Sad to say, Tolstoy will not be going head-to-head in bookstores this fall with Underworld and Mason & Dixon. In fact, he'll be far from the fiction section; he'll keep company instead with the Life's Little Treasure Books near the cash register. A Calendar of Wisdom is a sort of commonplace book with added commentary, a collection of quotations culled from world literature and grouped thematically for each day of the year. It is, in Tolstoy's words, "an accumulation of the cultural heritage of our ancestors, the best thinkers in the world." Jack Handy, take a hike; these are really deep thoughts. Call it "Cabbage Soup for the Soul."

This book is, by design, popular reading from a great master; it was made, in his words, "to present for a wide reading audience an easily accessible, everyday circle of reading which will arouse their best thoughts and feelings." It is touching to think of this great fiction maker so consumed by the search for the simple, communicable truth that he's thrown away all of his trusty tools: out with character, away with plot. This book is all theme, all the time. And, as a book of daily inspiration, it is probably the best of the lot. Certainly it presents a tougher, flintier view of the human condition than the current "Chicken Soup" bestsellers, a series that has had its schmaltz inadequately skimmed. And whose life wouldn't be bettered by a daily nibble of Shakespeare, Lao Tsu, Ruskin, the Talmud, the Dhammapada, Socrates, Jefferson and a host of small and tall 18th and 19th century thinkers?

Tolstoy's sentiments are truly affecting, simple but not easy prescriptions for daily living. If you must have an owner's manual for life, by all means try this one first. But keep in mind that it was not enough for the count himself, who died -- barely two years after the publication of the last edition of the calendar -- at a lonely train station as he attempted to flee the bonds of his gentrified life. Life serves up far more measures of grief than comfort food, in Tolstoy's vision. Think of this calendar as Tolstoy's spiritual Rolodex; whether such a thing puts you in touch with the kind of truth you can live with is yours to decide. -- Salon

All writers believe that there is one book that they and they alone were born to bring into the world. The great Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy believed his was A Calendar of Wisdom. Here is a profound and passionate collaboration between the Great Creator and one of history's consummate artists. That we should be able to reach through the portcullis of the past to share the private observations that inspired Leo Tolstoy to discover the sacred in the ordinary a century after he gleaned them from the world's sacred texts seems to me to be nothing less than miraculous. You'll feel as if a devoted spiritual guide, with a wink in his eye, has secretly helped you circumvent the laws of heaven and earth in order to nourish and sustain you on your own personal journey to wholeness. Savoring each day's passage fills me with gratitude, delight, and often awe. Here is a book to be cherished.