The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is my favorite book of the trilogy. I already confessed The Millennium series is my guilty pleasure and I thoroughly enjoyed this last book. It took off where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, and built the story from there. There was a slow part just before the ending crescendo, but all in all the intrigue, the ruthless spy game made-in-Sweden (don't expect James Bond, this IS Sweden after all), and the trial of Lisbeth Salander were all gripping and suspenseful. It won't win any literary awards, but it will be remembered as entertaining and well thought crime and spy intrigue.

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Christmas Came (Too Early) to Town

Rant alert!

Aren’t we all creatures of habit? For years now, Meg and I wake up to the tune from our radio-alarm clock. It’s always been set to Toronto’s CHFI radio. Admittedly, the music is repetitive—something to do with the Canadian Copyrights Act, which allows only a very limited number of songs to be played on the airwaves, and it seems that, no matter when you tune in, you’ll hear at least two songs you heard the previous time you tuned in.

The reason we keep our dial on CHFI’s frequency is the couple of morning hosts—Erin Davis and Mike Cooper—who are entertaining and informative, without being intrusive. Quite rare in modern days when everything is taken to extremes and beyond.

Unfortunately, the brains who decide the music policy of the station, take upon themselves to think for us listeners, and potential consumers. And, they decided that they should put us all in the Christmas mood. I’m guessing, for them “Christmas mood” means “Christmas shopping,” which for me are two things at the opposite spectrum of extreme sensations—one is warm and pleasant, another is stress-inducing, blood-pressure rising, hectic endeavor.

So, on Sunday, November 21, CHFI switched into “all Christmas all the time” music mode. That’s MORE THAN A MONTH before Christmas. I already complained about them proclaiming themselves “Toronto's Official Christmas Station” last year, so this year they ditched the “official” part (not because of ME complaining, but someone must have told them the same thing). The rest remains the same. The play nothing but Christmas music!

So, we had to alter our year-round habit (yet again), and we changed all the radio pre-sets onto a different station, until the Christmas madness abates. Because, 41 days of Christmas is a bit more than this consumer can stomach.

For me, Christmas is the time when you sit with the family and reminisce of times past and present, enjoy the dinner and cookies, with eggnog or wine around the (optional) fireplace. The carols are welcome, but only on the Christmas eve. Anything more than this picture is a travesty of consumerism. I wish there’s something that can prod the collective sense of the consuming masses of North America into boycotting Christmas shopping and enjoying the Christmas evening. Isn’t that a fair trade? More than a month filled with stresses and excesses of unnecessary shopping for ONE evening with the family.

The Lotus Eaters

by Tatjana Soli

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As a former war photographer myself, I was amazed when, reading The Lotus Eaters, I read some of my own thoughts, fears and doubts attributed to the main character, Helen. Although my war happened long after Vietnam, the way the author described situation and mental built of war photographers hasn’t changed. War shooters, then and now, are children who live high on adrenaline and in their own utopia, believing that the truth exposed in war photographs can make the difference, that people will learn from a tragedy they reveal not to repeat the same horrific mistake. But, people never learn.

As it was the case with Helen, once a photographer had some modicum of success with a certain photograph, the pull to out-do his own picture becomes a drive that pushes him (or her) farther, into riskier and wilder situations. At the same time, something tears in the social fabric of his soul, and he (or she) becomes incapable of returning to “normal” life. And, although seemingly Helen always had a choice to return to the U.S., I completely understand her failure to blend in when she came back, and her eagerness to return to Vietnam at the first opportunity. Once you learn that the only thing that matters in life is the life itself, you can’t sympathize with trivial complaints about job, baby-sitter, traffic and weather. Everything that institutes life for “normal” people becomes trivial. Consequently, it’s impossible to fit into society which only pays attention to “trivial” things. If there was a sequel to this story, I’m certain Helen would be in another war, doing what feels natural – taking pictures of another tragedy.

It is a well-written love story, believable as it is tragic. Tatjana Soli takes the reader through the jungles of Vietnam and the chaos of Saigon, into the depths of her characters’ hearts. It is a wonderful trip and I enjoyed every word of it.
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New York, New York

We had a fabulous week in New York. First, I ran the NY marathon, and although you may think that's a hard work, I actually enjoyed every inch of it! It was a running experience like no other and I am really happy to have had a chance to participate.

After the race, it was time for lazy pleasures. We strolled around the Ground Zero and Wall Street, went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, checked the Brooklyn Bridge and Metropolitan Museum of Arts. We also took a lot of pictures to share, and here is the slide show.

Absolutely Stunning Photos

This is just one from the series of absolutely stunning photos which are part of the National Geographic's annual photo contest, published on Boston.com's Big Picture. For all of them click the photo, or HERE.

The party that is the New York marathon

In the story of my running life, year 2010 is going down as the golden year, the year of great personal accomplishments, the year when I experienced two of the arguably most prestigious marathon races in the world — Boston and New York.

The difference between New York and Boston marathons is apparent from the start. In Boston, everybody was serious about running. New York, which I ran this November 7, is more of a running party. Most of the people registered thanks to the lucky draw; only a choice few, myself included, qualified for the guaranteed entry. To run in New York, you either have to be very fast or very lucky. I could tell from the beginning that there were far more lucky ones than fast ones. Here's how it went for me.

Read the whole story at nationalpost.com

This is part 1 of the NYC marathon recap. For Part 2 click HERE.

Map of my run in NYC marathon 2010 - for detailed stats, click on "view details on RunKeeper" link