Well, I'm home sick and have been dosing myself with
"Chicken Soup" all day. And I have to say, it's probably the Powerade
making me feel better, not the books. Especially this one, which was
downright depressing.
If you couldn't guess, this particular
Chicken Soup book is about pets. The feathered and the furred kind and
even a little bit of the scaly. While most of the stories seem to be
about dogs, there's quite a bit of cats, a few horses, a couple stories
about birds, and even one about a snake. The stories are somewhat
memorable, mainly because they seem to try to make you shed a tear.
There is so much sickness, death, and abuse in this book that I can't
really call it heartwarming. For every positive story there are three
more where the animal dies or develops cancer or its owner has cancer.
The story of "Frisk" was one of those sad ones, in which a poor old man
has a cat who keeps coming down with a mysterious illness. "Soul to
Soul" has a woman who has been abused most her life lose more than one
to death in a short period of time. And I could go on.
The
stories are mainly about the animals, but also about how they effected
their owners as well. And it really is the owner's pain that you feel
in this book rather than the animals. They're almost a side note as to
how the people dealt with the pain they were feeling. But there was
some joy too, as animals really do make people feel happier. And I
especially enjoyed the stories of the service animals who made visits to
hospitals and nursing homes.
All of these are short stories so
the book can be a quick read. It's especially good if you only like
reading a few pages a day, but it can also be read in one sitting. I do
have one major complaint though, and that is that one of the stories in
this book (about a horse) is also in one of the other chicken soup
books. As many stories that they get submitted for these things there
is no excuse for a story to be recycled. Ever. But alas, this is not
the only book that will do that. I just think it's a shame that they
don't try to make every work wholly original from the others.
An
ok book if you don't mind sad tales, but perhaps not what someone who
enjoys uplifting tales would appreciate. While all of the stories do
show the compassion of animals, ultimately, this book is too
heart-wrenching.
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul
Copyright 1998
403 pages
So a quick Wikipedia search showed that there are over
200 titles in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Don't worry, I'm
not going to review them all, I don't think I could handle that. But I
am going to read and review all of the ones on my bookshelf already, so I
can justify getting rid of them. This book wasn't actually that bad,
it had some decent stories in it.
Chicken Soup for the Horse
Lover's Soul is about horses (and maybe a mule or two). So obviously if
you are not a horse lover, this probably isn't the book for you. It's
broken down into different sections, like "And....They're Off" which
describes horse racing or "Horses as Healers" which shows the calming
influences of horses. All of the stories are short stories, no more
than a few pages long. I can't say there were really any stories that
stood out for me or that I was particularly taken with. They were all
nice in that calming sort of way these books have, but nothing was
outstanding. And in the beginning at least, a lot of these stories
involved the horse dying. Which was a little disturbing to start a book
out that way, especially considering it was supposed to be uplifting.
Since
this book is more about horses than people, obviously the little quirks
described are all the horses. There are stories about difficult to
train horses, horses that are so sweet they'll do anything, horses that
are good with children, etc. It kind of shows that horses have their
own personalities aside from just being animals. I've never really
spent that much time around horses, so this part at least, was
informative to me. It also made me a little jealous though, no matter
how much I wished for a horse as a child, I never got one, and I only
got to go riding once or twice. But I guess for a city girl, that's
pretty good. I have a feeling that people who were around horses more
would find it easier to relate to this book.
The format of this
book is a good one for reading in little doses. Sure you can read the
book in one sitting if you'd like, but if you're one of those people
that prefers to take a few pages at a time, this book really lends
itself to that. The short story format is easy to read and there are a
lot of stories in this book. And a good variety of them too, although
after awhile some start to sound the same.
An ok book, good for
those who love horses or short inspiring stories. I can't say that I'd
ever read this book again, but it was good for a first time read.
Chicken Soup for the Horse Lover's Soul
Copyright 2003
414 pages
This book was so much better than the first in the
series. Honestly, if it wasn't for the background information you need
for this one, I'd suggest skipping the first and starting here. The
characters were so much better, there was an understandable plot, and
even the magic was more realistic.
Nita and Kit are on vacation.
It's at the beach, and while they were hoping for a relaxing trip,
their status as wizards prevent that from happening. Strange
earthquakes are rocking the seabed, and upon meeting and saving a whale
wizard, Kit and Nita become a part of a special song ritual that will
help stabilize things and weaken the Lone Power's powers. Nita's role
though isn't what she thinks, and despite her wanting to help, she
should have read the fine print.
Nita and Kit are much more
developed as characters in this book. You can actually empathize with
them, especially Nita. Because she has to make some hard decisions in
this book, deal with lying, and learn about what type of person she
wants to be and what her word means. Kit is a little more feral and
aggressive and it's actually a good move for him. Shows how youth can
be confusing and that sometimes personalities change. There's a lot of
growth for both of them. But the real standout character in this book
is "Ed" the Master Shark. His character gives me chills, in the good
way, with the things he says and the emotions he expresses. You know
he's not really a good guy per say, he's actually the most neutral
character you'll ever meet, but he's so powerful and wise in his own way
that you are actually held in awe of him. Duane really did a terrific
job on this character.
The plot was very dark and grown up for a
young adult novel. I was surprised actually at the themes of sacrifice,
love, and ruthlessness. But it was worked very well and wasn't overly
graphic. In fact, you're so busy enjoying the characters that the
wonderful descriptions of ocean life just seem like they should be
there. They fit in so well and become part of the background, but you'd
definitely know if they were missing. The book just wouldn't be as
good. And the fact that the whole thing takes place in the sea, that's a
nice spin on a "wizarding" book. The magic, while still dominated some
on science, was understandable this time around as well. You could
keep up with it without having to get out a physics textbook. So that
made it more readable than the first book was.
I'm glad I didn't
give up after the first book. This one was well worth the read and has
inspired me to go take a look at the 3rd book.
Deep Wizardry
Copyright 1985
356 pages
Well, I'm home sick and have been dosing myself with
"Chicken Soup" all day. And I have to say, it's probably the Powerade
making me feel better, not the books. Especially this one, which was
downright depressing.
