A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen

So if you couldn't tell by the title, this is the 2nd book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  Not that you have to read them in order.  Since they're a collection of short stories, you can read whatever book in whatever order you prefer.  I do think starting at the beginning is always better though, because in the case of this series, it's when the work is more original and not repeated a thousand times over.

Chicken Soup for the Soul in its second helping is much like the first book in that it collects inspiring stories, fables, poems, etc. and groups it into different categories.  Those categories are "On Love", "On Parenting", "On Death and Dying", "A Matter of Attitude", "On Learning and Teaching", "Live Your Dream", "Overcoming Obstacles", and "Eclectic Wisdom".  Probably the story/poem that resonates with me the most is from the "Overcoming Obstacles" chapter and is titled "After A While".  It is just really moving and especially pertinent to my life in the last few years and I do get a lot of inspiration from it.  That being said, there are plenty of stories in here that I don't get so much from, especially the ones that are a little preachy on the religion aspect.

But that's to be expected.  This book is put out by a Christian printer and has Christian authors.  It's meant to be a religious.  I don't actually think overall that this book is too preachy, but there are a few stories in here that if you aren't religious, you'll probably just skim over.  And while there are mostly new and original stories in here, there was one that was almost the same as in the first book.  And so begins the saga of reusing stories in their books.  I do have to applaud them for having an extensive thank you and reference area.  It's nice to know that they give credit where it is due when they can.

One of the better books in the series but it still doesn't have the feel that first book did.  But if you like short, inspiring stories, this is a good book to read.

A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul
Copyright 1995
329 pages

Chicken Soup for the Soul by Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield

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