"Don't Forget to Sing in the Lifeboats: Uncommon Wisdom for Uncommon Times" is a diverse compendium of thoughts on life in hard or changing times. Kathryn and Ross Petras have gathered quotations on the subject of living from every perspective they could find: writers, philosophers, artists, politicians, and mystics; ancient wisdom from 500 BC to modern voices still living; from Christian to Muslim to Confucian.

Those looking for inspiration from others who have lived and experienced much will find a line for any frame of mind. From funny to sober, from lengthy asides to concise quips, to thoughts from out of left field ("He that lives upon hope, dies farting" - Benjamin Franklin), "Don't Forget to Sing in the Lifeboats" has myriad varieties of lemonade made from life's many lemons.

This collection is sprinkled with fun illustrations from award-winning artist R. O. Blechman, and each passage is categorized for the casual browser. The volume also includes a source list containing mini-bios of who is quoted for those who want to know.

Kathryn and Ross Petras have put together a delightful book for the coffee table, office desk, or beside of anyone needing a little bit of uncommon perspective for these truly uncommon times.

Alan Bennett writes a great read with his story of the Queen of England's discovery of what it means to be a reader, and how reading can change a person for good or ill. Her Majesty's journey into books seems like something with which I, and so many, can identify. It is for that reason that the novella's title becomes rather inappropriate. The Uncommon Reader hits the mark so well with the Queen as representative of every reader that she seems not to be an uncommon reader, but rather, every reader. I think it appropriate in this novella that the monarch who is supposed to represent her people becomes the readers' everyman – the reader's monarch.

Whether you agree with this reader or not, The Uncommon Reader is a great story for anyone fond of books.

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is a novel elaborately woven, beautiful and heavy, like wrought iron lace. The story centers around Daniel Sempere, a young man whose love of a book, The Shadow of the Wind, leads him to find other works by the author, Julian Carax. But when he finds that Julian's books have all been systematically found and burned, his search for books turns into a dangerous investigation into Carax's past.
A roller coaster of a story, with more relationships than a day time soap, and more dark and light than a Rembrandt, this gothic mystery set in Barcelona spans over the years around the Spanish Civil War. It flits back and forth in time through flashbacks, letters, and different characters' memories, revealing depths of human love and hate.
Zafón's The Shadow of the Wind is an intense and enjoyable read that I highly recommend.