"Who was Adam?" by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross

Now, this is something really interesting - I found this book on my very first day on the ship as I checked the libraries - and its absolutely right "up my alley" as it combines history, archaeology, science and religion so these are some serious subjects that I always love to read about. Where science and religion differ about the matter of creation, beginning of life on earth and such - one perspective excluding the other - this book actually explains that nothing is black-and-white and in fact two stories don't have to necessary cancel each other, they actually might told the same story.

So far I was always more prone to stand by scientific explanation of evolution, meteorites bringing bacteria and life forms to our planet and slow circle of catastrophes, explosions of life and apocalypses again and again for millions of years - after all, we have fossils, archaeology, dna and many other ways of explaining the distant past, I simply didn't buy into Biblical version. Here, however we have two authors who are both scientists and religious so its kind of interesting twist, because guys are obviously technically well informed about their fields (one is chemist, the other astronomer) but they still respect the older tradition and claim that Biblical account might simply confirm scientistic version in different words. I am reading it right now with greatest interest (and its a refreshing to finally escape out of "Game of Thrones" universe) and the book covers all the points that always interested me - origin of man, religion, Neanderthals, dna, distant history, it is all here. Compared to George R.R.Martin this is now a pure pleasure and although it is a non-fiction, even science, I am sailing trough it with greatest ease. 

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I read it completely last night. It started with a bang, covering all the facts that I was previously familiar with, including mysterious one that scientists have discovered that humanity's female lineage track back to an earlier date than the male lineage - this doesn't mean that Eve was older than Adam but that long ago, some time in a history, some kind of catastrophe had almost erased men's dna and only small group of men have survived, while women's dna date to much older times. This actually reflects Biblical story of the Flood that almost destroyed the humanity. Another interesting point is our own genetic similarity to other living organisms on the planet, which authors point as Creator's use of already existing materials (not from the dust, but from available substances). Where people stand apart from other animals is our similarity to God, in a sense of having particular divine spirit, in other words a consciousness that allow us to have perception about morality, purpose, destiny, hope, questions about life and death, in short our reflection of his image. All is well up to this point, but where the book fails to convince me is the second part where basically all the older forms of humanoids are dismissed as not really connected to humans - I still believe that we evolved one way or the other from previous, much older relatives, while this book claims no, Creator had given us this special gift of brain and consciousness while previous branches of family have nothing to do with us, they were just half-animals. So dear, sweet Neanderthal was just another caveman with no connections to us - well, sorry Mr.Rana and Mr.Ross but this is where I disagree because I believe that there was an evolution, it was gradual, it took millions of years and there was no magic wand giving us the precious spark of intelligence (and why to us and not to chimpanzees?) and we are very probably combination of various genes, in fact we are probably children of both Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal who never completely disappeared but was assimilated into society of this new, stronger and more brutal visitor from the South. 

It is very interesting to read - from the point of view of religious scientists - and it seems the whole ranch of this publishing company is focused on similar books, it is called RTB (Reasons to Believe) that tries to balance the connection between these two messages. I am always open to new suggestions and willing to accept different informations, after all, the more one knows the bigger perspective one gets. So from this book I took what I found interesting and left the rest. Still not convinced in a story about one omnipotent Creator and I am standing by the belief that we are result of random stardust life forms that have arrived from out of space and evolved trough millions of years. This also means that similar life forms can be found elsewhere, perhaps in different shapes (in other words, gigantic cockroaches/ants might be ruling life forms on another planets).

"A Dance with Dragons" by George R.R.Martin

How interesting, it seems that critics had slammed Martin's previous novel "A Feast for Crows" (the fourth part of saga "A Song of Ice and Fire") and praised this, fifth part as "return to form" where personally I enjoyed previous novel much more than this one. In previous novel the focus were different characters and certain parts of kingdom, while here we have another perspective and the rest of characters - well, I had said this before and will say it again, I don't care a fig for Daenerys Targaryen and her chapters, it bothered me in TV serial and still bothers me here as it feels like completely another novel, with people far removed from the main story so to have her back again did not really improve my attention. 

