Reading, or listening, for books is a discipline. I just finished watching The Sporano’s on HBOMax (for the second time). That’s not a helpful, healthy discipline. But its true. So, if you wanted to improve yourself, thinking about your thinking is a good place to start. With that in mind, I wanted to create a reading list. A book list for men, any man, who wants to grow.
Maybe a Dad, a husband, or just a fellow who wants to become a better man. Mental and emotional health starts with the fuel that we put into our mind – everyday. Starting somewhere is better than procrastinating for another day.
If you’re like me, or the majority of people in the world, your dad may have been absent in your life as a child. As a result we have a hard time relating to God as “dad” and have no real example of what a good dad looks like.
Many Christians have bought into the lie that we are worthy of God’s love only when our lives are going well. If our families are happy or our jobs are meaningful, life is a success. // Yet when life begins to fall apart and embarrassing sins threaten to reveal our less-than-perfect identity, we scramble to keep up a good front to present to the world—and to God.
We cower and hide until we can rearrange the mask of perfection and look good again. Sadly, it is then that we wonder why we lack intimate relationships and a passionate faith. // All this time, though, God is calling us to take our masks off and come openly to Him.
God longs for us to know in the depths of our beings that He loves us and accepts us as we are. When we are our true selves, we can finally claim our identity as God’s children and experience His pure pleasure in who we are. Brennan Manning encourages us to let go of the impostor lifestyle and freely accept our belovedness as a child of the heavenly Father. In Him there is life, our passion is rekindled, and our union with Him is His greatest pleasure.
My counselor recommended this book to me and it has been life changing.
John-Mark is a local pastor here in Portland and an incredibly gifted teacher.
This book gives a fresh perspective on marriage, sex, and the roles of men and women. It’s a great book for anyone, but I have a hunch that if you’re a millennial, you will especially resonate with it.
What Are the 5 Love Languages®?
The premise of The 5 Love Languages™ book is quite simple: different people with different personalities give and receive love in different ways. By learning to recognize these preferences in yourself and in your loved ones, you can learn to identify the root of your conflicts, connect more profoundly, and truly begin to grow closer.
Acts of Service
For these people, actions speak louder than words.
Receiving Gifts
For some people, receiving a heartfelt gift is what makes them feel most loved
Quality Time
This language is all about giving the other person your undivided attention.
Words of Affirmation
This language uses words to affirm other people.
Gary Chapman
Gary Chapman, Ph.D.—author, speaker, and counselor—has a passion for people, and for helping them form lasting relationships.
Chapman is a well-known marriage counselor and director of marriage seminars. The 5 Love Languages® is one of Chapman’s most popular titles, topping various bestseller charts for years, selling over twenty million copies and has been on the New York Times
C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.
An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in the The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside.
Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil. 
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a classic masterpiece of religious satire that entertains readers with its sly and ironic portrayal of human life and foibles from the vantage point of Screwtape, a highly placed assistant to “Our Father Below.” At once wildly comic, deadly serious, and strikingly original, C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written.
, John Eldredge
Every man was once a boy. And every little boy has dreams, big dreams: dreams of being the hero, of beating the bad guys, of doing daring feats and rescuing the damsel in distress. Every little girl has dreams, too: of being rescued by her prince and swept up into a great adventure, knowing that she is the beauty.
But what happens to those dreams when we grow up? Walk into most churches, have a look around, and ask yourself: What is a Christian man? Without listening to what is said, look at what you find there. Most Christian men are…bored.
In Wild at Heart, John Eldredge invites men to recover their masculine heart, defined in the image of a passionate God. And he invites women to discover the secret of a man’s soul and to delight in the strength and wildness men were created to offer.
