meet regularly to share their learnings and thoughts on the hard questions — about fatherhood, failure, or what kind of person they were becoming."

​So he started The Wild Gentleman, a newsletter about what it means to be a good man, explored through literature. The response he received from this thin-slice experiment told him what he needed to know. Men wanted to talk about more than just sport and work. He launched something he watched his grandparents do: a monthly book club. A small group, a book they'd all read, a table at a pub in Newton. No agenda. "Men dropped their guard. They talked about their fathers, their work struggles, their regrets, their sense of purpose. Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Frankl, Saunders — the books opened the door, but the conversation was deep and real."

​"Part of our culture tries to convince us that men don't want community," Dennis says. "That we'd rather be alone with our ambitions. I've seen enough evidence to the contrary. Men want to connect. They just need a structure that gives them permission."

​A year in, that's still the bet, and it's still paying off. The book is the starting point. The conversation is what matters.

​The idea behind The Wild Gentleman is to bring men together in person to engage with complex ideas through good books. Our previous meetings have created space to dive deeper into character, relationships, and growth.

​The book for this month is Charles Portis' True Grit. We'll be discussing it at our August meetup.

​About This Month's Book: True Grit by Charles Portis

​We've been chatting about doing a Western for months. Cormac McCarthy is a bit too severe, and Larry McMurtry's best ones are epically long, so True Grit is the right pick for an August meeting — short, sharp, funny, and surprisingly, founded on a strong moral compass.

​True Grit was published in 1968, narrated by Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year-old girl from Arkansas hiring a worn-down U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn to track down the man who killed her father. What follows is a story about justice, toughness, and the quiet moral courage of a kid who refuses to flinch. (It had a couple of well-known film versions that you may or may not have seen.)

​The book takes the standard Western — vengeance, violence, frontier — and runs it through a moral and unsentimental imagination that's far more interesting than the genre usually allows.

​For a group that's spent a year reading about fathers, failure, work, and what kind of men we're becoming, True Grit is a fitting one-year mark. End the summer strong.

​The Wild Gentleman Book Club brings men together for conversations that matter. Real discussion about character, purpose, and what it means to live thoughtfully.

​Our monthly gatherings have grown into something rare: a space where men can ask hard questions, challenge ideas, and build genuine community through literature.

​What to expect:

• ​Thoughtful discussion of True Grit

• ​Connection with men seeking wisdom and community

• ​An environment that values questions over answers

• ​Good conversation over good food and drinks

​What Past Attendees Say

​"We're starved for connection and meaning because we spend our time in the shallows. The Wild Gentleman invites us to go deeper, with people looking to do the same."

​"It starts with the books… and ends at a table of thoughtful men, sharing their own stories and ideas."

​About The Wild Gentleman

​We explore thoughtful masculinity through four core values: Love, Adventure, Wisdom, and Community. Our book club embodies all four — the adventure of tackling challenging literature and meeting new people, the wisdom found in great stories, the love required for vulnerable conversation, and the community we build together.

​Location: Paddy's Public House, Newton
When: Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at 6:00 PM
What to bring: An open mind and willingness to engage

​Come as you are. Let's read, think, and grow together.

​New to the group? Perfect. These conversations are designed for everyone — whether you've read every word, listened to the audiobook, or just barely skimmed the back cover. The book is the starting point. The conversation is what matters.

​Questions? Contact [email protected]