Bond of Brothers by Wes Yoder.. and a giveaway

What’s up with men? Why are they so afraid to be known? According to Wes Yoder in Bond of Brothers, a whole lot of insecurity, secrets, shame, and silence keep men from growing strong in the broken places. Declare war on shallowness! The conversation starts here, in this groundbreaking book.



Description: (from Zondervan's website)

"The perfect conversation for men with little to say can be summed up in eight words: 'Can you believe the weather at that game?'” Author Wes Yoder’s words are humorous. Yet, beyond the sports and weather chatter and silence that characterize many male conversations, there is brokenness. Emptiness. Shame. That’s not funny. For Yoder, addressing the problem is not about planting the flag for one’s manhood by joining a mass movement for men, nor is it necessary for men to “sire a herd or shoot a moose to authenticate their manhood.” Yoder calls disappointed, disenchanted, and lonely men to authenticity. To rediscover joy. To find satisfaction. In Bond of Brothers, men will discover: Why your career and performance at work are not your identity • How to defeat the fears that come to a man in the “Tough Years” • What to do when you are too worried to forgive or too power-hungry to smile • Why spiritual friendships are the central, life-giving core of all healthy relationships among men. Being present to comfort, to love, to listen, to take a step toward Jesus together in our brokenness … that is the essence of friendship, Yoder writes. When we invite Jesus into our shared brokenness, he can do the work of remaking what is left of the mess we have made of ourselves. Begin a journey toward authenticity and your true identity here!

My review:
    I review mostly fiction, but my college friend, Rachel Yoder Shetterly urged me to read this book, saying I could get some help from it. Her cousin wrote it, so she had a double reason for plugging it to me. :-)

   The author, Wes Yoder, put a lot of thought into this book. He talks about how silent we men are about our struggles, our hurts. That we so often engage in superficial conversation with other men, never being totally honest with anyone.

   He opens up and shares some personal stories from his own life to get some of his points across. Most of what the book is about is covered above in the book description so I will say what I thought of the book:

   Very well written. He has an easy to read writing style. It is a departure for me from my page-turning suspense novels, but I still read the book in one sitting.

   Great subject. Admittedly, only we men know what we are truly like, so the best person to write a book of this type is a man. And this man covers it very well.

   Excellent purpose. His reason for writing the book is to encourage men to stop being so superficial, to stop hiding who and what they are, and to really open up to other men. I sincerely believe if guys would read this book and truly take it to heart and apply it to their lives, that it would change their lives.

   So, although this isn't a fiction book, I still am highly recommending it, and giving it my read-in-one-sitting status. If you're a guy, go buy the book. If you're a woman, buy it for the guys in your life.

About the author:

Raised on a dairy farm in the Amish and Mennonite community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Wes Yoder moved to Nashville in 1973 to work in the music business where he launched the careers of many well-known artists. His projects have included media representation of The Purpose Driven Life and The Shack, and media and literary representation of the #1 New York Times best seller, Mistaken Identity. He has appeared on NBC Nightly News, ABC’s Prime Time, Dateline NBC, CNN Headline News and others. Wes and his wife, Linda, live in Franklin, Tennessee, and have two children and two grandchildren.


Author website: http://www.ambassadoragency.com/

Also, check out http://www.bondofbrothers.net/ for more information.

The giveaway:
It is too close to Christmas to do this in time for Christmas, so I am going to run it for the usual 10 days. I will pick a winner using Random.org on December 23, so if you win it, let's give the author plenty of time to mail it out with the holidays.

To enter:
Tell who you want to win the book for. If male, yourself is fine.


Thanks to the author for agreeing to the giveaway.

Bond of Brothers is available from Zondervan Publishers.

Thanks to Zondervan for the review copy.

Read an excerpt from the book here.

Today show interview with the author here.