REAL AMERICAN HEROES

Nick Offerman stands for everything good and manly about America — tongue planted firmly in rugged cheek, of course. It’s what made the Parks and Recreation star, woodworker, and proclaimed “mustache icon” perfect to play a sensitive Home Depot employee on John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and what makes him even more perfect to write this new anthology on this country’s movers and shakers. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom With America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers hits shelves today. Offerman’s second book, following up last year’s Paddle Your Own Canoe, profiles luminaries old — George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Frederick Douglass — and new: Michael Pollan, Yoko Ono, and Jeff Tweedy, among others. Offerman describes it as his “mixtape of 21 great Americans,” and their stories resonate as examples of countrymen and -women using their freedom for a good cause. Don’t miss Offerman’s reading and rationale at tonight’s book launch.

Tue., May 26, 7 p.m., 2015