Men Books

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Neil Strauss

Amazon Price: $24.01 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: William Morrow Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $19.40

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Specific Groups -> Women
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 579 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Are you just another AFC ("average frustrated chump") trying to meet an HB ("hot babe")? How would you like to "full-close" with a Penthouse Pet of the Year? The answers, my friend, are in Neil Strauss's entertaining book The Game. Strauss was a self-described chick repellant--complete with large, bumpy nose, small, beady eyes, glasses, balding head, and, worst of all, painful shyness around women. He felt like "half a man." That is, until a book editor asked him to investigate the community of pickup artists. Strauss's life was transformed. He spent two years bedding some fine chiquitas and studying with some of the North America's most suave gents--including the best of them all, the God of the pickup "community," a man named Mystery.

Mystery is an aspiring Toronto magician who charges $2,250 for a weekend pickup workshop. He is not much to look at: a cross between a vampire and a computer geek. But by using high-powered marketing techniques he's turned seduction into an effortless craft--even inventing his own vocabulary. His technique sounds like a car salesman's tip sheet: his main rule is FMAC--find, meet, attract, close. He employs the "three-second rule"--always approach a woman within three seconds of first seeing her in order to avoid getting shy. Other tricks: Intrigue a beautiful woman by pretending to be unaffected by her charm; also, never hit on a woman right away. Start with a disarming, innocent remark, like "Do you think magic spells work?" or "Oh my god, did you see those two girls fighting outside?" And finally, the most important characteristic of the pickup artist--smile.

After two years, Strauss ends up becoming almost as successful as Mystery, but he comes to an important realization. His techniques were actually off-putting to the woman he ended up falling in love with. And they never prepared him for actually having a relationship. After a while, he ran out of one-liners and had to have a real conversation. Still, The Game is a great read that may help some AFCs come out of their shells. --Alex Roslin

Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

John Eldredge

Amazon Price: $10.19 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Thomas Nelson Amazon Marketplace: 119 new & used starting at $3.50

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> Faith

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 606 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

If Christian men are going to change from a pitiful, wimpy bunch of "really nice guys" to men who are made in the image of God, they must reexamine their preconceptions about who God is and recover their true "wild" hearts, writes bestselling author John Eldredge in Wild at Heart: Discovering a Life of Passion, Freedom, and Adventure. Eldredge throws down the gauntlet--men are bored; they fear risk, they refuse to pay attention to their deepest desires. He challenges Christian men to return to authentic masculinity without resorting to a "macho man" mentality. Men often seek validation in venues such as work, or in the conquest of women, Eldredge observes. He urges men to take time out and come to grips with the "secret longings" of their hearts. Although the book succeeds best in its slant toward a male audience, it also strives to help women understand the implications of authentic masculinity in their relationships with men. Eldredge frames the book around his outdoor experiences and appealing anecdotes about his family, sprinkling the text with touches of humor and overlying everything with heartfelt passion. Even as he mixes eclectic ideas about masculinity from popular movies such as Braveheart with classic words from Oswald Chambers, and lyrics from the Dixie Chicks with stories from the Bible, he points to only one answer for men searching for their true wildness of heart. Writes Eldredge, "The only way to live in this adventure ... with all its danger and unpredictability and immensely high stakes ... is in an ongoing, intimate relationship with God." --Cindy Crosby

Be Prepared: A Practical Handbook for New Dads

Gary Greenberg, Jeannie Hayden

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 76 new & used starting at $3.70

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Marriage & Family
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Men

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 84 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Take your average guide for new mothers, chuck most of the stuff about breast feeding and ditch the deep background research and stats, then generously pepper with illustrations and burley humor and what do you have? Your average guide for new fathers. Be Prepared follows that template pretty closely, and that's really quite an acceptable thing. Yes, there's a bit too much emphasis here on broadly drawn manly stuff like changing a diaper at a ballgame, but there's also heaps of useful advice that's cleverly and efficiently presented for pops who, despite their best intentions, really aren't prepared to dig into encyclopedia-sized tomes. The basics (childproofing, bathing, feeding, entertaining) intermix with nifty sidebars (homemade bath toys, foods to never give your baby, exercises for dads) in easy-to-peruse chapters organized according to the age of the offspring up to age 1. There are more thorough how-to guides for new dads, but for most men moving into fatherhood, Be Prepared will fill the bill. --Steven Stolder

Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men

Michael Kimmel

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $15.49

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Adolescent Psychology
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why do so many guys seem stuck between adolescence and adulthood? Why do so many of them fail to launch? Just what is going on with America's young men?

The passage from adolescence to adulthood was once clear, coherent, and relatively secure: in their late teenage years and early twenties, guys "put away childish things" and entered their futures as responsible adults. Today growing up has become more complex and confusing as young men drift casually through college and beyond—hanging out, partying, playing with tech toys, watching sports. But beneath the appearance of a simple extended boyhood, a more dangerous social world has developed, far away from the traditional signposts and cultural signals that once helped boys navigate their way to manhood.

