Book Review - City on Our Knees by TobyMac

I have to say going into this review that I was biased against Toby Mac before reading this book.  I've always found his music to be cheesy, and for him to be a bit of a narcissist.  That bias carried over into my reading.  I normally would never read a book authored by Toby Mac, but a description I read before going in told me this book isn't about him; it's a collection of stories about other people.  True as that may be, I was annoyed right off the bat by his shameless uplifting of the song he wrote which gave the book its title.  

Once I got past the beginning pages, which might I add are splattered with pictures of Toby Mac looking pretty fly for a white guy, I found that I actually enjoyed the stories he has recorded.  While his writing style isn't exactly on par with the professionals that do this kind of thing for a living, the stories were very encouraging and inspiring.  Fortunately, the stories are the bulk of the book.  Unfortunately, they're really the only thing I liked about the book.  There are four sections of them, and in between Toby Mac filled pages with his own blog posts, quotes, and other unnecessary filler.

To a Toby Mac fan, I would definitely recommend this book; it's a win-win situation when you enjoy seeing his face all over the pages and getting fed great inspirational stories.  For those of you going in with a bias like my own, borrow a copy and just read the stories; they're worth a read and they're really short, so you can read for a few minutes at a time and not feel disconnected from the book.

I should say that I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House publishers for the purpose of writing a review.  Obviously, I wasn't required to write a positive one- they want complete objectivity.