Peter Thomson's Sacred Sea: A Journey to Lake Baikal
I wondered how interesting a book about the deepest lake in the world could be. I got my answer. VERY! Thomson manages to make the science behind the lake and the crisis it is facing fascinating and easy to understand.
He also bared his soul about his disappointment over his failed marriage and his love for his much younger brother.

Even Colombians are Freaked Out
This is a country that is somewhat inured to violence, what with a 50 or 60 year old guerilla war, death squads and paramilitaries, not to mention the everyday violence of the country's streets and highways.
But just a few days after several Latin American countries condemned the Colombian military for a strike in Ecuadorian territory that killed guerrilla leader Raul Reyes, Pablo Montoya, who was supposed to be guarding another guerilla leader, Ivan Rios, killed Rios with a shot to the forehead in cold blood. He severed the guerilla leader’s hand from his body, and brought the fetid object to a local military base, hoping to receive the five billion peso (about $2,500,000) reward the Colombian government has promised for guerilla leaders “dead or alive.”
Colombians are sick of the guerilla war that has dragged on for decades, but they are also full of anguish over the depths their government will go to in order to defeat the rebels. “The message, ‘kill for money,’ is terrible,’” wrote Angel Maria Aguilar in a letter to the editor of El Tiempo, the leading national newspaper. “What would a child think of this? How do we explain that even though ‘Rios’ was a criminal, another criminal gained something by killing him? The consequences of this war will last for years.”