Chicken Soup for the Country Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Ron Camacho

Don't let the guitar on the front fool you, this isn't a Chicken Soup for the Country "Music" Soul, this is a Chicken Soup for the Country Soul. So most of the stories are not from country singers, like you would expect.

In the tradition of Chicken Soup for the Soul Books, this book is filled with short stories that are meant to be inspiring and uplifting. From tales about getting to me country hero legends to stories about a mother doing what's best for her family, they are supposed to spread warmth and joy. And while the majority of the stories were ok in this book, there were none that I thought fantastic or that stuck with me. In fact, there was one that actually made me a little angry. The first story in the book, "Love Goes a Long Way" was a story about a man, who after an accident didn't have the will to live until some favorite country singers stopped by to visit him. Sounds sweet right? Well this man also had a wife and kids and apparently they were not enough to bring him back from the brink, it took the country singers to do it. And that just disgusted me a little bit that they weren't enough for him to live for. But anyways...

I have to say that even though I like country music, I didn't recognize a lot of the artists who were featured in this book. It seemed that most were older performers so if you're a modern country music person, this book probably isn't for you. But if you like the classic stuff, you'll probably get a lot of worth out of this book. And as I said before, it wasn't just country singers in this book. A lot of it was just tales of family life that they stretched into fitting the country model. Really, a lot of it was about loving your family and that fits all types of families, not just the country ones.

This is a religious publication. All of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books are. But it was especially noticed in this one. I don't know if it was because of the country theme (and the belief that they are among the most religious) but there was a lot of preaching going on in this book. I can't say that it made it less enjoyable for me, but it was something that was noticeable. There didn't seem to be as many stories in this book as there are some of the other editions either. It was definitely smaller in size than some of the others I have sitting on my shelf. And I just didn't feel drawn into the stories of this book. None made me cry, and there's usually at least one that does.

An ok book. Maybe a different audience than me would like it better. But I found this just an average Chicken Soup for the Soul book.

Chicken Soup for the Country Soul
Copyright 1998
236 pages