Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirits of Women by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne and Marci Shimoff is an engaging book with 101 stories aimed straight at the hearts of women. Many of these stories are heart wrenching accounts of happy times, as well as sad ones.
The authors relate the story of Wilma Rudolph who was told that she would never walk again by her physicians. She went on to earn three gold medals in the same Olympics. Sheryl Nicholson's story about the Christmas Eve painting of walls and wrapping gifts preceded her children waking up to a great surprise in the morning.
There are heart wrenching stories, as well as happy ones. For instance, a daughter locates her mother after years of separation just in time to see her prior to passing. Another sad story is told about a mother who became a teacher, completed graduate school and suffered her last days with Alzheimer's.
A story filled with joy concerns a young woman who passed a little boy with no shoes and rags on for clothing. The occasion marked the height of the holidays. The woman took the little boy to buy brand new shoes and warm clothes. The boy remarked "Are you God, ma'am?"
The stories contained in this book honor the strengths, as well as the beauty in the spirits of women. The stories serve as an inspiration and joy to all readers. Each chapter has a special message of love, triumph, tragedy, extreme generosity and higher wisdom from having experienced life in its many dimensions. The book ends with a poem by the Reverend Melissa M. Bowers.
Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul is written for a wide constituency of readers in virtually every walk of life. The authors present just about every kind of human tribulation and triumph imaginable. This book provides a very good dose of life itself.
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