Book Review: What's He Really Thinking?

"Men aren't just women with big feet and beards. They are other. Relating to them is a daily immersion in another world, at once familiar and yet far away, full of longing and pleasure and the sheer effort of calling across that gulf that separates you." What's He Really Thinking? page 158.

I enjoy reviewing books, and this book caught my attention as soon as I read the title - What's He Really Thinking? How to be a Relational Genius with the Man in Your Life by Paula Rinehart. Rinehart has more than twenty years of counseling experience that helped her in the writing of this book. She explores some age-old questions that every woman seems to struggle with when relating to the men in their lives. She touches on the areas of "What men do," "Why men hurt," and "How men change." There are helpful questions in the back to fill out. The book is conversational in tone and has many interesting things in it.

I have to admit, I read this book with my husband. I wanted to know if Paula Rinehart was on track with the things that she said about men. I found that the book had a lot of secular psychology mixed into it. There was little scripture to be found and not much support for some of the comments that she made. I was a bit concerned (as was my husband) with the amount of stress she put on sexuality. “In a man’s life, the driving force in his personal and spiritual development is his sexuality” (page 41). There are times when the book has almost a Freudian flair to it.

This book was an interesting read, but I don’t think that it would rate high on my list of “relational helps.”