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 Chandra Ziegler's new book Extraordinary Endurance: A Training Plan for the Marathon of Life is a unique book that gives the reader a look into the beauty of its author's soul as she tries to juggle the many aspects of life. While Ziegler is a marathon runner, hence the book's title, running is only part of the content here. Ziegler shares stories about her many other sports-related activities, such as skiing, but she also shares experiences from other aspects of her life, including being a teacher and parent. Her purpose in offering this potpourri of material is, as she states early on, to "help propel you into living your best life. I want you to live your happiest life and achieve all your dreams. You know why? Because when each of us collectively is full of positive energy, we can change the world!" Ziegler has been an endurance sports fanatic from the beginning . In fact, she began training while in her mother's womb-her mother actually won a ski race...

 El balcón en invierno by Luis Landero is a beautiful, if at times frustrating book. It could all be said much more simply, succinctly and perhaps with greater immediate power. But if it were written that way, it would lose what becomes its special and elegant appeal as repeated motifs, by simple virtue of their repetition, actually take on the flavour of what the writer clearly intended to communicate. Ostensibly an autobiography, El balcón en invierno often feels like a novel, a surreal experience couched in a style that approaches magical realism. Long before we reach the end of the book, its characters have attained for the reader the near mythical status they hold for the book's narrator, ostensibly a child of the extended family described. We are pitched into a world of memories. This remembered world is that of a college educated, Madrid resident, mature man, who still wants to be a professional jazz guitarist. Every element of that sought after and pursued identity would...