About:
And Now We Shall Do Manly Things by Craig J. Heimbuch is a non-fiction book about the author’s adventures learning to hunt. The author chronicles his personal journey to while learning about the hunting culture in America.
The publisher is giving away one copy of this book –to enter fill out the Rafflecoptter form at the end of the post.
Thoughts:
And Now We Shall Do Manly Things by Craig J. Heimbuch(blog| @cheimbuch) is a hilarious perspective on the culture of American hunting which would make Bill Bryson proud. Born to a Midwestern family Heimbuch sets out to prove himself and hunt.
Sadly, the author is a part of a generation I am greatly familiar with, a generation which suffered the “feminization ofAmerica”. Where boys could not be boys, and hence did not grow up to be manly men, and men were vilified for doing, well, manly things. Don’t misunderstand me, if a boy wants to play with dolls, all the more power – but boys should not be forced to play with dolls or be told that to play soldiers is “bad”. Those extremes have a nasty tendency to backfire and sometimes even cause grave consequences.
The author’s journey begin upon receiving a family heirloom from his father – a shotgun. Being an admirer of outdoorsy types like TV personality Steven Rinella, Heimbuch decides that he needs to go out and “kill something”. Having some sort of a meltdown, finding himself burdened with responsibilities in a low paying job (he jests that “[j]ournalists are, in fact, the only people who marry teachers for the money”) and memories of wimping out on several occasions also helped him to take up his cause.
The author starts out small, hunting grouse, and basically that’s what he’s trying to kill. Forget lions and tigers and bears, these little birds are a challenge even to seasoned hunters as our hero finds out.
Along the way we join him on a journey to get his gun license, hunting license, meet the people he bounced his ideas off of and to an NRA gun show (something I always wanted to attend). Mr. Heimbuch looks at the individuals who own guns, the scary ones, the conspiracy theorist, those who live on the fringes of society, but he also looks at the average hunter (who are most of the folks) who happen to enjoy the sport or simply hunt for food.
Some of the writing seemed forced and some of the segments seem to be padded in order to fill out the book (a three page description of a meal, for example). The book sometimes feels as if it was intended to be a bunch of articles and then expended to fill out its pages.
However, I found most of the book funny and clever with some interesting points of view. Heimbuch pokes fun at himself, the hunting culture and humanity which makes the book enjoyable to hunting enthusiasts and those who have never ventured off the paved path.
Buy this book in paper or electronic format*
Congratulations:lomazowr@
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account
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Sounds like a fun read - even if I don't do manly things. ha
I love Bill Bryson so I'm really excited to see your comparison to him at the start of this review!
Thanks for being on the tour.