A Compliments All Round Weekly Link Round-Up

 

It's a slightly overcast day here in Phoenix. I'm sitting at my computer while the cleaning woman who comes twice a month mops the floors. Denis and I are contemplating a visit to the Phoenix Zoo to visit a new exhibit (The Big Cats of Arizona) and to check up on other favorite critters. A few minutes ago, Michelle (the cleaning woman) told me how much she liked the new pull-out drawers in the bottom cabinets in the kitchen. I thanked her and said that I would have to pass along her compliment to the person who installed them, our niece, Karen.

Karen the installer

One of the installed pull-out drawers

I know that "Karen's drawers" have certainly made my life easier, and I'm glad Michelle likes them, too.

Back in March, I shared a couple of photos of the afghan I made for Karen. Here is another photo showing it in its new home in the UK. As you can see, Karen isn't the only one who likes it!

While I'm sharing compliments, I'd like to thank the book-giving friend who knows that I like mysteries with strong Native American themes. I am so lucky to have the family and friends that I do. I love them to bits all year round, but they make all the difference in the world when things unravel a bit. 

A virtual hug to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Want some good news? School board races across Texas deal losses for many conservatives.
• On the rise of older women amateur sleuths.
• An author responds: Why is sex so scary to book banners?
• South Carolina leads the nation in school book bans after votes to remove more titles.
• How reality television warps our understanding of political and economic realities.
• A dictionary of Victorian slang.
• "A mystery novel like no other before." On Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time.
• Mississippi has ordered the deletion of race and gender databases in state libraries.
• DOGE's latest cuts will hit local culture hard.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• "If it was a man, we would say that's a warrior's grave": Weapon-filled burials are shaking up what we know about women's roles in Viking society.
• The Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword, shield, and ponytail.
• A medieval tale of Merlin and King Arthur has been found hiding as a book cover.
• A 3D scan created from 25,000 high-resolution images reveals incredible details of Shackleton's Endurance shipwreck.
• Locals thought these shipwrecks had belonged to pirates. They turned out to be 300-year-old Danish slave ships.
• Metal detectorists unearthed a dazzling Anglo-Saxon gold-and-garnet raven head and ring.
• The ornate sword that Napoleon commissioned during his rise to power is heading to auction.
• Archaeologists unearthed a tree-lined walkway that led to an ancient Egyptian fortress in the Sinai Desert.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The bone collector caterpillar: the very hungry caterpillar of your nightmares.
• A study suggests that colorful superb starlings form long-term "friendships" by helping out with babysitting.
• Fifteen images of beautiful butterflies.
• Welcome to the weird and wondrous world of sea cucumbers.
• Dogs of the Moscow Metro.
• Threatened greater sage grouse are trying to mate near a hazardous airport in Wyoming. Can papier-mâché decoys lure them to safety?
• The London Zoo discovered hundreds of old film reels featuring "zoo oddities" and animal celebrities.
• A Spanish shipwreck has revealed evidence of the earliest known pet cats to arrive in the United States.

►The Wanderer◄

• Wat Arun, a Buddhist temple in Bangkok, Thailand, was constructed from over one million ceramic tiles salvaged from a British shipwreck.
• The Biblioteca Palafoxiana in Puebla, Mexico, is the first public library in the Americas.
• Official paintings from Charles III's world tours are going on public display for the first time.
• See the portrait that made Henry VIII fall in love with Anne of Cleves, newly restored to its former glory. (This portrait was what first interested me in fashion.)
• How elaborate Victorian houses in San Francisco were carefully picked up and moved to new locations.
• Opulent period costumes and murals lead you on a journey through fashion history at the Gewandhaus Museum Inneringen in Germany.
• See the newly renovated Castle Howard, made famous by Bridgerton and Brideshead Revisited.
• The end of roadside attractions.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Belle Starr: The Wild West's forgotten outlaw queen.
• Anthony Horowitz on mystery, metafiction, and a new Susan Ryeland novel (and show).
• Eleanor Roosevelt is being honored on a new U.S. quarter.
• Trailblazing filmmaker Ava DuVernay has received the Smithsonian's Great Americans medal.
• Eugenie Clark: the marine biologist who fought sharks' "bad rap" as "gangsters of the deep."
• Witold Pilecki, the Polish resistance fighter who volunteered to be sent to Auschwitz so he could sabotage the Nazi death camp from the inside.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Exciting new mystery and thriller adaptations to watch in May 2025.
• Eight cruise ship cozy mystery books that make for a chilling summer.
• Nine thrillers set in secluded homes and estates.
• Eleven literary award winners that stand the test of time.
• A gift guide for lovers of classic detective fiction.
• Banned historical fiction books.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!