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aeroplanino's review against another edition
4.0
Wonderful book, easy to read, a collection of little stories, my favorite is the one with the teacher who creates lists with qualities for each pupil, qualities written by other colleagues.
kairosdreaming's review against another edition
4.0
So this is the original book. The one that started everything and spawned a series so large that most home libraries couldn't contain them all. Fortunately, since this is the first book it's not subject to a lot of the problems the others had. Although it does have it's cheesy moments, or maybe that's just me being older and more cynical than when I first encountered it.
The Chicken Soup for the soul books are compilations of stories, parables, verse, and other short writings that have a common theme of making you feel better about the world around you. Not all end happy but are meant to inspire. And this particular book has broken those different stories down into chapters titled, "On Love", "Learning to Love Yourself", "On Parenting", "On Learning", "Live Your Dream", "Overcoming Obstacles", and "Eclectic Wisdom". Sometimes the stories make sense in the chapters, like in the case of the parenting chapter containing a story "Why I chose my father to be my dad" which detailed the life of a dedicated parent. Others were not so obvious, like "Golden Buddha" in Learning to Love Yourself. Sure it was about finding that special something within, or they tried to tie it to that theme anyway, but it just didn't click with me in that chapter representation.
I'm not going to deny that some of the stories didn't bring tears to my eyes. They're meant to do that, just like those Budweiser commercials with the horses. They want to tug at your heartstrings. It's good advertising. And there were a lot of good stories in this book. At least half of them were positive, could make you cry, or had a good message. But then there were a lot of cheesy ones too. Or a lot that were quite obviously made up as opposed to being real life stories. A particular example of this would be the ones that mentioned a kind act preventing a suicide. I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but the stories here involving that theme just didn't ring as true.
This book also has undertones of religion, particularly Christianity. Sure there was a story about a Buddha, but it didn't go into that religion, merely used it as a fable of sorts. While there's nothing overt about the religion in these books, it is a common theme that they all share and some are more blatant than others. It's pretty sure that you'll never see a "Chicken Soup for the Atheist's Soul" coming from these publishers. But that's ok. It's their business and they can publish what they want. It's the reader's choice if they want to pick it up or not. But this first book is one where the religion isn't blatant and any reader can sit down and enjoy a few good short stories.
Probably one of the best of the whole series, before it got too big for itself. Sometimes the original is the one you need to stick with.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1993
308 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
The Chicken Soup for the soul books are compilations of stories, parables, verse, and other short writings that have a common theme of making you feel better about the world around you. Not all end happy but are meant to inspire. And this particular book has broken those different stories down into chapters titled, "On Love", "Learning to Love Yourself", "On Parenting", "On Learning", "Live Your Dream", "Overcoming Obstacles", and "Eclectic Wisdom". Sometimes the stories make sense in the chapters, like in the case of the parenting chapter containing a story "Why I chose my father to be my dad" which detailed the life of a dedicated parent. Others were not so obvious, like "Golden Buddha" in Learning to Love Yourself. Sure it was about finding that special something within, or they tried to tie it to that theme anyway, but it just didn't click with me in that chapter representation.
I'm not going to deny that some of the stories didn't bring tears to my eyes. They're meant to do that, just like those Budweiser commercials with the horses. They want to tug at your heartstrings. It's good advertising. And there were a lot of good stories in this book. At least half of them were positive, could make you cry, or had a good message. But then there were a lot of cheesy ones too. Or a lot that were quite obviously made up as opposed to being real life stories. A particular example of this would be the ones that mentioned a kind act preventing a suicide. I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but the stories here involving that theme just didn't ring as true.
This book also has undertones of religion, particularly Christianity. Sure there was a story about a Buddha, but it didn't go into that religion, merely used it as a fable of sorts. While there's nothing overt about the religion in these books, it is a common theme that they all share and some are more blatant than others. It's pretty sure that you'll never see a "Chicken Soup for the Atheist's Soul" coming from these publishers. But that's ok. It's their business and they can publish what they want. It's the reader's choice if they want to pick it up or not. But this first book is one where the religion isn't blatant and any reader can sit down and enjoy a few good short stories.
Probably one of the best of the whole series, before it got too big for itself. Sometimes the original is the one you need to stick with.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1993
308 pages
Review by M. Reynard 2013
More of my reviews can be found at www.ifithaswords.blogspot.com
melaniemia's review against another edition
4.0
Great book for those sad days... gives you that warm fuzzy feeling
aimee_twoees's review against another edition
5.0
i love this book, its more of a collection of short stories that i could pick up at anytime but its still so inspirational.
heather_yukiko's review against another edition
5.0
I love a good uplifting story and this has a lot of great ones. Some I'd heard before and others that were brand new but there were plenty of them that brought a tear to my eye. I love hearing stories of people who have overcome or who have lived lives worth emulating. I can see why the Chicken soup series is so popular because in a world of uncertainty and fear it's nice to read that there are still good things going on out there.
notsunny's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
incandenza's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I'm just being overly cynical and bitter, but all of these stories just seemed overly sentimental with forced "moral messages". They felt very fake and gave me an icky feeling. I'll admit that a few of these stories successfully tugged at my heartstrings, but most of them left me feeling disinterested, with some stories presenting downright terrible moral lessons. I'm sure this is not the author's intention, but if I have to choose one word to describe my experience reading this book it would be "irritating".
innae's review against another edition
4.0
I can't recall when I read this little gem, but I remember liking (and crying) at several of the little stories. I think the collections from this first one on out have gotten a bit excessive, but this first collection was good.
munchin's review against another edition
4.0
Yeah, it's cheesy but this is a pretty touching, inspiring book at times.
annemariecoutu's review against another edition
3.0
Un bon vieux classique de mon adolescence : je pense avoir lu à peu près tous les livres de la série qui existaient quand j'avais 13 ans. J'adorais lire ces petites histoires qui remontaient le moral. Le livre portait bien son nom et remplissait bien sa fonction.