Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Christmas

Pumpkins may still be in the patch, but Christmas and the holidays are already upon us, and CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS - 101 JOYFUL HOLIDAY STORIES is sure to strike a cheerful holiday mood!

I'm pleased to share a personal essay with this collection. In "Meatballs...for Thanksgiving?" (page 26), I demonstrate how a turkey feast might be the norm on most Thanksgiving tables, but variations on the feast can be equally welcomed.

In addition to my essay, this inspiring, heart-warming anthology features 100 more stories that 'Deck the Halls' by tackling themes that extol gratitude, treasured traditions, holiday hiccups and miracles, getting creative amidst the joy of giving and selecting perfect presents, and experiencing the magic of the season through the wonderment of children. All bases are covered...These entertaining stories are the perfect literary pairing for the holidays!  

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS makes a great gift for yourself and/or for those you love. Pick up a copy today!

Note: Royalties from this book benefit Toys for Tots

Happy Reading!

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all!

Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Spirit of Christmas - 101 Joyful Holiday Stories– edited by Amy Newmark

Chicken Soup for the Soul, $16.99 paperback, 368 pages, 978-1611591262

Publication date October 24, 2025

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Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from My Cat

Cats (and pets of all kinds) “keep us company, provide unconditional love, and share the ups and down of our lives.”  

In the latest anthology published by Chicken Soup for the Soul (What I Learned from My Cat), I’m pleased to share a personal story (“Kat in Wonderland”) about how a clever, quirky cat cast a spell on me…Yes, dog lovers can be charmed by felines! 

To read my story and 100 others, buy a copy of this hopeful, inspirational book today! 

Happy Reading!  

Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned from My Cat – edited by Amy Newmark

Chicken Soup for the Soul, $16.99 paperback, 368 pages, 978-1611591217

Publication date May 20, 2025

To order this book on Amazon, link HERE

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Sharing Too Much

Bestselling, popular author Richard Paul Evans delivers a collection of inspiring essays, sharing insights and sage advice culled from his life experiences. 

Richard Paul Evans is an author, father, and husband. In Sharing Too Much, he unpacks memorable personal stories and life lessons experienced over half a century. This broad-ranging collection of entertaining, concisely short essays offers thought-provoking insights and sage advice.

Over seven sections, Evans is incredibly open in sharing details about his life. He was a "lonely little boy" and "a poor kid from a large family" who suffered "years of teasing and torment" because of Tourette's syndrome, which was only diagnosed when he was 41 years old. Because his mother endured serious depression that manifested into suicidal tendencies, the family was forced to move from Arcadia, California to a rather dilapidated, inherited house in Salt Lake City, Utah. This move only exacerbated Evan's feelings of displacement. 

Evans mines the past and the foundations that led him to become a writer. Several essays probe his immensely popular first novel, The Christmas Box—how it was conceived via real-life experiences, the ingenious back-door path it traveled to publication, and how that novel paved the way for Evans’s extraordinary success. Other sections offer inventive moral-themed remembrances and fables, stories that delve into Evans’s enduring marriage, parenthood, the unexpected teachers of life, and even otherworldly, spiritual experiences.

 

Evans (A Christmas Memory) is a remarkably relentless optimist whose moving, hopeful--easy to absorb--essays will offer great appeal and inspiration to a wide-range of readers.

Sharing Too Much: Musings from an Unlikely Life by Richard Paul Evans

Gallery Books, $22.99 hardcover, 978198177461, 272 pages

Publishing Date: February 27, 2024

 
NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review as originally published on Shelf Awareness (March 8, 2024), link HERE 

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Ways to Think Positive

Your attitude is a powerful tool for creating a happier life…and nowadays, couldn’t everyone benefit from a little more positive thinking? That’s why I encourage you to read the latest Chicken Soup for the Soul anthology that features 101 personal essays written by real people who have reacted to the ups and downs of life—and how employing a positive attitude helped them create a happier life.

I’m pleased to have an essay included in this anthology—a story that explores the power of finding silver linings…I hope by sharing my experience, others will be inspired to think more positively about their own lives.

 

Order a copy today!  Happy Reading! 

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul: 101 Ways to Think Positive – edited by Amy Newmark

Chicken Soup for the Soul, $16.99 paperback, 368 pages, 978-1611591071

Publication date January 7, 2025

 

To order this book on Amazon, link HERE

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To order this book on bookshop.org link HERE

To learn more about Chicken Soup for the Soul - books and other related media - link HERE

 

The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable Life of a 109-Year-Old Man

The remarkable story of a centenarian who lived through decades of American history and forged a life that will greatly inspire others.

