Manhood

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I was glad when it was over - Rated
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; I guess there is a literary equivalent too. If I hadn't bought this book, I would have given up a lot earlier. Sorry. It just couldn't take to the style of it somehow.
I was the first part time worker in my previous profession. I hug my Dad when I greet him. I am a trained massage practitioner,along with NLP and Counselling. I am also Daddy Daycare in our house, working part time to provide stability for our children.
I guess in some repects , I am very new age anyway. BUT this is where I would have to agree with some of the sentiment which I 'got' from reading the book.
Blokes still need to do bloke stuff. I don't mean getting drunk and pretending to enjoy Rugby ,Football, etc; I mean just forming and maintaining quality relationships with other men.
In some respects,my old fashioned Church caters to this need; in my opinion sometimes to collective detriment. It does however recognise the importance of same sex relationships;whilst accepting one cannot literally exist without the other.
Speaking about the book,to a lady who is more sensitive than me; I did describe a logical satisfaction behind my personal role in our household; but a certain unexpressed caveman style lack of fulfillment in terms of "I gotta go out and kill something". I mean that in terms of doing something practical,physical,real and measurable in contributing to our household. The caring thing is somehow less measurable and sometimes lacking in such obvious satisfaction.
Thought provoking to those who have read or lived nothing of the genre, but I didn't like it.
Colin Turner worked much better for me in terms of asking questions about why we do stuff; and how we may go about discovering what we'd like to do, but there is none of the battle of the sexes thing going on all the time. Not so huggy. More blokey really.

Manhood - Rated
I bought this book for my husband and he made me buy 5 more copies to give to his friends and our son. The cover is naff and doesn't suggest its content. It's really about how a man can be a man in todays mad world and get back to what really matters. Its easy to read and life changing stuff. I'm recommending it because I now have a 'new man' who is much happier and is able to love and support me in a way I could only have dreamt of in the past. Buy this book!

An action plan for the future - Rated
The mens movement has received some bad press in the last few years. In this inspiring book, Steve Biddulph shows how vital and relevant the movement is to the future of all men, and to the future of the planet as a whole.

Biddulph lays out a clear path for men to follow that will lead them to greater understanding of themselves and their journey through life. In 'Seven Steps to Manhood', he offers a blueprint for improvement: Fixing it with your father, Meeting your partner on equal terms, Engaging actively with your kids, and so on. He then goes in to more detail on each idea, one chapter at a time.

The chapters are flushed out with real life stories, quotes from mens groups, myths and legends, humour and tragedy. He quickly establishes that he is not anti-feminist, rather that feminism on its own is not enough. You cannot liberate half of human beings. Most women, he argues, welcome a mens movement because women like the saner, happier and more involved men that it produces.

His main argument rests on the fact that boys in modern industrial society hardly see their dads. Boys are brought up at home by their mothers, or at kindergarten and primary school by women. Even well-meaning fathers often play only minor roles in the young man's life. As a result, boys grow up with few good role models and little strong male guidance. They base their image of men on Hollywood heroes and pop icons, with disastrous results. Boys need proper fathering and male mentoring, and this needs to continue as they move into life, work and fathering of their own.

If you're a man between the ages of 18 and 80, this book may well give you some perspective on the challenges you face in life, and some of the places to find help when life becomes difficult. And women will probably find it intersting, too.

Interesting, with a pinch of salt - Rated
An interesting perspective, and well worth the read. However, it is a little new-agey, and so you might want to take it with a little pinch of salt. Overall, I don't think that this detracts from the value of reading it.

Practical, understanding, liberating. - Rated
I came to this book via another of Steve Biddulph's books, RAISING BOYS, which is wonderfully insightful and directly helpful. MANHOOD is similarly practical in its advice and understanding of problems that men don't talk about. Written in a direct style - no obscurantist academedician or mystic New Age talk here - this book has opened my eyes to things I should have liked to have understood half a century ago when it would have helped me see the good in my own father and the difficulties he coped with. It's a bit late now for that but I hope it'll help me, and them, in sharing life experiences with my own three sons - and the women in their lives. To use that well-worn expression, I cannot recommend MANHOOD too highly.