Be a Man: How I Spent One Year Drinking, Shaving, Farming, and Fathering My Way Toward Masculinity

When Peter wed the love of his life, he assumed he would cross two thresholds at once: marriage and manhood. But months after he exchanged vows, Peter is the same passive-aggressive man-child he has always been. He can barely hammer a nail, keeps mum when people cut in line, and whines when he loses board games.

It's time for a change.

His plan? Complete a different manly activity every week for an entire year. Along the way, Peter attempts to validate his manliness by:

• Trying Scotch for the first time
• Learning how to defend himself
• Going and subsequently hating camping
• Losing a battle of wits with a CPR dummy
• Playing home run derby with an eight-year-old
• Shooting a handgun at NRA headquarters
• Picking up lots of dog doo
• Bombing onstage at a stand-up open mic night
• Getting hopelessly lost in a public park
• Experiencing loss-of-technology withdrawals
• Becoming a dad-sort of
• ...and many more manly endeavors

He may not always succeed in these weekly challenges-or even mostly succeed-but through the course of living the masculine life, Peter will find out that being a man in today's world is nothing like he imagined it would be.