good advice for all males

For some time now I’ve heard that we live in a ‘fatherless generation’.  Boys are growing up with no male father figure, or at least no positive male role models. And then we wonder why boys grow physically and chronologically, but so many, well into their adult years, remain boys. When you’re not taught a specific way to do things, you learn piece by piece, and often those pieces become a jumbled mess.

All that to say that when I saw the title The Five Marks of a Man: Finding Your Path to Courageous Manhood by Brian Tome (Baker Books, 2018) I was intrigued. Nor was I disappointed when I got to read the book.   

Tome keeps it simple (in fact he even suggests that if you don’t like reading, you can get the main points by reading the introduction and then the first chapter of each of 5 sections). That may be the case, but my advice is to suck it up, learn to be a man, and read the whole book.  The chapters a short enough that you could read one or two a day over morning coffee.

Five marks: 1) men have a vision, 2) Men take a minority position, 3) men are team players, 4) men work, and 5) Men are protectors.

In short chapters, each with a title like “Boys are shortsighted. Men play the long game.” Or “Boys want to fit in. Men aren’t afraid to stand out.”, the author treats us to some ideas about the differences between men and boys—that is mature or immature males. He includes some personal anecdotal material that makes this the book that men, and boys, can relate to. He writes in an engaging style, and hits hard when it comes to the need for boys to grow up and become men.

Every ‘man’ who reads the book will immediately understand. The ‘boys’ will have to think a little longer about what Tome is saying. Many men will be glad they had someone to teach them these important lessons, while others will wish that they had had someone in their lives early on who was willing to invest in them, and help them avoid a lot of costly mistakes. Hopefully the men who read this book will be convicted of the need to invest in the life of one of those many immature males

I received a copy of this book from the publisher as a part of their bloggers program. I was asked to provide an honest review, and there was no obligation to write a positive review.

4.5/5