Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. As you can tell, I am a fan because I think that Don Quixote is still one the most relevant stories in the world.

Melachim Gimmel by Yochi Brandes (מלכים ג- יוכי ברנדס) a fascinating book attempting to turn some of the Bible stories on their heads giving a new perspective.

A coffee table book put out by Parragon Books to commemorate the 150thanniversary of the American Civil War, full of photographs, graphics, and visuals

This week is “Banned Books Week” and I’ve seen a lot of posts against the practice of banning books. As a long time reader I often scoffed at those trying to ban books, however, now that my beloved daughter entered first grade I see things differently. 1 ) Books can give you paper cuts. 2 ) Books can make you angry and sad 3 ) Romance books gives a young, impressionable lady unrealistic view of life 4 ) Mysteries hurt the brain too much 5 ) Paranormal is just … freaky and G-d knows I need my sleep and wake up enough times without being woken up more times than I should. 6 ) Biographies are scary 7 ) History books are boring and really, who needs to know about the past when the future is so bright? 8 ) Stopping to read books will free up some time for her to help around the house (wishful thinking), watch wholesome TV shows and practice her hand/eye coordination with video games. 9 ) Reading can give her the unrealistic idea that life is “fair” and that the good guys actually win. Of course banning books has many other benefits:…

What Really Matters by Haim Shapira touches on many subjects which bother many people on a daily base.

What is happiness?

How can we capture it?

I’ve recently become a master in Goki Feng Ho, the ancient Chinese art of decoding license plates. It has, you can imagine, changed my life for the better.

September 23, 1862 marks the wedding of one of them the most tumultuous couples in literary history when Leo Tolstoy married Sophie Andreyevna Behrs

Cynthia Kocialski wrote the book “Startup From the Ground Up” which I thought was very informative. I had several questions for Ms. Kocialski

“Daughters of Iraq” by Revital Shiri-Horowitz is a well written account of Jewish Iraqi family who is forced to immigrate to Israel from Iraq in the 1950s.

While the story is also about the coming of age, it is also a touching testament to the early immigrant spirit and the hardships of life