Book Review

Wild at Heart by John Eldredge

I just finished this book this morning. It may seem a bit odd that I would read a book that is "for" men, but the subscript on the cover says "discovering the secret of a man's soul". It doesn't say that it's for men only. I got it thinking I'd rather like to know the secret of a man's soul so that I can maybe understand a little more about my husband.

Well, I got what I wanted, and then some. This may be written as a book for men, but I really and truly think it is a book for couples.  And the woman should read it first.

I am totally impressed with this book.  I admit when I first started it, I was very skeptical. It seemed a bit on the theatrical side; but as I got further into it, and the points were expanded on, the feeling of theatrics disappeared to a large extent. Not entirely, which is totally expected, as the author was in theatre for a while; but his points were so well supported that a touch of theatrics didn't matter.

Eldredge talks about the dreams that boys have- that turn into the heart desires of men.  How our world/culture creates boredom instead of fulfillment of those dreams and desires- and how men can recover their hearts.  Going beyond recovery, he talks about how a man's heart can be wounded when he is a boy- which pretty much is a fantastic parenting section on how to help your boy grow up not wounded, with his heart and dreams intact.

I loved this book. It gave me insight into my husband that I did not previously have- a greater appreciation for our differences as man and woman; as well as teaching me how to help my boys become strong men. I will be keeping this book around to reread as my boys get older- and I've already grabbed several of John Eldredge's other books from my local library.  If they are as good as this one, I'll be buying them to reread over the years as well.