slideshow BOSTON — Shalane Flanagan grew up in nearby Marblehead with a reverence for the Boston Marathon and dreamed, like many locals and foreign runners alike, that she would win the race someday.Her goal has changed now.But only a little.“If I could have one wish, it would be to win this specific race on this specific day,” she said this week. “It basically would be the highlight of my career, for sure. If I could win this specific Boston — it has the most power, the most meaning behind it, of all the Boston Marathons that would Continue reading >>>

Farrell McClernon, now a true Boston fan Editor's Note: Farrell McClernon is the director of strategic business development for local marketing startup Privy. She is also a Boston University alumna, now repeat Boston Marathon runner and an incredibly proud transplant-turned-Bostonian.  I shipped up to Boston eight years ago, and never left. I thought about it a couple times. We’ve had our ups and downs, Boston and me. Bostonians, the born and raised kind, are a tough breed. They run thick as thieves and, as a transplant, it can often feel impossible to break through. Four years Continue reading >>>

A Boston native cooks up a success story and sets example for small firms' China operations Shanghai has captivated Scott Minoie's imagination for as long as he can remember. It may have happened in Chinese history lessons at college. Or kung fu movies. Or the success of earlier foreign investors. It propelled the Bostonian to settle in Shanghai after a city tour fascinated him. He took a position teaching English at a local university, something common for young expats, even if he had worked as a chef in five-star hotels back in the United States. As more foreign executives relocated to Continue reading >>>

A YEAR AGO TODAY, WE CHOSE TO RUN TOWARD SMOKE IN DANGER. WE CHOSE TO UTILIZE OUR BELTS AND PURSE STRAPS TO CREATE TOURNIQUETS. WE CHOSE TO HOLD THE INJURED IN OUR ARMS. WE CHOSE TO OFFER OUR HEARTS TO THOSE IN DESPAIR, AND OUR TREASURES TO THOSE IN NEED. WE CHOSE TO LOVE , AND THAT HAS MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. IN THE DAYS THAT FOLLOWED, WE CONTINUED TO EXPRESS PROFOUND LOVE BY SEWING THE THREADS OF COMMUNITY. WE MADE OUR CITY SAFE AGAIN, DAVE BLOOD, PERFORMED AND UNDERWENT COUNTLESS SURGERIES, AND BEGAN THE LONG JOURNEY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL REHABILITATION. OUR Continue reading >>>

Cade Belisle/Daily Collegian It is a strange feeling to see your hometown on a TV screen as you’re sitting in a hotel room halfway across the world, but that’s how it happened. In the spring of 2013 I studied abroad in Galway, Ireland, where our classes ended on March 27.  After that we had a few weeks off as a “study period,” which, to me, meant travel time. I’d made it to London, Paris and Florence, and the last stop was Barcelona, where I’d meet my sister and her boyfriend as they flew over to visit. Returning Continue reading >>>

Possessing a Boston Marathon medal earns you celebrity status in my hometown. I'm not talking Ben Affleck or Matt Damon cachet -- it's bigger than that. Having trained for, endured, and finished the Boston Marathon gets you major admiration throughout town. When people find out I ran "the" marathon -- for to us, there is no other -- I usually get a high five, and the same questions:"Was the starting line a zoo?"My answer: it was orderly, anticipatory chaos."Did the Wellesley girls actually kiss runners?"Yes -- I saw co-eds kissing sweaty runners with my own Continue reading >>>

Possessing a Boston Marathon medal earns you celebrity status in my hometown. I'm not talking Ben Affleck or Matt Damon cachet -- it's bigger than that. Having trained for, endured, and finished the Boston Marathon gets you major admiration throughout town. When people find out I ran "the" marathon -- for to us, there is no other -- I usually get a high five, and the same questions:"Was the starting line a zoo?"My answer: it was orderly, anticipatory chaos."Did the Wellesley girls actually kiss runners?"Yes -- I saw co-eds kissing sweaty runners with my own Continue reading >>>

CINCINNATI — Jessica Bird waves her arms like an evangelist in front of about 800 screaming followers, many of whom have traveled hours — in some cases, days — to hear her speak in the ballroom of the Millennium Hotel Cincinnati. One fan is Amber Fueston, a 28-year-old with a tattoo inspired by Bird’s books covering the top half of her arm. “It’ll be a full sleeve when it’s done,” she promises. Continue reading below Another fan, from Michigan, has brought a pair of high-heel shoes decorated with pages from her favorite book in Bird’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, “Lover Continue reading >>>

There are many ways to get around the Hub, of course, but one blogger proclaims on Twitter, "Boston is a walking city." One of the many places Bostonians find themselves walking to – more than they would like, perhaps – is the nearby MBTA station. One city-dweller, "The Walking Bostonian," who is "attempting to figure out why some cities decline, why some succeed, and how we can help," has published a "transit walkshed" map, which coordinates walkable areas around T stations. The @MBTA station walksheds visualized, colorized by route, http://t.co/JXzmDsYziI pic.twitter.com/o80P5w7mFp — Continue reading >>>

The Boston Public Library (BPL) has two faces—and one of them is getting a serious face lift. Its first, older and more recognizable face is the facade of the historic McKim Building, home to the majestic Bates Hall reading room and host to scores of Bostonian weddings. The McKim building—dubbed a “palace for the people” by architect Charles Follen McKim—was built in the late 1800s, and has presided over Copley Square ever since. The BPL’s other face, which looks out at Boylston Street, is decidedly less grand, and a person seeing it for the first time would have a hard Continue reading >>>