Hello! I was asked just now if I'll continue writing this newsletter as things change, and the answer is: you bet. Today, an article and a film about how people ruin things with money (in this case, Magic and wine); my desert island novel; and cardamom buns. 

Article: The Stockbrokers Of Magic: The Gathering Play for Keeps by Cecilia D’Anastasio, published by Wired in April 2020
Magic: The Gathering is a card trading game that has inspired a shadow economy of insider trading, speculation and investment. Cards are released, banned, or re-released; some are rarer than others. Their value — real and in-game — fluctuates, but the overall MTG market has remained so stable that the kind of people who invest in cryptocurrency are now branching out into MTG. One of the side effects is that rarer cards are becoming unaffordable for casual players. This is an extensive and fascinating article on how money destroys everything, even games.

Film: Sour Grapes (2016), directed by Reuben Atlas and Jerry Rothwell
Are you looking for a documentary full of people you don’t respect, don’t like, and don’t understand? Then I recommend this film about people who are really, really into wine. I find people who take wine too seriously pretty unbearable — you don’t ever want to go on a date with someone who’s sniffing wine, in my opinion. Sour Grapes recounts how wine became a commodity that was traded for huge prices at auctions, and how, inevitably, wine fraud increased. It features a cast of improbable characters, including one of the minor Koch brothers (who I’m pretty sure has a real Modigliani in his ugly house), and a man who drinks a glass of wine in a limousine while going from one tasting to another. In short, this will make you feel better about your choices as you drink your supermarket Austrian white wine out of a water glass, mixed with soda, as God or Vienna local tradition intended. Also, sometimes you just need to watch something where you can judge everyone really hard.
Note: Sour Grapes is streaming on Netflix.

Book: Désirée by Annemarie Selinko (1953)
I don't know about you but I've had quite a week (and by that I mean the last seven days – I'm fully aware that it's Monday!). So I’m currently re-reading (for at least the 10th time) the novel that singlehandedly kickstarted my lifelong interest in the Napoleonic era. Désirée is the fictional diary by – you guessed it – Désirée, a young woman from Marseille who was briefly engaged to Napoleon, then married a French general who later became King of Sweden and founding father of the current royal dynasty there. What a life! This is a 500+ page romp that covers about 35 years of a frankly insane time period in European history. The book is fiction but the people and events are very real; it was a huge success, sold thousands of copies and was adapted for the screen with Marlon Brando as Napoleon. I read it for the first time when I was 11 or 12; every time I've moved, I've taken it with me. Obviously, it's a jolly good yarn, but I really enjoy the writing too. Selinko was one of the most successful authors of her time. Désirée is, to me, the perfect historical novel (pre post-modernism, obviously): just pure well-written entertainment. As someone on goodreads says, it's chick lit, but the best kind of chick lit.
Note: The novel was translated into English a couple of times. The side-by-side comparison here is interesting and makes me suspect that the UK translation isn't particularly great. Feel free to pay me to translate it for you!

Other: Cardamom buns
I love baked goods, and particularly yeasted baked goods. I'm also lucky enough to live with someone who enjoys baking, which means that my favourite and most elusive baked good, the cardamom bun, has made an appearance in my flat. We've been following this very detailed recipe. We don't have a scale and only tried the glaze the first time (a mistake because we both hate glazes), but it still worked. The second try, to which I contributed nothing, was glaze-free and very delicious. Easier to make than you think, and will fill the cardamon bun-shaped hole in your life.

That's it for now! I'm off to take a bath in the middle of the afternoon because it's that kind of Monday. Tell me what you loved and take care.