Stories for a Man’s Heart is an anthology, compiled by Al Gray and Alice Gray. Alice Gray created the Stories for the Heart series, which has more than five million copies in print; Al Gray is her husband, retired from a career with the City of Portland. This page previously credited only Al, which gets the smaller half of the partnership.
What is actually in it
Short pieces. Quotes, humorous bits, and a hundred-plus brief stories gathered from a wide range of Christian writers and speakers, sorted into sections: virtue, love, motivation, encouragement, fatherhood, sports, legacy, faith.
That is the whole book. There is no argument being made and no teaching being developed. You open it, read something two pages long, and close it. Judged as what it is, a good anthology of encouragement, it does the job well. The fatherhood and legacy sections are the ones men come back to.
Two corrections
The old version of this page said each story comes with questions and insights for reflection. It does not. This is a straight collection, and inventing a discussion apparatus for it set readers up to be disappointed.
It also quoted a Called to Better community member praising the book. We could not verify that person or that quote, so it has been removed.
Check the edition
The listing here, ISBN 9781590528693, is a repackaged edition of an earlier book, Stories for a Man’s Heart: Over 100 Stories to Encourage His Soul (ISBN 9781576734797). New cover, new subtitle, substantially the same contents. If you already own the older one, you do not need this.
The honest limits
Anthologies are uneven by nature and this one is no exception. Some pieces land hard and some are sentimental filler, and which is which will vary by reader. There is no way to buy only the good half.
It is also dated. The series was built in the late nineties and early 2000s, and the sports references, the family situations, and the register of the humour all sit in that period. A man in his fifties will find it familiar. A man in his twenties may find it reads like his father’s bookshelf.
And it is not spiritual formation. Reading a hundred encouraging stories is not the same as reading Scripture or being discipled, and a man who substitutes one for the other is short-changing himself. The old review positioned this as a tool for prayer, Scripture engagement and obedience. It is not built for any of the three.
Who it is for
A gift, mostly, and a good one. The kind of book that sits by a chair or in a truck and gets read five minutes at a time. It also works for a man in a discouraging stretch who does not have the appetite for anything longer.
Stories for a Man’s Heart on Amazon