Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Mark and Chrissy Donnelly and Barbara De Angelis

I am currently not considered part of a couple. But I once was, so I feel qualified to review this book. Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul is all about relationships. Filled with short stories, it is meant to inspire and move you.

This book was filled with short stories over a variety of topics involving couples. These topics include: Love & Intimacy, Finding True Love, On Commitment, Understanding Each Other, Overcoming Obstacles, On Family, The Flame That Still Burns, & Eternal Love. Strangely enough though, the majority of these stories seemed to involve someone dying. I get that it's a true test to watch a loved one die. But it's depressing, and not uplifting in the least. There were stories in here that didn't involve dying of course, but a lot of them involved children. I never really got a sense of the true celebration of being a "couple" from this book. Now I'm not going to say a couple of these didn't make me cry, because a few did.

There was a lot of dedication in this book. But a couple of the stories just made me raise an eyebrow because of the people in them. I had to wonder if they were true because human nature makes it hard to find so many dedicated people. Now granted they weeded out some of the bad, so it's a possibility that all the people in here were good people and their relationships were true. Like with most short stories though, you're just starting to feel attached to the people when the story is over already.

I've already told you about my problems with the types of stories included in this book. As I said, there is just too much dying and not enough joy. I'm not inspired by death even if it does show the dedication and heart of the other spouse. It just makes me sad for them. And this one was also a rather religious book (it is a Christian publication) but it made it seem as if Christian relationships held together longer, and statistically that isn't the case. It just wasn't as approachable in that regard as some of the other Chicken Soup books are.

Two and a half stars for this one. It just wasn't the warm fuzzy type of book a book about couples should be. But if you're a die hard Chicken Soup for the Soul fan, you may enjoy it.

Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul
Copyright 1999
350 pages