"An Apple a Day" by Joe Schwarcz

As a welcome change of pace and subjects, my current reading is something completely different from Fantasy, angels and demons - a collection of essays about the powers of food, what exactly we are putting in our mouth, misconceptions about "healthy food" and a lots of interesting little facts mostly unknown to wide audiences brainwashed by media & advertisements. Deep inside we think we probably know that there is nothing better than fresh products directly from a countryside but really, knowledge is most of the time only a matter of perception - this is why people like Joe Schwarcz come so handy because he knows what he is talking about and is entertaining without sounding too preachy or serious (in fact, guy is extremely funny and not complicated at all). 

So far I have learned that;

Apple actually has natural nail polish remover (acetone) and a embalming fluid (formaldehyde) in it, but in such small quantities that it shouldn't alarm anyone. Poison after all, is a matter of dose. Aspirin was taken as a prevention for heart-attack but it also caused a lot of death in children whose parents took this advice too seriously. Apparently an ordinary Apple has around 300 chemicals inside which scientists claim actually prevent tumors. 

Tomatoes are extremely good for you but not fresh - contrary to my own logic where everything is the best when raw and unspoiled by cooking, Tomatoes are beneficial when cooked because heat releases nutrients that in turn might control cancer cells. Lack of Tomatoes in your diet will reflect in reddening of the skin. And it may be especially helpful on long-distance flights, where a potentially life-threatening condition called deep-vein thrombosis can occur. Sitting in one position, such as in an airline seat, without moving for extended periods increases the chance of blood clots forming in the legs. These clots can travel to the heart or lungs and cause a catastrophe. So when on a long flights, go for Tomato juice!

Cranberries for some reason work extremely well against Bacteria that usually get stuck in humans urinary tract - it simply doesn't allow Bacteria to stay there and it gets washed away with ordinary Cranberries juice. It seems it has similar affect on stomach therefore working effectively as anti-ulcer treatment, protect teeth from Bacteria that cling to them when we eat Sugar and in general works miracles on human bodies. Of course commercial juices are full of Sugar so if you really want to experience health Nirvana, you should stay away from Sugary Cranberries juices and get yourself a real (sour) deal. 

Grapefruit has a bad reputation because it cancels effects of medicine taken (imagine that!) and this is why it has ben taken off daily menus in many hospitals. At the same time it levels Cholesterol, reduces the risk of heart disease and generally speaking has a good effects on humans - however, it does not when taken with medicine so it Grapefruit growers are in a bad position because they still have to convince the world that this particular fruit is actually good for you.

Blueberries rank at the top of health charts because of their color - something in that color actually works very well for us, improving our night vision, preventing blood-clots and slowing aging in our brain cells. It might have some effect on aging process in general but so far all the experiments were done on rats and my guess is that small doses of Blueberries eaten in cakes & pancakes & sweets won't actually work as a magic, you need to eat much, much more (on daily basis) to actually get some positive effect.

Citrus fruits might have excellent effect on cancer prevention, however, its all based on lab rats again and even though it works miracles on them, you would need to drink twenty glasses of orange juice per day to get same dose that rats get in one shot (no wonder they suddenly run on their windmills) so until someone finds out how to actually make this work and what doses should be given to people without getting their eyes yellow from vitamin C, it is still just a theory.

Fish - pregnant women who consumed about 300 grams of fish or seafood a week gave birth to children with higher tested IQ scores.

It is still unknown why exactly is it so but it has good effect on our brains, though it has also being noted that certain fish has way too much mercury so its really up to you. It definitely has some effect on depression (countries with high fish intake have low rates of depression and countries with low intakes exhibit high rates), dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity and Alzheimer’s.

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

The End of the World is coming and two immortals (angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley, both on opposite sides) who for thousands of years knew each other as enemies-who-became-friends decide that it would really be a pity to destroy the world where they already feel so comfortable. So they both work on educational influence on a little boy who is supposed to grow into Antichrist - however, there was some comic baby switch in a hospital so the boy everybody predicted to be Antichrist is actually a perfectly ordinary boy and real Antichrist is someone else completely...

This is a collaboration between two writers - Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman - although I can clearly feel much more of Pratchett in here. Gaiman obviously enjoyed this and both probably giggled and laughed a lot as they described all those zany characters. The novel actually sparks with a certain kooky humour which is very typical for Pratchett. For some reason I had never truly warmed up to him and after I did some serious soul searching why is it so (after all, he is a successful writer and had created the whole Pratchett universe of novels & characters) my conclusion is that it feels simply too silly for me - it is very funny at the times and yes, I found myself occasionally chuckling but perhaps I prefer my novels to have a little bit of darkness in them. Not that I believe that every book has to be life-affirming, thunder-and-lighting, carved-in-stone truth about life, sometimes its just fine to enjoy lighthearted literature for the sheer sake of escapism but in my opinion is that Pratchett takes this lightheartedness to extreme and it makes me feel like I'm reading children's books. To be honest, so far I read only two pieces by him and they didn't won me over or convince me that I should read some more, like for example I had with Gaiman. Now I had read three Gaiman novels one after the other so I think this was enough for time being - this collaboration cooled me off - it is time to switch the gears and read something completely different, either non fiction, history or Science Fiction. "Good Omens" was very fluffy and lighthearted so now I need something more substantial.

