Xi'an's Og

Read plenty of books during my Indian trip, finishing Translation State, by Ann Leckie. Just brilliant. This is indeed a complex and fascinating book, set in the same universe as the Ancillary books, and it takes some (rewarding) effort to get engaged into the different perspectives on the event, as well as the imprecise genders, but this is ultimately flourishing. (Albeit the three central characters are way too nice and positive!) And the recently rediscovered Londres, by Louis Ferdinand Céline. Ghastly in its exposure of the lowest floors of the human soul . But also with more of a scenario and story tension than Guerre. This second book comes as a sequel to Guerre and is in the same spirit, although the main character, Ferdinand, is less sell-shocked than in the first book. The story is somewhat more constructed and the progression (or regression) has more tension. But the main characteristics of Céline’s style and pessimistic views of humanity remain, with a bleak representation of the collection of crooks, pimps, war profiteers, and desertors that people the book. And Les Eaux de sous le Monde by Stéphane Platteau, an interesting, short, side-story linked to the fantastic Les Sentiers des Astres, if on the light side, at least scenario-wise, as the story centres on a male mage trying to stop a spectre from destroying a convent (or two). Apart from him, all characters are female and some play central enough roles that he would have failed otherwise. And A Man With One of Those Faces, by Caimh McDonnell, a comic detective story, very funny but with a definite suspension of (dis)belief in the resolution of the Razpunzel unsolved mystery and possibly an overdose of Irish-ness. And Guinness! The comic side makes the day, though, along with multi-dimension characters. Part of a rather long series of books and novellas. Finished, painfully, Letter from the Dead, by Jack Gatland, a terrible detective story set in London with caricaturesque characters and situations all the way. Surprisingly a best-seller! (And followed by 21 volumes!)

Harvested and cooked so-called Jerusalem and Chinese artichokes (in French, topinambourg and crosnes, resp.) for Xmath, which didn’t suit everyone at the table. But which I liked, despite the annoying harvesting of crosnes, small and highly dispersed roots. Did not cook anything while India but indulged in the infinite variety of new dishes found in the different hotels & resorts we stayed at.

Chose chaos as the most suited of the horsemen for the coming year, with the number one disruptor (re)entering the White House, wars still raging in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, …, the lack of a stable majority in the French parliament, and the rise of populism in Europe. And elsewhere.