Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul: Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit
Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Aubery, Nancy Mitchell Autio and LeAnn Thieman
Chicken Soup for the Girlfriend’s Soul: Celebrating the Friends Who Cheer Us Up, Cheer Us On and Make Our Lives Complete
Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Mark & Chrissy Donnelly and Stefanie Adrian
Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul: Stories to Inspire Caregivers in the Home, the Community and the World
Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and LeAnn Thieman
All published by Health Communications, Inc.
Chicken Soup books are all about curling up with a cup of tea and enjoying a good cry. Written to tug at your heartstrings, these collections of stories are short and easy to read. Unfortunately, the quick fix or fast food read sometimes cheapens the poignant tales of woe and celebration. However, the stories are chosen well for the range of experiences and situations.
Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul offers stories of courage, love and tests of faith in equal doses. The writers witness God’s power in events as large as adopting foster children and in the small gestures of baking cookies for people in need. Each story reminds the reader that no matter how tough a situation, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Faith, fellowship and love, the book confirms, will help us through times both good and bad.
Chicken Soup for the Girlfriend’s Soul is full of alternatively heartbreaking and heartwarming stories of friendship. Many are tales of death – a neighbour “snatched away by leukemia,” a friend made at a 9/11 support group for spouses of victims, the love and kindness of co-workers after the loss of a parent. As a result, the book can seem morose at times, especially for essays on girlfriends. But what the collection of stories excels at is reminding the reader of her own special relationships – how they began, what they mean and how they support us in times of need and sadness.
Chicken Soup for the Caregiver’s Soul is a wonderful book that offers solace to both traditional caregivers – doctors, nurses, teachers – and those who stumbled into it by nursing aging parents or sick children. Again, many of the stories are desperately sad but the importance and joy of care giving is emphasized. Helping people can be difficult; especially when their stories touch our own, but that is the power of these books – we can recognize ourselves in the stories and find comfort in experiences so similar to our own.