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman

Imagine that every traveller, sailor, adventurer, emigrant and a slave who ever came to America brought their own religion with them. Each of these spirits, demons, Gods and deities thrived as long as people worshipped them and remembered them in their prayers or sacrifices but once these people died out, disappeared or simply forgot their ancient religions, old Gods came to be abandoned and now are surviving only disguised as ordinary mortals, living ordinary lives and visible to handful who don't even remember their proper names. New times has brought new Gods - Gods of TV (media), credit cards, Gods of technology and the inevitable war between them is coming, the big storm is brewing.

Ex-prisoner on his way home finds himself entangled in war between old and new Gods. He becomes employed by mysterious figure who appears as cheerful con man but he actually might be Odin himself, travelling across the country to convince old Gods to take one last stand and fight against new Gods. There is a whole bunch of ancient Gods joining them in disguise of ordinary humans - from Thoth and Anubis, Kali and Queen of Sheba to Slavic Gods Czernobog and Bielebog, three The Zorya Sisters and even African God Anansi. In the middle of it all is a mysterious little town that prospers while all the nearby towns die out and its citizens unaware that someone sacrifices all the children who went missing trough the years for the sake of town's peaceful existence. 

Neil Gaiman is my new discovery - after I read and than immediately re-read his book "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" with the biggest pleasure, I was assured that here is someone with a definitive genius and interesting voice, in fact for the first time in my life I said to myself "I wish I could write like this". As usual I do it all backwards, discovering this brilliant writer from his recent work and now going back to his earlier novels - "American Gods" was published all the way back in 2001 and got showered with all sorts of literary awards, it is truly a masterpiece of Fantasy, no wonder even mighty Stephen King praises him and yes, I do find Gaiman occasionally sounding like King's younger brother. Where King is dark and creepy, Gaiman can be light-hearted and perhaps more compassionate to his characters, though both writers are not afraid to look in some very dark corners of human psyche and both love to roam in a certain twilight zone between life and death. In fact, the whole question of life and death is a grey zone for Gaiman who toys with it and reader can never be sure is character's death truly ever final, as his Gods/demons/ghosts/humans swiftly travel between these places. I seriously expected that 2016 will be my year of Science Fiction but so far my literary choices got really sidetracked big time and nothing really went as planned - which in itself is beauty of discoveries - naturally I am immediately right at the start of my next book by Neil Gaiman so Science Fiction will have to wait some more. 

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman

Encouraged by my last read - something current and contemporary as opposite to my usual unearthing of classics - I decided to check out the book that was constantly floating somewhere around me, in fact I start suspecting that the Universe nudges me towards this book because I was finding it again and again everywhere I looked. Not that I knew a thing about Neil Gaiman, honestly his is the name I was not familiar with. It all changed drastically now, because dear reader, for the first time in my life I finished the book and than re-read it again from beginning to the end.

Apparently it was meant to be a short story and it starts shaky - there are heaps of praises (so called "blurbs") on the book cover, but they all somehow pointed me in a completely wrong direction, promising some dark disturbing thriller and "long forgotten secrets from childhood". Honestly, either I watched too many crime TV serials or this advertisements got me confused, either way it was absolutely not what I expected. There is a relatively slow initial chapter dealing with somebody thinking about past but the real start of the book is on the page 9 as the new chapter starts and the main protagonist recalls ... "Nobody came to my seventh birthday party." From here onwards, we follow this little, lonely unnamed boy who loves nothing better than his world of books and sees the big world differently than grown ups and this is part of magic in Gaiman's writing: he somehow recalls that children have their own way of seeing things, something we tend to forget as we grow up. Whatever happens later (and a lot happens in this magnificent and short book) little boy explains it in his head the way only children would do. When he meets a 11 year old girl from a neighbourhood farm and she is clever way above her age, he asks he how long was she eleven. This was (for example) just one of hundreds of little touches trough this magic book and truly it is a wonder, what a discovery, it turned out to be one of those brilliant small masterpieces that in my heart leave far more excitement than anything super-hyped and massive. At certain point the book becomes absolutely gripping fantasy with supernatural beings all over the place (including the neighbours!) but in the centre is still a little boy and his understanding of the life around him. What a beauty, what a thrill, what a discovery.

"Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand

Another Christmas present - now, under normal circumstances I would probably not really go for WW2 literature because I have quite a strong dislike for anything to do with weapons, war and such. This phobia goes so far that I won't even watch war movies - its not only that I have experienced war first-hand but since I can remember, I was fed with stories about WW2 and Holocaust so at certain point this simply became a subject I wouldn't touch with a pole. My own experience of the war and the whole explosion of colours it brings out of usually ordinary civilians (fear, sadism, selfishness, heroism, compassion, xenophobia, cruelty ... list is never ending) makes the whole subject quite traumatic and it is not something I approach lightly as a entertainment. 