The average young American man today is moving through a new stage of development, a buddy culture unfazed by the demands of parents, girlfriends, jobs, kids, and other nuisances of adult life. Sociologist and gender studies authority Michael Kimmel has identified this territory as "Guyland," a place that is both a stage of life and a new social arena.

Guyland is the locker room writ large: the world where young men both test and prove themselves as men and develop the defining attitudes and self-images they will carry into adulthood. Kimmel has interviewed hundreds of young men ages sixteen to twenty-six in high schools and college fraternity houses, military academies and sports bars, to better understand Guyland's rules and restrictions, its layers of peer pressure and gender policing, its features and artifacts—from the ordinary (video games, sports, and music) to the extreme (violent fraternity initiations, sexual predation).

In mapping the social world where tomorrow's men are made, Kimmel offers a view into the minds and times of America's sons, brothers, and boyfriends, and works toward redefining what it means to be a man today—and tomorrow. Only by understanding this world and this life stage can we enable young men to chart their own paths, to stay true to themselves, and to travel safely through Guyland, emerging as responsible and fully formed men of integrity and honor.

Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts Workbook for Men: Seven Questions to Ask Beforeand AfterYou Marry

Les and Leslie Parrott

Amazon Price: $8.99 List Price: $8.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $4.75

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Learning about each other 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

You will definitely need the actual book to use the workbooks. My fiance and I have been working through the lessons and are about halfway through the workbooks. The best thing about the exercises is that there are so many things about my future wife that I didn't know, especially in regards to how she thinks and feels about certain aspects of life. We are becoming closer as we're beginning to understand each other at a deeper level. I'm learning more about how women communicate and how they really aren't able to come to grips with exactly how we operate either. The exercises vary from childhood influences to budgeting to love languages. We look forward to each time we work through the lessons. I highly recommend them for any couple preparing for marriage.

Editorial Review:

This revised workbook is designed to help the man explore the issues and practice the skills presented in Saving Your Marriage Before it Starts. Full of lively exercises and enlightening self-tests that will help you and your partner apply what you are learning directly to your relationship, this version of the workbook approaches the issues from a man's perspective. Each exercise includes an estimate of how long it will take, so you can easily fit the program into a busy schedule. Call-outs in the book let you know the best times to do the exercises as you read.

I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression

Terrence Real

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Depression
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

More like a autobiography than a self help book 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I honestly don't understand the many rave reviews! The title is misleading in that it does NOT help you to overcome depression. I do not recall any content that guides the reader through this disorder.

By the way, this is my first review and I'm not even the target male audience. However, my opinion mirrors that of my fiance for whom this book was intended. Usually we end up liking the library book so much we end up buying. Not the case for this book!

We both feel that this is more of an autobiography of his work with depressed patients. As another reviewer pointed out, it is basically a collection of stories. Even if the reader has the Exact childhood history/trauma and adult frustrations as one of his patients, I don't see any possible way for him to be helped with this book.

Most of the stories vaguely allude to the therapy sessions with the doctor but he never told us how he managed to help each of them. Organization wise, it's more of a novel and is a disappointment for someone who is looking for clear distinct chapters/categories.

One star because there are a few things we can take away from this book. For instance, the doctor made some social observations about depression which helps the reader understand how some male depression came about. Some of the stories might help parents to become more sensitive towards their children so that they won't grow up with self-esteem or any other issues.

Editorial Review:

When Terrence Real was studying to be a therapist, he accepted the notion that women suffered depression at rates several times that of men. Now he believes that conventional wisdom is wrong, that there has been a great cultural cover-up of depression in men. Real is convinced of the existence of a mental illness that is passed from fathers to sons in the form of rage, workaholism, distanced relationships from loved ones, and self-destructive behaviors ranging from stupid choices at work and in love to drug and alcohol abuse. Men reading I Don't Want to Talk About It will probably recognize themselves in every chapter, while women will recognize their partners--and, of course, both sexes will see their fathers in a new light.

Iron John: A Book About Men

Robert Bly

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Da Capo Press Amazon Marketplace: 86 new & used starting at $3.49

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Gender
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Gender Studies -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The kind of men we need 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

One could argue a lot about the claims in this book. Does Robert over extend some of his claims about experience, myth, history, or any other number of premises and claims? To do that, however edifying it might seem at the time, is to miss the point of the work. Men are so lost that they don't even know that they are. Out of this, the world is just as lost. While women are finding their way (and Robert is excellent in respecting this) men-as-a-whole have lost theirs. Those that think they are preserving it are characturing manhood and those who think they transcend their gender are equally diservicing the world. Iron John is about identifying what makes a man manly in a way that is authentic to what the world needs of men and what we need from ourselves. One of the most important books on gender, ever, at a time that it is possibly need more than ever.

