Forcefully straightforward and worthy advice about what is important to men facing the modern world.
A writer provides practical and spiritual advice for Christian men.
This latest work by Winters addresses what he perceives as a lack in the market of Christian inspiration literature: books written specifically for men. To that audience, he offers a volume “about higher-level common sense and making good choices” that ranges across a very broad spectrum of topics and challenges confronting men in the 21st century. This often finds the author directly at odds with some of the new century’s more slipshod or relativist tendencies, perhaps most centrally the fad of people referring to “my truth.” As Winters points out, people can have their own opinions, viewpoints, and prejudices, but they can’t have their own truth, particularly in the religious context of this book. “Personal truth over-emphasizes the importance of our viewpoint,” the author writes. “It encourages people to place themselves and their feelings above God and his revealed word to us.” He cautions younger readers against the complacency that tends to come with youth, the idea that they have forever to figure out their life’s purpose. Using portions of his own personal story, Winters deftly details how he wasted large amounts of his 20s and early 30s making these kinds of assumptions. “Never giving up is the secret to beating Father Time,” he writes. “You just might look up and find you’ve been doing great stuff for 40 years.” The nature of what that great stuff might be is another of the engaging guide’s areas of focus, discussing the changing nature of men’s relationships to their jobs and co-workers. In the predictable fashion of many faith manuals, Winters asserts that “chasing after the almighty dollar eventually ends in failure,” instead urging his readers to consider that “God created work for each of us to have a part in taking care of the world.” The author’s Christian readers will find a great deal of valuable and clearly stated life lessons in these pages.
Forcefully straightforward and worthy advice about what is important to men facing the modern world.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73392-402-3
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Daviwin
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
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