Rating: 
Summary: this is the best book on how to raise boys I have read
Review: When I found out I was having a boy, I was distressed, given that I come from a family of all girls and had no experience with boys. I also don't find most men very appealing on a human level. I doubted my ability to have and maintain a close relationship with a boy-man and this was a matter of some sadness to me.This book exposed my expectations for what they were - socially induced, i.e. mothers shouldn't be too close to their male children, or they will emasculate them, etc. It is a brilliant book with many compelling examples and its arguments are wholly consistent with common sense and instinct. My husband read some of it and thought its hypothesis was obvious, but it is strikingly different in its prescriptions than any other book on raising boys that I have read. (For instance, the "Wonder of Boys," which says mothers have to leave their sons alone, let them be driven by testosterone into competitiveness, roughness, and machoism, and basically seems to take the attitude that mothers are responsible for most problems their boys have growing up. This is a positive, hopeful book, displaying warmth and compassion, and seems much more pyschologically sound. It should be required reading of all mothers, along with "Real Boys" of Pollock, which is its more recent successor.
Rating:
Summary: Not a feminist tract but...
Review: When I was pregnant with my second child, my first boy, I worried a lot about raising him successfully when I had almost no family experience with boys (coming from a family with no brothers, and an often absent father). I knew I wanted to help him avoid all the pitfalls of modern manhood (made vivid by a reading of the book, "The McGill Report on Male Intimacy"). All of the books I had read seemed to come from an "Iron John" perspective or be a sort of vague, New Agey feel-good book, but none of them offered concrete steps and clear facts until I read "The Courage To Raise Good Men." Here at last was a book that told me what my heart should have known all along: just love him like he's a child becoming an adult, and don't try to push him at all (he'll grow up even if you don't push!). This book is not written from a feminist perspective but it would suit any feminist's needs in trying to figure out how to raise a boy into a well-balanced human who happens to be male.
Rating:
Summary: A long overdue book on how we need to change we raise boys!
Review: Wow! This is one excellent book! Olga was right on the money when she said that it is NOT necessary for boys to "detach" emotionally from their mothers in order to grow up (& become "real men"). The book could have also been written by Mary Perry, Steve Perry's mom. (Steve Perry had a WONDERFUL relationship with his mom & often turned to her for advice). Olga explodes many of the untrue myths surrounding sons, including the rules of conventional "masculinity". She exposes the "men's movement" & the "fatherhood" pundits for what they are...conservatives attempting to push their agenda on families...conservatives who tell mothers that they are inadequate for their sons & need men around to raise their sons for them, that a close relationship with mom is bad or "emasculating," etc. I like how she encourages moms to rise to the task of raising their sons, especially single mothers, who just as good as dads.(Contrary to popular belief, sons of single moms are BETTER off than other men & enjoy a closer relationship with their mothers in adulthood). Largely, her book proves that the old rigid gender patterns are limiting & destructive to both sexes & that feminism is not only pro-female, but pro-male as well.
Rating:
Summary: A long overdue book on how we need to change we raise boys!
Review: Wow! This is one excellent book! Olga was right on the money when she said that it is NOT necessary for boys to "detach" emotionally from their mothers in order to grow up (& become "real men"). The book could have also been written by Mary Perry, Steve Perry's mom. (Steve Perry had a WONDERFUL relationship with his mom & often turned to her for advice). Olga explodes many of the untrue myths surrounding sons, including the rules of conventional "masculinity". She exposes the "men's movement" & the "fatherhood" pundits for what they are...conservatives attempting to push their agenda on families...conservatives who tell mothers that they are inadequate for their sons & need men around to raise their sons for them, that a close relationship with mom is bad or "emasculating," etc. I like how she encourages moms to rise to the task of raising their sons, especially single mothers, who just as good as dads.(Contrary to popular belief, sons of single moms are BETTER off than other men & enjoy a closer relationship with their mothers in adulthood). Largely, her book proves that the old rigid gender patterns are limiting & destructive to both sexes & that feminism is not only pro-female, but pro-male as well.
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