The Wonder of Boys by Michael Gurian Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $0.75 You Save: $4.83 (87%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Wonder of Boys
Book Review: Complete and utter garbage
Summary: 1 Stars
There are only a few books that I have seen as disorganized, unfounded, and dangerous as this particular "text." I fear that someone may read this pop psychology rubbish and try to apply it to their own lives. Guiran's claims are apparently unreasearched as he cites very few references. He also contradicts himselfs often. I read as much as I could until I was utterly disgusted and then threw it away like the trash that it is.Book Review: Disappointing Book
Summary: 2 Stars
Now that I have a son, I have noticed that he is much different than my daughters. I was one of those people who thought boys and girls are not much different, it's all about environment. I was very wrong! That discovery is what led me to buy this book. I want to understand my son better. It started out with some interesting thoughts about how school is not set up for boys, but for girls and that boys are "hard wired " to be as they are, but it definitely had a hostile tone toward women. I do not consider myself a feminist, but I was offended at the author's view of females. He is a "masculinist". He offers sympathy to the 18 year old patient who impregnates a girl and then is angry that she won't have an abortion. Why should he be involved with a child he doesn't want? He says men don't pay their child support because the mothers make them angry and they are justified in that. His views on male sexuality are depressing. Men just want sex and there is nothing we can do about that. I would not want this guy in my son's life. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I consider advice on how to raise a boy dubious at best coming from someone who has never lived with a boy. The authors has only daughters! I truly don't know how this guy got famous. I could only see him fanning the flames of women haters.Book Review: Does not ring true
Summary: 2 Stars
As a mother of a son, I was disappointed in this book, and didn't manage to finish reading the whole thing.
Gurian repeatedly talks about the problems caused for boys by trying to make them act like girls--but how often does that happen? (I have never seen it happen.) It seems to me, as a mother of a son, that MANY more boys are harmed by being forced into rigid stereotypes of how boys "should" be, rather than letting them be their authentic selves whether or not that conforms to traditional gender norms. But Gurian seems to think that enforcing these gender norms is not a problem, because that is what ALL boys are like. Ha! Not so, in my experience.
In general, I was annoyed by his sweeping overgeneralizations (assuming that every boy is the typical boy, and every girl is the typical girl)--I was not surprised to see he endorsed John Gray's Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus books (the least useful of many relationship books I have read over the years--although I am a woman, I have a lot more of the "Martian" traits than the "Venusian" ones.)
His parenting advice for the most part is just common sense, and would apply equally well to raising girls.
If you have a typical boy, and for some reason don't feel comfortable with that, maybe you will find this book reassuring. Otherwise I would suggest The Courage to Raise Good Men by Olga Silverstein and Beth Rashbaum instead.
Book Review: Don't bother unless you hated your mother, too
Summary: 1 Stars
This book was not a total waste of time, but almost. The first section did have some interesting analysis of the problems confronting boys as they differ from those confronting girls, and as I read parts of this section aloud to my husband, many of Gurian's points resonated with him. Of particular note was the argument that we do not have to disempower girls in order to empower boys -- it is not a zero-sum game. However, this was my first book about parenting boys, and from reviews I've read about other books, Gurian may not have much new to say. Even the sample pages I just read from Dan Kindlon's book, Raising Cain, covered much of the same material.What I did find disturbing was his insistence on laying the full responsibility for boys' healthy emotional being at the feet of their mothers, a topic that he spends a great deal of the book discussing. Most telling, he outright admits that he had a terrible relationship with his own mother, and continues to have a great deal of resentment toward her. At worst, you have to ask yourself whether he wrote the book to get back at her; at best, this admission completely destroys any credibility he had in criticizing the role of mothers. Anyone who tries to blame any one particular group for the issues of an entire sex has got to be suspect -- pass this one up and try one of the other books recommended in these reviews.
Book Review: Essential reading
Summary: 5 Stars
I am so disappointed to actually see reviews with 2 stars. Gurian's book gives us tremendous insight into the biological differences between boys and girls. When I had my son I was very concious of making sure I wasn't "making him into being a boy" as my psychology classes in college suggested. My son never had an interest in dolls, he didn't even know what to do with them. My son instictivly picked up balls and cars. His first word wasn't mama or dada, it was ball.Gurian tries to dispell the feministic approach that we have all grown up to believe for the last 20 years, that boys and girls are equal. Trying to get boys to play like girls only ends in frustration. Everyone knows boys and girls are different, understanding the differences helps you treat your sons in ways that make them more successful.
This book gave me tremendous insight into how my boy thinks and reacts to the world as well as the other men in my life.
This book makes sense.