It's Good to Be a Man is a remarkably concise and readable collection of insights under one central driving theme: the ancient and eternal, God-ordained and God-representing, modernity-upsetting nature of man, maleness, and masculinity. It is about manhood's essence, according to Christian doctrine and as it manifests woven into the fabric of the universe: what it is by right, by symbolic meaning, and by telos or purpose. Man by nature is a creature of aggression, potential, and power, an image of God the Almighty, but so much of the modern world wants him chained and pacified; authors Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant seek first to set him loose, then to show him how to hone himself in order to worthily ascend his rightful place. The book also takes time to lay out the relationships of man to woman, husband to wife, father to children, and son to father, and that adeptly—but all in the service of clarifying who man, himself, is before God.This is a very easy to read book. Mr. Foster's and Mr. Tennant's writing style is pleasingly simple and straightforward, sometimes even to the point of bluntness. But then again this is a book about masculinity, after all. Fourteen chapters, roughly fifteen pages each, clocking at 223 main body pages in all. It's like a 1hr 45min action movie: perfectly lengthed. Particularly it encourages and benefits a second read-through, which I gave it right away after finishing my first.The delightful thing about this book's approach is that it does not need paragraphs of accumulated reasoning from scholarship and theologians to prove its points (though it happily uses those resources too). One of its implicit messages is: just read the Bible bro, literally just read it, it's right there, God wrote it down so it'd be easy for you. In fact, this message is explicit in the opening of the second chapter, stating that Genesis (particularly the Creation account) serves as the "blueprint" for (re-)building masculinity. It can all be found in Scripture, because these are things crafted by God Himself with the intention that we know and follow them. The points in this book, then, do not so much need proving—so obvious that they are—as highlighting, contrasting from misconceptions and misconstruals (particularly of the modern, Western variance), and connecting with other points that might otherwise seem arbitrary. That rulership, dominion, and forceful subduing are not just permissible but godly and good, as shown in our first-received commandment (Gen 1:28) and in other biblical passages, is one example.Another example more generally anthropological, an insight that I had heard previously from these authors and elsewhere, and which I was happy to find here: what men are aroused by sexually is explained by "fertility cues" (p.33). Big butts and thighs? Child-bearing hips. Breasts? Nursing. Youth? Health and vigor to do all the above, and beauty, which shows God's character. Think of "evopsych" but with divine intentionality. The fun thing about truth is that it's very simple and self-evident.One thing in the text, though, that I noted to take issue with (with due respect) is the way "the Church" is referenced occasionally when describing widespread Christian errors. In certain places the authors write that "the Church" does x or "the Church" does y; for instance, on page 160: "The red pill is the truth that society has been ravaged by feminism and fatherlessness, that you have been lied to about fundamental truths of sexuality, and that the Church has betrayed you for a kiss." This kind of phrasing is an issue for two reasons: first, because it too much suggests a holistic apostasy of the household of God requiring restoration, which, even when distancing from Roman Catholic etc. views of ecclesial infallibility, would be against normative Protestant thought; and second, granting that the authors' meaning is instead likely that "those in the Church have largely bent toward" x or y, it is still bad practice to speak over-broadly and in effect throw "the Church" as a singular entity under the bus before the world, as widespread as these evils and these confusions are. That all being said, it is certain that we are in a Church age prime for masculine reformation, when "Nehemiahs" are badly wanted (p.13). This is strictly a matter of honorable speech before public audience, not a request that Christians be treated with kid gloves and not get rebuked.There are a few instances of this sort; but these are minor elements, things that do not substantially detract from the message, and which can be considered for oneself while reading and reflecting. Relatedly: this is a very good book to read with a pencil handy to comment and take notes on in the margins. I saw connections with other writing I've liked, from "Decision Making & The Will of God" by Friesen & Maxson to "Patriarcha" by Filmer, and I had fun "agreeing and amplifying," and adding my two cents.I highly recommend It's Good to Be a Man, to all men everywhere but most particularly to those of my times and of my generation. I think it will serve to break the ice on streams of thought many men might not have considered to tread into—or not felt confident and safe to, given our mainstream culture. We live in times when being a proper man feels like being "the bad guy." For men raised exclusively by women ("of both sexes," p.86), and who have the natural intuition to not be "bad," this difficulty is understandable: either one embraces being "bad" wholesale, or rejects manhood. I find it very difficult, coming from a good home. For men from truly warped, broken, or homes just nonexistent, this difficulty is even more profound. Michael Foster and Dominic Bnonn Tennant have written a fine work to start us all on our way.