I don't keep up with mainstream entertainment culture anymore. It wasn't until recently that I "met" renowned actor and woodworker Nick Offerman, known by many for portraying the character Ron Swanson in the television series, Parks & Recreation. Nor did I know of his actress wife, Megan Mullally. Now I'm glad that I discovered them both, through Nick's books.

Gumption is Nick's second publication, coming after Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Principles for Delicious Living (2014). It turns out that Nick likes history, likes America and likes democracy. All three, so much so, that he created a list of 21 people whom he believes have illustrated tenacity and gumption in furthering the betterment of the country and of our shared culture. Each candidate gets their own fairly researched chapter here.

The first four personalities represent traditional choices: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison and Frederick Douglass. After them come a few unusual and unexpected names, mixed in with some familiar ones. I'm not going to give you the rest of the list. I think it's well worth the surprise to be introduced to them on your own. Suffice it to say that Nick is half a generation younger than I am, and he is obviously influenced by popular culture in a different way than I am. As a result, I didn't recognize some of his people. Of the ones I DID know, I disagreed with a few, entirely. But hey, this is Nick's project, not mine. I would have chosen differently. No doubt, you will have your own ideas about his list.

In his quest for accuracy -- and also, because he's a fan of them -- Nick takes the opportunity to meet and to interview most of those folks who are now living and breathing on the planet. He gives us details about their meetings, and he seems never to have been disappointed whenever he is faced with the real individual. They in turn seem to feel honored by being included in his work. One wonders if Nick would make the same choices now, seven years later, after what's been happening in our country. He may want to add some folks, or maybe consider an update or a sequel to this original work.

Naturally, we learn a lot about Nick himself here, as he tells us why these figures inspire him. We understand his roots in rural Illinois, his expertise at working with wood and his enjoyment in performing and entertaining an audience. He appreciates creative people who make their own paths, and not just within the scopes of his own chosen fields. He is also a lover of language: a point that he makes clear in the course of his own writing. In fact, you may have to pull out your dictionary, if you can't intrinsically glean definitions for some of the words he chooses to employ here.

I think that he mispronounces some of them, though. (Like, even "epilogue," at the end of the book.) Maybe he does this on purpose. Because yes, as usual, I listened to Nick tell his own stories in his own voice, on the set of 10 CDs for the book. And yes, at times I had to say, "Wow..." or laugh out loud while I drove. By the way, as an added perk: CD listeners get to hear an extra song that couldn't be included in the print form of the book. So there.

In another review, I wrote that Nick Offerman's humorist style put me in mind of that of both Garrison Keillor and George Carlin. Nick can find the funny in everyday situations, and he can find the unusual quirk or spark within a person's history and biography to make a relevant connection. He's not always quite as terse as Carlin, and not always quite as homespun as Keillor. Yet he seems to share similar thought processes with them, and is just as insightful and as sarcastic as both.

What 21 individuals do YOU think embody the kind of gumption that our country needs now, or that it needed then, back in the day? The premise of this book offers us a chance to examine the most important and influential parts of our history and culture, and to pick out the key individuals that made or still make it happen. Nick Offerman provides one set of characters for us. And along the way, readers are guaranteed to learn something in every chapter.