• So You Call Yourself a Man

  • By: Carl Weber
  • Narrated by: various
  • Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (769 ratings)

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So You Call Yourself a Man

By: Carl Weber
Narrated by: various
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Publisher's summary

Three best friends who've grown up together encounter some of the real tests of manhood.

All's good for James and Cathy until a woman shows up with James' love child. Suave Brent thinks he's found happiness with a born-again churchgoer - until another leads him into temptation. And longtime friend Sonny is going to need help from James and Brent if he's to have any hope of salvaging his marriage.

New York Times best-selling author Carl Weber amps up the sexiness and pulse-quickening drama in this riveting novel.

©2005 Carl Weber (P)2006 Recorded Books LLC

Critic reviews

"A raucous 'desperate husbands' story line, co-starring crazy baby mamas, shady churchgoers, and various deranged personalities, ups the conflict quotient significantly." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about So You Call Yourself a Man

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Really Good Novel with some twists and turns

I don't read a lot of AA novels. I believe this is my first read by Carl Weber and chose it because of the good reviews that other readers had given it. This is not your typical formulaic African American novel. I enjoy AA novels but sometimes I think that they are pretty much the same: who's cheating on who and how beautiful everybody's body is, and the hot attractive couple getting together for the first time, etc. This story, however, brought something really different along with a sprinkling of the usual beautiful descriptions of the characters bodies, etc. It is not your typical AA story. I liked how the author held back on providing a piece of info about one of the characters, even tho the character had made a statement earlier on that gave me a clue to twist that he later brought into the story. The narrators (3) did a good job. This is an enjoyable novel. Recommend.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Truth be told

People aren't always who they portray themselves to be. I have read all of the audiobooks available on audible from Carl Weber and now I am able to piece all the stories together and I have a background view about the characters in different books and I realize that this is a small world. I understand the connections and stories in the Choir Director a lot better now that I see the Jackie Robinson connection. Wow! Carl you did an awesome job writing about this community of people in Jamaica, New York. I can truly relate to a couple of the characters and the tragedy that happened in the book opened my eyes to see how insane people can become. I was in an abusive relationship myself once upon a time and I can't even imagine having to go through the things the young lady in the book had to encounter the steps some men go to make a woman's life a living hell. I left because I was ready to go and tired of the environment I had become use to but it was no where near as drastic as the things that I have heard people going through and I did have the opportunity to walk away without feeling a major financial loss or the feeling of worthless... CARL WEBER you are my all time fave author. This book was pretty good and I'm glad to see my question about the baby Marcus in Player Haters was answered cause I wanted to know what happened next. The narrators are phenominal as usual and the book kept me wanting to listen to the whole story. Good read

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

I hate when men speak women's rolls...

Just pat extra money to have women speak women's lines. ..think it would be more engaging. ..

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Skeletons In Your Closet!!

Hey, and you think women have skeletons in their closets. Men are just as tainted. I enjoyed this book because it revealed "alot".....well, "too much" about some of men's secrets, tendencies, and weaknesses. The storyline was going on and secrets were EVENTUALLY revealed and then BAM!!-- suspenseful twists and turns that turned this chick-book into a MANLY read. Read this book!!

--B4

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A twisted, but tasty tale!

Immediately after hearing the last word of this recording, I did something I've never done before with an audiobook. I pressed rewind on my iPod and listened to it all over again! This book was all that ... and much more! I knew within the first 15 minutes that I wouldn't be able to put this one down. I can't believe some of the things the characters did, but because the story line was so carefully crafted, I could totally understand their motivations. That's truly the sign of a gifted storyteller. Looking foward to reading the author's next salacious novel! Not to be overlooked, the narrators also did an excellent job of drawing me into the plot.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

shockingly hood!

I couldn't believe them! Brent - I didn't see it coming nor Sonny either! I thought James' relationship with his wife was over! Oh my this book was well written. I will check out the rest in this series! I hope they are just as good!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

SUPERB...AS CARL WEBER'S BOOKS ALWAYS ARE

Don't hesitate to purchase this book. It's full of twists! No one is ever who they seem to be. If CW's books were all I ever read, I wouldn't be unhappy. Another five star rating. The narrator does an excellent job, too. I hope you purchase this book and enjoy.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

I really have to work on being more observant...

"Three best friends who've grown up together encounter some of the real tests of manhood." So reads the nutshell summary contained in this book's Audible "mouse-over" description. What I failed to either notice or discover before purchasing it was that this is a book BY an African-American author ABOUT African-American men. My bad. I'm an about-as-white-as-they-come caucasian male. So, to say that my frame of reference was somewhat lacking is probably a bit of an understatement.

Of course, I'm not a complete dolt, so it didn't take me long to figure out what was going on here. I had a choice: Flush the book along with my fifteen dollar Audible credit and move on to something more culturally relatable for me, or continue with it and consider it a part of my ongoing education - a glimpse into a world I don't have much exposure to -- in spite of the fact that one of my best friends in life is himself African-American (and no, I'm not saying, "some of my best friends are Black!")

Verdict: I stuck with it. My take-away? Well, if the author's representations are correct, the male propensity for being a womanizing, cheating hound dog is not exclusively contained within the confines drawn by racial lines. Neither, according to Weber is the potential for being a calculating, cruel, murderous, son of a b*tch, masquerading as a solid, hard working, dedicated family man.

Carl Weber is skillful and crafts and an entertaining and engaging set of parallel stories woven together by the theme of longstanding friendships among the main characters. Despite my lack of context, I'm not unhappy I stumbled on this book. A good story is a good story and isn't defined by culture. If you like well-defined characters and twists that are not easily picked up by your reading radar, you won't be disappointed.

As for me, well, I really am going to spend more time reading reviews, listening to narration samples, and paying closer attention before clicking the "buy" button.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Twist and Turns

Kudos! to Carl Weber. I really enjoyed listening to this book. I was about three men each with there own set of unique issues and drama. I was pleasantly suprised by the turn of events in this book. I will not spoil the fun. I quickly downloaded his next novel Something on the Side. Carl is creeping up on the list of my favorite authors. I highly reccomended this one.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Pretty Good

This book was really good, I listened to it in about 2 days. Some of the story lines are a little unrealistic, but there is an excellent twist that made the book worth while. Not great, but pretty good.

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