Seldom is a self-help (motivational) book both helpful and entertaining, but such is the case with Stuart Gustafson's Parables for Life in the 21st Century, a collection of twenty-four parables, each followed by an understandable moral.

Gustafson relates these modern stories and even one Aesop fable that entertain. Then he comes up with a moral for the stories; but the real strength of the book is how he applies the morals to our business and personal life.

The very first parable tells of Roger who bought a parakeet and bought every luxury item the pet store suggested; but he forgot to buy food for the bird, which of course died. Thus the moral: Don't forget the basics.

In education we were confronted by a slightly different version of know why you are doing what you are doing; don't do it just because you've always done it that way. When trying to raise student scores, we often quoted, "Do things the same way and you will get the same results."

One of my favorite morals was A rose is a rose, but a pig will always be a pig. Read the parable and see how the author came up with this moral.

The application of these parables and morals to our lives is easy to see and many readers will respond, "Guilty of doing that."

An easy to read, understand and apply self-help book.