Gray, Al, and Alice Gray, eds. Stories for a Man’s Heart. Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1999.
This is part of the Stories for the Heart series, one of Christian publishing’s entries into a market that has boomed since the creation of the Chicken Soup books. It has over 100 short selections from a variety of books and authors.
The stories are organized into categories meant to represent aspects of the masculine life. They are virtue, love, motivation, encouragement, fatherhood, sports, legacy and faith. Nearly all are from Christian authors; all were chosen by Christian editors.
Some of the sections are stereotypical “man” stuff, like sports. I could really only relate to fishing and that more as a casual catcher of pan fish than a serious sportsman. By contrast, fatherhood is something universal; even those who aren’t fathers had one and were affected by his presence or absence and relationship with him.
I’ve never read a book of this kind before, so I don’t have much context for it. I enjoyed it more than I thought I might, mainly because I enjoy hearing people’s stories. It is a little like hanging out at a family gathering or with some friends as they swap anecdotes.
The motivational or lesson teaching value of the book is probably depends a lot on the reader. The stories are not fables; they are vignettes from life, mostly from the lives of the authors. There is not interpretation or lesson added to the stories; they only appear of the authors included them. You may find some of the stories resonate with you or motivate you, but don’t expect to find a series of case studies from which definite lessons are drawn.
Book series like this might be titled Stories Calculated to Make You Cry. This book has four tearjerkers. Results may vary. If you cry at weddings, funerals, graduations or sad movies, you may find many more of the stories move you to tears.
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