In 2007, long time, Washington Post columnist, David Von Drehle, and his wife, tired of the “hassles of urban parenting,” uprooted their children, and moved from Washington DC to the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo. One day, Von Drehle spied a neighbor across the street washing his car in the August heat. That man was 102-year-old Charlie White, self-made, “hail and sturdy and razor-sharp,” who would become a very good friend of Von Drehle—and an influence so profound that he inspired The Book of Charlie, a splendidly woven, inspirational memoir than explores the meaning of life and the resilience of the human spirit.

Over the course of seven years, Von Drehle became fascinated by Charlie and his history. He was born when William Howard Taft was president, and he experienced life before the existence of highways, radio, movies, even penicillin. Whip-smart, independent, and crafty, Charlie grew up with four siblings, and a family that accommodated his father, a Christian pastor—who died at the age of 42 in a freak accident when Charlie was eight. The tragedy forged an indomitable, stoic resourcefulness in Charlie. He had a deeply rewarding career as a doctor, as well as marriages, children, and familial challenges. He chose not to dwell on unhappiness. He understood and accepted that, “Every life is a mixture of comedy and tragedy, joy and sorrow, daring and fear,” and barreled on.

Charlie made an art out of living; in much the same way as Von Drehle (Rise to Greatness; Triangle: The Fire that Changed America)--with elegance, care, respect, and admiration--makes art out of Charlie’s life story.

The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Von Drehle

Simon & Schuster, $26.00 hardcover, 9781476773926, 208 pages

Publishing Date: May 26, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (May 1, 2023), link HERE

NOTE: To read this review, the original long form review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (March 30, 2023), link HERE

Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family

In this inspiring true story, a severely disabled rescue dog positively changes the life of one veterinarian and the world.

Sometimes, the little things in life have the power to change everything. Such was the case with Connecticut veterinarian Melissa Shapiro, who was asked by a local animal rescue organization to foster a barely two-pound puppy that was deaf, blind and morbidly skittish.

 

Piglet--named because of his pink coloring--was added to the family pack that included Shapiro's husband, three college-aged kids and six other dogs. Through weeks of trying to calm and stabilize the traumatized little puppy, Shapiro provided canine comfort through lots of love, the familiarity of established routines and developing a touch-style of sign language. When it came time to release the dog from foster care, Shapiro was faced with a dilemma: Did she really want someone else taking care of a dog she and her family had fallen in love with?

 

Thus, Shapiro embarked on a new chapter where she adopted Piglet and decided to share him--and the lessons of his life--with the world. His popularity soared on social media, where he raised awareness about special needs rescue organizations and other animal causes. This later led to Shapiro establishing an educational outreach program where Piglet--severely disabled, yet a joy-filled, loving teacher--helped children learn how to accept and work through life challenges.

 

Shapiro's inspirational memoir--candid details of her veterinary career, her family, lovable Piglet and his incredibly sweet, resilient spirit--will win hearts.

 

Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Deaf, Blind, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro, DVM; Mim Eichler Rivas

Atria Books (Simon and Schuster), $26.00 hardcover, 9781982167165, 320 pages

Publication Date: August 3, 2021

 

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (August 6, 2021), link HERE

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Read, Laugh, Repeat: 101 Laugh-Out-Loud Stories

With all the craziness "plaguing" the world right now (pun intended :), it's my pleasure to contribute a story to the latest Chicken Soup for the Soul anthology: READ. LAUGH. REPEAT: 101 Laugh-Out-Loud Stories.

In "Making a Splash" (p. 30) my beloved--however agoraphobic--Yorkshire terrier (more like "terrorist") becomes flushed with fear and hides in a harrowing, totally unexpected place. Ugh! 

This collection is a "best of" volume that will lighten your mood, help you escape and make you laugh!

Order a copy today! 

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3xzwQg9

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Link to Chicken Soup for the Soul on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChickenSoupSoul

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Read, Laugh, Repeat: 101 Laugh-Out-Loud Stories - Edited by Amy Newmark

Chicken Soup for the Soul, $14.95, Paperback, 9781611590753

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

Friends: Voices on the Gift of Companionship

Pleased to have an essay featured in a new anthology: FRIENDS: VOICES ON THE GIFT OF COMPANIONSHIP (edited by Amy Lou Jenkins). This moving compilation of 24 stories examines the meaning of both having and being a friend. 

My essay, "Little Black Marks," conveys the story of a life-changing friendship that grew out of a fondness for storytelling and a love of the written word...the power of putting letters on a page and having those letters give meaning and form to life and living. 

As the dedication of the anthology reads, some gifts of friendship endure for "a day, for a season or last a lifetime." But stories...they're forever!

This tender, inspirational anthology would make a great gift for a friend you cherish or to read with your book club. 

