Read a novella, The Alchemist, by Paolo Bacigalupi, which has some interesting premises and an original universe, but looses depth half-way to end up with a lame happy ending. Not to be confused with the best seller with the same title, by Paulo Coehlo. And the second tome of Le Chevalier aux épines, by Jean-Philippe Jaworski, which I preferred to the first one, as it is told by the (anti-)hero of Gagner la Guerre. And the “dystopia” Marine Le Pen présidente, which is a scathing critique of the shallow program of Le Pen’s party, but terribly lacking in the story itself, both dull and unrealistic. With most surprising appearances of Nicholas Khaleb and Yannis Varoufákis… Also read a masterpiece, Solo faces by James Salter, a 1979 novel on climbing solo until one looses faith and confidence. Mostly set in the British community of Chamonix, with a clear impresison of 1970’s France, great paragraphs on climbing episodes, multiple dimensions and depth of the central character, who remains a mystery till the end. Plus What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman, which has some redeeming features but drags much too long to an unsurprising ending.
Made a first jar of roasted almond butter, then a second, and it is likely to become a weekly “chore” along my skyr fabrication (which works most of the time, unless I seed it with the wrong type of yogurt). Recycling the whey in different ways, from the sweet rice pudding with matcha powder to buckwheat galettes, taking much less time than the earlier brunost!
Watched on Netfilx a terrible movie called the Electric State that offers no redeeming feature despite drawing on a massive budget of $340M to support its robotic animation. No depth, no irony, no fun. (And seemingly a complete departure from the original book that is all the opposite!) I also rewatched the second season of Kingdom the South-Korean “period zombie” series, believing it had just come out, until the final episode when I realised I had already seen it…
Xi'an's Og 