John J. Vinacci

I didn’t know much about The One by John Marrs beyond its initial premise. I knew it was a modern sci-fi book and so it landed on my list of reads. At any rate, another reviewer delivered the synopsis this way: “A company announces that they have found the gene that pairs each of us with our soulmate. In a desperate search for true love, millions of people around the world take the DNA test…but when several individuals receive notification that they’ve found their match, everything begins to fall apart.” That’s an apt description of the premise and is best left at that, though readers should be aware that the DNA-matching plot device is nothing more than that and is the sole element of sci-fi in the novel. While I wasn’t a fan of the vignette-style of delivery (in which the various tales are loosely connected at best) and The One is not a particularly well-written book, I found myself enjoying the various twists and turns even if they weren’t foreshadowed while predictable half the ...

The Bucket Carry It’s said that every Spartan Race is different, figuratively and literally. Each venue has its quirks and unique set-up which challenge a racer’s ability to adapt, mentally and physically. From race to race, even the weather can vary significantly. The 2025 Seattle Spartan Race in Monroe, WA lived up to this assessment, to say the least. I’d been looking forward to this race having last run in the Phoenix Sprint two years ago, a race so miserable due to the weather that day (50 ° F cloudy and raining!) I will never forget it. While that last race was no exception, there always comes a point in the Spartan Race where I ask myself The Question, “Why am I doing this?” a question that prevailed more so in Phoenix than in any other previous race. Despite that, I still placed well in the Phoenix Sprint both in my age group and overall (according to my own somewhat nebulous For Those Who Cannot standards) but felt I could do better. Thus, among my goals this time around was...