I am perfectly aware that diving into five books of saga might have been a overtly enthusiastic task and as I read one after the other, this last (so far) part felt more like a chore than as pleasure. In fact, I did read it only in order to finish what I had already started and since George R.R.Martin continued to introduce layers of the story on top of each other, even more characters in each chapter, my attention kind of wandered away and often I would find myself skipping the pages just to get on with the story - I probably skipped far more than I should have because at certain point honestly I couldn't recall who are those people (even worse, why should I remember them) and repeated mentions of historical past that happened centuries before current story always knocked me off to sleep. There are certain variations with TV serial and actually the differences are so big that I don't understand why it was done so, for example Sansa was not wed and abused by sadistic Ramsay Bolton (it was a completely another character) so how will TV producers get out if it interesting guess. The priestess Melisandre suddenly does not appear so frightening anymore, Tyrion spends most of this novel drunk and than meets dwarf lady who might become his love interest in the future, the "King-Beyond-the-Wall" Mance Rayder has actually not been killed as in TV serial but is alive and well in this novel, Jaime Lannister slowly gets disgusted with his sister and gravitates towards Brienne of Tarth and his uncle Kevan Lannister eventually takes over after Queen Cersei gets her well-deserved public humiliation and is probably pushed aside with no future involvement in rule. Again it was over a thousand pages and this time, for the first time I actually felt it, plowing trough it with determination more than joy, now when I am truly done with all five novels I feel heroic and definitely need a good break from not just George R.R.Martin but from the whole fantasy genre for a while - my next book have to be something completely different.

"Dalla terra" by Mina (2000)

One of the most intriguing, unexpected and artistically satisfying recordings by Italian über-diva who at the age of 60 shows no signs of either stagnation or curiosity - trough decades, Mina had sung everything from San Remo ballads, Italian folk songs, Jazz, Broadway tunes, Bossa Nova, Tango and Disco to some of the best jewels of Italian pop classics but so far she had not attempted a full-on album of religious music. Here, somewhat belatedly but still masterfully, she corrects this omission and presents the most unusual album in her rich discography, the album that leans heavily on classical music and composers from 17. and 18. century. 

At first it sounds like "Mina does Gregorian Chant" since the opening "Magnificat" soars in Heavenly heights and she is backed by stately Gregorian choir, it is the most, well, magnificent opening you can possible imagine and brings the singer in different sphere, here she is much more than pop artist. Several different arrangers (under the baton of her producer/son Massimiliano Pani) make sure there are various approaches to this ancient material - some surround her with classical sound, strings and Gregorian choirs, other give her late-night, Jazzy combo and it all works surprisingly tight, thanks to tasteful orchestrations and lady's absolute command of still impressive voice. It is definitely unexpected to hear Mina singing music by such classical heavyweights like Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Claudio Monteverdi and Charles Gounod, though purists from either pop or classical camp might wince at the idea but in all honesty it works perfectly - there are no compromises, this is dead serious, contemplative and even meditative music and the best of all, I cherish the idea of ever-changing artist who is still capable of growth and surprises. 

Athens and Acropolis

It is true that often I take all these travels for granted - after all, it is part of my job to wake up each morning in a different place so after a while one doesn't even think abut it. But the good part is that I am truly familiar with most of the tourist destinations everywhere so from time I like to serve as a tour guide to my colleagues. Occasionally I like nothing better than to walk out by myself and write my postcards and diary, but when I realise that my colleagues have no idea about the ports, I take them under my wing. 

For example, Piraeus is a lovely place but you would not know it, judging from a dirty port - it takes a careful walk along the sea side and two churches down, until you discover pretty shopping district with fine restaurants and nice harbour that I showed to my colleagues recently and they all loved it. Piraeus is ancient port that used to led to Athens - nowadays these two cities are in fact merged so its easy to reach centre of Athens with a underground metro, again it is a matter of how familiar one is with the city. Since we had two days off, I took my colleagues to show them Athens and Acropolis and it turned out into a beautiful experience. First we walked across picturesque area Plaka right in the centre of Athens, with hundreds of souvenir shops and restaurants, here is where you browse with ancient Acropolis looming from the hill right above. Than its a short walk up the hill and voilà, you are out of Plaka and walking towards one the most exciting and historically important places on a planet. I admired even the classy buildings along the way, there was one balcony with a Greek amphora as decoration, you could see the wall with books inside, it looked like my dream apartment, books, amphorae and Acropolis. 

