I received A Guy's Guide to Life, by Jason Boyett, from Book Sneeze at no cost to me by simply agreeing to provide a review of the book. As much as I appreciate their generosity, I'm not a fan of the book. But before I get into that, I'll first take a look at a few points that I thought were helpful.
I appreciate that the author wrote such a book. There's a lot of confusion for boys as they transition to become men. There are so many pressures enforced upon them, so many circumstances changing, and so many hormones raging that teenagers can get overwhelmed with the decisions and possibilities for their lives. In this book, the author attempts to give advice to guys on the major issues, and to do so from a biblical framework. I appreciate that.
I also appreciate some of the very practical advice that the author gave. For example, when talking about the importance of good communication with your parents, Boyett wrote, "Honesty builds trust. If Mom or Dad knows you're shooting straight - that you're opening up to them about personal stuff - then they're more likely to trust you." That's just plain good advice. The book is full of little things like that. I appreciate that.
However, I have some serious concerns about this book as well. First of all, in the attempt to overview many issues briefly, Boyett ends up covering almost no issues adequately. This really should have been broken up into at least three books: one for each of the three sections of the book (mind, body, and soul). But this isn't the main issue I have with the book.
In his attempt to be relevant to and make a connection with his reader, the author assumes too much, and gives too little. He writes as if the primary motivations of the reader are finding out what's cool, and finding out how men act. But any teenager who would pick up this book probably already has his own ideas about these things. Instead of "how to become a man in 224 pages or less," the author should have sought to write a book that could have the subtitle, "how to become a godly man in an ungodly world." Now that would have been worth reading.
