Rating: 
Summary: Gentle inspiration
Review: I listened to the cassette version of Soul Stories. It is narrated by the author, and I love his voice, and the way he reads. It's good to hear a book expressed the way the author intends it to be received. I highly respect Gary Zukav, and really enjoy him as a guest on Oprah, but I didn't feel I learned anything particularly new; rather I received a gentle inspiration to continue on the type of path that Zukav teaches about in his other books. His style is not preachy, and he basically advocates acceptance, forgiveness, and love for all humans, and encourages us to reach our fullest potential as spiritual beings. The stories are not especially unique, but all combined, it is the type of recorded book you could listen to many times for encouragement, and as a reminder about the purpose for our existence.
Rating: 
Summary: Nothing New Here
Review: Well, there's "deceptively simple," and then there's just plain simple. Having read a couple of Zukav's earlier works, I picked this up hastily without looking inside, and was quite taken aback by the tone, which had me looking all over the jacket to find where it must say that it was written for children. Realizing that this was indeed meant for adults left me both insulted and saddened. On one hand I hate to knock this kind of material, which I suppose must be valuable to those who've never heard of these concepts (or, indeed, much of anything), or spent much time in personal reflection. On the other hand, I fear that the Mister Rogers tone ("Have you ever heard of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?" "Have you ever wondered what makes an airplane go?") is perfect fodder for the many who view belief in multisensory perception or reincarnation as antithetical to intellect.
Rating: 
Summary: Divided
Review: I don't doubt the sincerity of the peolple and their stories contained in this book or the depth of feeling for their experiences,but a lot of the events described in the book can almost all be chalked up to coincidence.One lady had a premonition that an accident had befallen someone then later came to find that her gut feeling was right.But we all have had dreams and intuitions that come to be,and of course we remember those,because it is so unusual.However,we forget the countless dreams,hunches,premonitions and gut feelings that turned out to be nothing but our overactive imagination.Whether or not the stories and experiences recounted in this book are divine messages matters little.Like the near death experience or some other life changing occurence,what matters is that people took the experience as a sign to be better people,more giving,less selfish, and leaves them more hopeful and peaceful in the mind.That is what really matters.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant surprise
Review: Some time back, I purchased this book thinking it looked interesting and never read it. Eventually, I started skimming through it while packing to move. I was drawn into the book immediately. While some of the stories have been combined for multiple true tales into one story, that is okay by me. The lessons are the important part. Great book for anybody beginning their spiritual journey.
Rating:
Summary: Seat of the Soul Fan Let Down
Review: I was let down by "Soul Stories." I loved Zukav's "Seat of the Soul" book and was pumped up to read his newest release. "Soul Stories" started out great and kept my attention for the first half of the book. I had to force myself to read the second half or it would have ended up under the bed and forgotten. Zukav has some wonderful concepts to relate and I wish more people would adopt his view of spiritual seeking, but some of his stories or analogies were lame. At times I felt like he was too simplistic and therefore came across as superior in the way he presented his outlook.
Rating:
Summary: Nice companion to the original
Review: I found Seat of the Soul to be difficult to finish, and this was a breeze. My concern is that the stories are a mix of truth and fiction, but the message is the same. 3/5 for providing good material, but a bit of a retread.
Rating:
Summary: An Awakening
Review: I purchased this book in Feb. 2001 and didn't crack it open till mid Aug. 2001. When I saw this book I bought it right away. Why I didn't read it right away? Because I wouldn't have appreciated it. My mother passed away in the beginning of August and towards the middle I started to grieve and look for answers about life and the meaning of it and the afterlife. This book has started me on a catalyst for those answers. I find it an inspiration and an awakening into the human spirit. It's simple to read and easy to understand if you are open to understanding. You must be looking for those answers to appreciate it's meaning.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointed
Review: After having read The Seat of the Soul, and been totally blown away by the ideas presented, I did not expect the let down that Soul Stories turned out to be. I had expected this, companion book, to dig deeper into the philosophies presented in the first book, but by comparison this is a much shallower, more commercial book, where little supplementary wisdom can be found.
Rating:
Summary: Great Content- But Haven't We Heard This Before?
Review: Some of the stories were interesting, and much of the content of this book was spiritually enlightening, touching on beliefs found in Eastern philosophies which was very much to my liking. However, the content of the book appeared very repetitious of Zukav's previous work, and left me wondering if I read it all before, but with a slight change of wording and a little different scenario.What did disappoint me about the book is the manner in which many of the sentences were structured - short and choppy. By the time the end of the book arrived, the style was down-right annoying and reminded me of my first primary reader in grade school. I am still pondering whether I was more spiritually uplifted by the content, or exasperatingly annoyed by the writing style.
Rating:
Summary: Ho Hum
Review: A bit too self-indulgent for my tastes. Told me a lot more about his life than I cared to know (especially since it wasn't all that exciting). Full of aging-hippy platitudes. I could almost smell the incense burning. Former aggressive, military type finds true happiness by getting in touch with his inner child, loving everybody and chewing on tree bark and weeds. Yadda, yadda yadda. We can expect the infomercial any day.
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