Friends: Voices on the Gift of Companionship edited by Amy Lou Jenkins

Jack Walker Press, $14.99 Paperback, 9781945378089, 238 pages

Publication Date: October 14, 2020

To order this book via INDIEBOUND, link HERE

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Think Positive, Live Happy

My story, “Reach Out,” has been included in the latest installment of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive, Live Happy: 101 Stories about Creating Your Best Life. This anthology, edited by Amy Newmark and Deborah Norville (Emmy Award-winning anchor/journalist of Inside Edition), is a collection of hopeful, inspiring stories about living a life filled with thoughtfulness and gratitude. My piece presents a lesson about not being afraid to reach out and do something nice for someone, even a stranger. Sometimes we second-guess ourselves, we hesitate, because we wonder if our outreach will be welcome. But in the case of the experience I share in my story, by taking a simple photograph and sharing it, two lives were changed in very special ways. This collection would make a perfect gift for the upcoming holidays…HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive, Live Happy (101 Stories about Creating Your Best Life) edited by Amy Newmark and Deborah Norville

Chicken Soup for the Soul Books (distributed by Simon and Schuster), $16.00 Paperback, 9781611599923, 368 pp

Publication Date: September 24, 2019

To order this book via INDIEBOUND, link HERE

The Wonder of Lost Causes

A tender, affirming story of how an abused rescue dog helps an 11-year-old with cystic fibrosis and his hardworking mother to heal.

Nick Trout (Dog Gone, Back Soon; The Patron Saint of Lost Dogs) delivers a beautifully written, poignant story infused with gentle humor and compassion. Jasper Blunt is a precocious, very lovable 11-year-old battling cystic fibrosis and its complications. Kate, Jasper's hardworking single mother, is struggling to keep her son healthy and make ends meet while working hard as a rescue shelter veterinarian on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

When a mysterious and badly abused dog arrives at the shelter with health problems of his own, Jasper and the dog form an instant bond--the dog looks out for the boy, who intuitively knows what the dog is feeling. Jasper claims he can communicate with the mutt and even believes the dog told him his name, Whistler. This intrigues, yet worries, Kate. Might Jasper, plagued with breathing problems, hearing loss and a host of other ailments, also be growing delusional? When Jasper lobbies Kate to adopt Whistler, she resists. After all, their apartment building does not permit pets. But when Whistler's background and his true origin are ultimately discovered, Jasper and Kate face a big decision that takes them on an adventurous journey. Might the Blunts need Whistler as much as he needs them?

Trout's well-paced narrative is filled with big, resonant scenes that render the story surprisingly suspenseful. As Whistler's history unfolds via the points-of-view of Jasper and Kate, revealing their innermost thoughts and fears, the mother-son bond deepens. This tender, inspirational story--forged with themes of deliverance and hope--overflows with profound meaning.

The Wonder of Lost Causes: A Novel by Nick Trout

William Morrow Paperbacks, $16.99 Paperback, 9780062747945, 464 pages

Publication Date: July 9, 2019

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (April 30, 2019), link HERE

The Dog that Whispered

A rescued black lab helps a troubled veteran confront traumatic war experiences and get on with life.

A rescued black lab named Thurman is the titular The Dog That Whispered in the continuation of Jim Kraus's (The Dog That Talked to God) fictional series featuring domestic animals that alter human relationships. At 85 years old, Gretna Steele adopts Thurman before learning that her retirement community in Pittsburgh, Pa., does not allow pets. So Gretna hands the dog off to her son, Wilson, a college professor "nearing-senior-citizen-status," who has lived an insular life for decades, ever since his tour of duty in Vietnam. Wilson grudgingly accepts Thurman, who eerily begins uttering, in growls and barks, responses to Wilson's self-talk--words like "bunkum" and even phrases: "I good at dog. You not good at human." Thurman forces Wilson to question his sanity, examine his conscience and confront the socially isolating aspects of his guilt.

In a parallel story, 20-something actuary Hazel Jamison of Portland, Ore., is packing up her recently deceased mother's belongings when she discovers a picture of her mom--a never-married hippie--with a uniformed soldier. Written on the back of the photograph, in her mother's hand, are the words "Our Wedding." Hazel, who believed she was the byproduct of a short-lived affair, is shocked by the revelation. She cashes in her mother's stocks, quits her job and sets off on a cross-country road trip determined to find out more about the man in the picture. Amid her quest, Wilson and Thurman enter her life.

The power of providence and redemption emerge as undercurrents in another delightful installment in Kraus's inspirational series. 

The Dog that Whispered by Jim Kraus

FaithWords/Hatchett, $14.99 Paperback, 9781455562565, 336 pp

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (6/3/16), link HERE