No matter how many times I have visited Parthenon I am always excited, awed and thrilled to be there. I have been soaking in the Greek mythology as a child, after all, back than I knew all the names, heroes and legends, it was a fascinating world that fed my dreams and fantasy. How strange that locals eventually turned to different religion and hid all those wonderful stories under the rug, I thought as I walked towards the hill. As it happens, this time my visit (or my homage) turned out to be special because the sunset was falling on the whole town and the light on Acropolis was truly magical. There were less tourists and it was not unbearably hot as usual, in fact there was a gentle wind breezing around the hill and the view on the huge metropolis bellow was as usual, like a dream. One really needs to stand on the top of the hill to grasp the sheer size of Athens, it has more than 4 millions of inhabitants, which is more than my whole Croatia in total. I left my friends to roam and walked around by myself, happy as usual - the place has a special energy and I am always floating around, giddy with excitement that I am standing here and walking around Acropolis (well, I did move quite far from where I started in life), admired the ancient ruins that glowed in the sunset and must admit it did feel absolutely holy and wonderful to be there, I couldn't imagine better way to spend a day in Athens. 

"A Feast for Crows" by George R.R.Martin

Halfway trough the fourth part of "A Song of Ice and Fire" - apparently lots of hard-core fans criticised this book because George R.R.Martin had decided to split the story into two parts and several important characters are left for nr.five. So in this book we have no chapters about Daenerys Targaryen, Tyrion Lannister, and Jon Snow - however they are present as they are constantly mentioned and people talk about them so its not like they are completely ignored, its just that we don't see their own point of view. Which is fine by me as I always found Daenerys Targaryen chapters a bit plodding - she might be important eventually in a distant future but her story really happens far away on another continent and so far there is nothing really connecting her with main plot.

What I found fascinating here is Martin's writing style - once he made decision to spread story towards even more distant lands (Dorne, Braavos and Iron Islands) he introduces even more characters and descriptions of strange new places and more exotic people are truly inspired, it feels almost like another novel now. At times I think that perhaps the whole idea might be simply too enormous, too complicated to connect the dots but Martin seems to have it all planned and it takes a nonchalant phrase by somebody like cunning Petyr Baelish to convince me that everything goes it should be, that things are not happening randomly but certain shadowy characters actually manipulate everything from behind the scenes. In the aftermath of the war, the whole kingdom is burned and torn apart which we see in the chapters about Brienne of Tarth - at first it seems strange that she gets so much space (feels like she is prominent character in this book) specially considering her story really goes nowhere as she basically search for Sansa Stark unsuccessfully most of the time until we realise she is here to show how the kingdom is all torn apart and destroyed, on her journey Brienne encounters only death, danger and poverty. Even though I have seen TV serial and know what will happen later, I read this book with greatest pleasure every night a chapter or two after work - there are some important differences between novel and TV serial, for one in this book we hear about certain character Lady Stoneheart  who is supposedly a very dangerous new leader of Brotherhood Without Banners and she was not even mentioned in TV serial, also we encounter Lord Randyll Tarly (father of fat Samwell, the cowardly and clumsy son he had sent to The Wall) not to mention other characters from distant lands like brothers who compete for crown of Iron Islands (Victarion and Euron Greyjoy), charismatic priest Aeron Damphair and so many new people and perspectives that occasionally I felt dizzy from sheer wealth of author's fantasy. Just great, it is very exciting once you start digging into it. 

My roommate saw me reading last night and he commented that he can't possibly read anything, he never reads in his entire life. It puts him to sleep, he says. Than again, he can't imagine finishing the day without getting drunk in a bar. To each his own, I guess.