The Midlife Manual For Men serves as an effective guide into that too-clichéd period of life where men frequently should stop to ask for meaningful directions - but don't.

Steve Arterburn and John Shore write in an entertaining, engaging style that leads readers through the roles of manhood and toward hope and significance. The manual guides effectively toward its subtitle: Finding Significance in the Second Half.

Readers working the exercises at each chapter's end will benefit the most because the work helps focus readers both toward who they are and who God wants them to be.

For example, under "Son" the first "Things to Do" exercise is to write a brutally-honest letter to your father. This forced me to confront some of my late father's traits I didn't want to recognize, traits that he passed on to me. I wanted to remember him as a hero.

The next exercise let me remember him - it is to write a letter telling your father how much you love him and why. The authors say you can mail the second letter. Then the exercises go on to one asking how being your father's son "affected your ideas or experiences relative to being a child of God."

Such exercises join the reading to leave you with the feeling that no matter what you've done wrong so far in your life there's a lot you've done right as well. I saw there's hope for a more fulfilling life in the future and how to let God lead me to that life.

Shore's example of one Mr. Williams and his amazing mid-life art career stands out as a highlight of the book to me. I will not spoil the example with details, just describe it as an excellent example of how God speaks His will to every man in midlife.

I believe the manual has helped draw me closer toward God's goal of using me for His will during my life's remaining days, despite what at times seemed irrelevant passages due to my own life experiences.

For almost all, the book should prove entertaining and effective.