However, I was aware that this book was on top of New York Times Bestseller list for quite some time. 

But with so many other things to read about, I would probably not really go for something about WW2 - until the book was given to me for Christmas and since there is nothing like holding a real, physical book in hands I decided to leave my virtual library for a while and give this a chance. I was actually almost sure I won't like it, that the subject is not for me and it will probably bore me with some technical details about planes machinery - to my biggest surprise I dived in it instantly and read first three chapters at once, marvelling at Hillenbrand's exciting and matter-of-fact style that bridges the most riveting journalism with passion of a true historian. 

This is non-fiction (generally my most beloved genre) biography of a Louis Zamperini, the son of impoverished Italian emigrants who somehow focused his wild youthful energy into sport and instead a under aged delinquent he promised to be, became celebrated runner who actually represented his country on Olympic Games in Berlin 1936. Just as he was planning to continue his training and compete again in 1940. the WW2 started and Zamperini found himself in Army Air Forces in Pacific that was completely swarmed with Japanese and sharks. At this point of the story Zamperini and his young fellow soldiers (basically all kids in early twenties) started to experience some seriously dangerous situations and book is so addictive and thrilling that I consciously steal time off from my sleep just to continue another chapter. I am honestly surprised how exciting and compulsively readable this book is because I expected that this is not a subject for me - than again, it connects biography and history so perhaps it appeals to me from that angle. Honestly, the only other WW2 book that I ever remember reading (besides obligatory school literature which bored me to tears) was "Tales of South Pacific" by James A. Michener and unforgettable as it was, this is actually much, much better. I am seriously addicted to this one and enjoying it each night when my work finally finishes after midnight. 

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Wow, this was truly a unputdownable book - it is 7 a.m. and I had just finished it.

Not just skipping fast, but reading it thoroughly, with greatest interest and fascination. The parts in Japanese concentration camp - harrowing and never ending as they were, I squirmed nervously as I read them. I chewed my peanuts and almonds frantically as I read about prisoners starving. Everything is this book affected me so much that it followed me in my dreams. Than I would wake up and read some more. I perfectly understand that survived prisoners of war had a serious problems with adjusting to later civilian lives - it is a strange feeling to walk in the sunny streets, surrounded with regular civilian people who have no clue about what you've gone trough. So I do sympathise with all of them - my own experiences, thought not exactly in same circumstances but traumatic nevertheless - are similar. It was excellent, highly dramatic book and though story itself was not a pleasant one, it was impossible to put it down. Just realised it took me actually just a few days to read it - and this is with my work schedule, where I can only read after midnight. 

"Day for Night" by Frederick Reiken

This was a Christmas present.

There is nothing more welcome as a gift to me than a book (or a music, movie) BUT what to give to a 100% bookworm who reads an collects his whole life? When it comes to my current choices, I usually roam where inspiration leads me and follow towards whatever suggestion, idea or a recommendation might point. Sometimes the best intended gifts might simply not be the right choice for me, as proven a few years ago when I was given than brand new trilogy "Fifty Shades of Grey" (which my roommate had bought as Christmas present completely innocently because it was very popular and the lady in the shop suggested as a best seller) than still stands unopened somewhere in the corner because I simply didn't have a heart to throw it away. This Christmas my current work colleague faced a small choice in a Aruba's bookshop and bravely decided to go for something written recently and to trust all those glitzy awards and usual advertising tricks on the cover. I was thrilled, to be honest, because I love books + never heard of this one. 

It turned out very interesting, though I was very suspicious initially because I didn't like the voice of the character at the start - it sounded just as annoying and superficial as majority of the people I meet trough my work (me, me, me and some more me) until I realised (around chapter three) that this was actually a very clever trick: every chapter is told from a point of view of a different person, so each of them have completely different way of expressions and thinking. A spotty teenager, neurosurgeon, retired widower, FBI agent, pop singer, it unfolds Rashomon-like into a story that eventually connects different destinies, lives past and present, even far away places. I guess the main idea would be how our lives are all connected one way or the other. Kind of how your life story could be told from different perspectives if various people talk about it. Which brings me to my favourite question - what is truth and are we a person we think we are, a person we strive & imagine ourselves to be or a person others see in our place? Well, I enjoyed the novel up to the point but not really because of the story as much for the idea of each chapter having a completely different, fresh voice. This was done with excellent style and grace, I must admit the author showed even brilliance by using so many completely opposite ways of thinking and different perspectives. As for the story itself, I felt it a bit meandering and unfocused because it started in one place and it went to several others until it closed at something completely left-turn - it all had some sort of conclusion, I guess, but again it was the writing style and not the story itself that thrilled me.