Editorial Review:

In this deeply learned book, poet and translator Robert Bly offers nothing less than a new vision of what it is to be a man.Bly's vision is based on his ongoing work with men and reflections on his own life. He addresses the devastating effects of remote fathers and mourns the disappearance of male initiation rites in our culture. Finding rich meaning in ancient stories and legends, Bly uses the Grimm fairy tale "Iron John," in which the narrator, or "Wild Man," guides a young man through eight stages of male growth, to remind us of archetypes long forgotten-images of vigorous masculinity, both protective and emotionally centered.Simultaneously poetic and down-to-earth, combining the grandeur of myth with the practical and often painful lessons of our own histories, Iron John is a rare work that will continue to guide and inspire men-and women-for years to come.

The Complete Book of Pilates for Men: The Lifetime Plan for Strength, Power & Peak Performance

Daniel Lyon

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Collins Living Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $9.53

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Pilates
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Injuries & Rehabilitation

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A comprehensive, take-anywhere exercise program designed to improve men's strength, flexibility, balance, and posture

Have years of office work wreaked havoc on your posture? Could your tennis or golf game use a boost? Do you appear or feel older than your age? Or do you carry yourself in a manner that expresses strength, power, and peak performance to everyone around you?

In recent years, Pilates has become a popular exercise program, especially among women. Many books on the subject show lithe female bodies stretched across their covers. Top Pilates instructor Daniel Lyon Jr. aims to break the preconception that Pilates only benefits and appeals to women. "This couldn't be further from the truth," he asserts. "Joseph Pilates was a cigar-smoking boxer, acrobat, and gymnast, and he developed his exercise program from that background for men first." Likewise, Lyon designed this book specifically with men in mind, as the number of male Pilates practitioners -- among them professional athletes, actors, businessmen, and other high-profile personalities -- has rocketed to about three million and continues to grow.

For athletes, working stiffs, and men recovering from injuries, Lyon offers the first comprehensive exercise program of its kind. He walks you through forty "traditional mat" exercises and more than sixty "reformer on the mat" exercises -- each one brilliantly illustrated -- in an inspiring self-guided program that adapts to all experience levels and requires nothing more than floor space, an exercise mat, and the desire to look and feel your best. Using the Pilates method of engaging the strongest parts of the body, or the "powerhouse" (Joseph Pilates's term for the abdominals, hips, lower back muscles, and buttocks), and integrating all other body parts from this core, Lyon's program targets trouble spots for men and helps them achieve strong, lean, masculine physiques.

The Complete Book of Pilates for Men will deliver quick and long-term results to any man who seeks optimal fitness and a competitive edge in all aspects of his life.

Hell's Angels

Hunter S. Thompson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 115 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"California, Labor Day weekend . . . early, with ocean fog still in the streets, outlaw motorcyclists wearing chains, shades and greasy Levis roll out from damp garages, all-night diners and cast-off one-night pads in Frisco, Hollywood, Berdoo and East Oakland, heading for the Monterey peninsula, north of Big Sur. . . The Menace is loose again."  Thus begins Hunter S. Thompson's vivid account of his experiences with California's most no-torious motorcycle gang, the Hell's Angels.   In the mid-1960s, Thompson spent almost two years living with the controversial An-gels, cycling up and down the coast, reveling in the anarchic spirit of their clan, and, as befits their name, raising hell. His book successfully captures a singular moment in American history, when the biker lifestyle was first defined, and when such countercultural movements were electrifying and horrifying America. Thompson, the creator of Gonzo journalism, writes with his usual bravado, energy, and brutal honesty, and with a nuanced and incisive eye; as The New Yorker pointed out, "For all its uninhibited and sardonic humor, Thompson's book is a thoughtful piece of work." As illuminating now as when originally published in 1967, Hell's Angels is a gripping portrait, and the best account we have of the truth behind an American legend.







From the Hardcover edition.

The Emotionally Unavailable Man: A Blueprint for Healing

Patti Henry

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rainbow Books, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $10.19

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Relationships -> Interpersonal Relations
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Relationships -> Love & Romance
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Emotionally Unavailable Man is two books in one — one side is for the emotionally unavailable man and the other is for his partner. It details why men become emotionally unavailable and specifies the actions that can be taken by both men and women to realize improvement. MEN, do you ever feel like a little boy in a grown-up body? Like you have no personal power? Flip to the men’s side of this book and let expert psychotherapist Patti Henry help you

• Get your "power"
• Stop avoiding difficult situations
• Calm your partner’s anger
• Learn how to say "No"
• Set and maintain appropriate boundaries
• Be more effective at work
• Increase and enhance the sex in your relationship
• Feel personal freedom and happiness

WOMEN, do you want your husband to be emotionally available to you? Flip to the women’s side of this book and let expert marriage counselor Patti Henry help you

• Determine if your partner is capable of being emotionally available
• Decide what you can — and cannot — do to help
• Discover how to lose your anger
• Exercise mutuality and safety
• Learn how to recognize and confront your own resistances
• Restore hope about long-term change
• Gain clarity about your future