A Tempus Fugit Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I've got lots going on today, and if all goes well, I'll be boarding Dial-a-Ride for a trip to the Desert Botanical Garden tomorrow morning. Since my attention is being pulled in multiple directions, I wanted to make sure I got this link round-up posted because I know I won't have time in the next two days.

So...very little chatter before the links. I'll just share a sneak peek at something I'll be sharing next week...

...and add that, as I was reading in bed last night, a fight scene in Lee Goldberg's Killer Thriller made me laugh so loud that I woke up the neighbors' grumpy dog! I hope you are well and happy and have plenty of good books to read. Virtual hugs to you all!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Why you should think twice before using shorthand like "thx" and "k" in your texts.
• Barf, funk, tug, and other etymological mysteries.
• On creating the quintessential murder village in cozy mysteries.
• Wyoming lawmakers advance a bill banning "sexually explicit" books in school and public libraries.
• Bibliomania, the dark desire for books that infected Europe in the 1800s.
• Why an elderly woman character is the perfect serial killer.
• Over 50% of new online articles are being cranked out by AI.
• We're in a book affordability crisis.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A 3,500-year-old Egyptian military fortress with ancient ovens and fossilized dough has been discovered in the Sinai Desert.
• Easter Island statues may have "walked" thanks to "pendulum dynamics" and with as few as fifteen people. 
• 5,000-year-old skeleton masks and skull cups made from human bones have been discovered in China.
• Miniature skeleton: a ghostly 2,000-year-old party favor from a Roman banquet.
• Archaeologists have discovered mysterious earthwork circles built 6,500 years ago-- nearly 2,000 years before Stonehenge.
• This rare Fabergé egg might set a world record at auction for the third time in its history.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Sea otters may be small marine mammals, but their effect on an ecosystem can be huge.
• Does your dog love chasing a ball? A study suggests that dog toy "addiction" is real.
• The Asian Golden Cat: the "Feline of many costumes" that plucks birds before eating them.
• Indian Relay may just be America's most extreme sport.
• Birds make an alarm call that spans species and continents-- and may offer insight into the evolution of human language.
• U.S. whale entanglements are on the rise.

►The Wanderer◄

• You can see the Parthenon without scaffolding for the first time in decades.
• After the L.A. fires, locals turn to native plants to help shield homes from flames and clean contaminated soil. (Personal Pet Peeve: People who move here to the desert and proceed to turn their property into a clone of where they moved from. This is the desert, not the bleedin' Midwest!)
• Seven ways to see the world come alive at sunrise.
• Step away from Peru's Inca Trail to these five lesser-known wonders.
• Chainsaw-wielding robbers flee the Louvre with priceless jewelry.
• Get an eyeful of Iceland in these twenty photos that capture its natural beauty.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Zelia Nuttall, the globe-trotting scholar who unlocked the secrets of the Aztecs.
• Artist Iris Scott uses finger painting to evoke a rush of emotion with her fantasy-inspired compositions. (Definitely not your run-of-the-mill finger painting!)
• William Dampier, the pirate who penned the first English-language guacamole recipe.
• "You think me a bold cheat" -- Mary Carleton, counterfeit princess.
• Dan Pelzer kept a meticulous list of all 3,599 books he'd read since 1962. When he died, his family published it online.
• Martin Couney, the man who ran a carnival attraction that saved thousands of premature babies, wasn't a doctor at all.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Kirkus' 20 Best Books to Read in November.
• Five essential books for understanding Haitian history.
• Seven historical horror novels inspired by true events.
• Fourteen novels set in the scenic Carolinas.
• Six firefighter mystery and thriller books to spark your interest.
• The best historical fiction of the second half of 2025.

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!  

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

 

First Line: To some it's a stage.

Needing a new direction, Mickey Haller has turned to public interest litigation. He's filed a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend.

As Mickey explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and its lack of training guardrails, he joins up with investigative journalist Jack McEvoy. McEvoy wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial so he can write a book about it. Haller puts McEvoy to work wading through the mountains of printed discovery materials in the case, and McEvoy's digging delivers the reluctant key witness. The witness has every reason to be reluctant. This is a very dangerous case because billions of dollars are at stake, and Mickey Haller will have to come up with a brilliant strategy to defeat the forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients.

~

Michael Connelly has done it again-- and with a subject that concerns me more with each passing day. While readers get an update on Harry Bosch as well as being able to see what happened in the Los Angeles area during Covid and the wildfires, Mickey Haller's battle against the artificial intelligence industry takes front and center stage in The Proving Ground.

While Mickey hoped that his switch from criminal law to civil law would be less fraught, this lawsuit soon shows him that civil law is every bit as grimy and dangerous. McEvoy's expertise in digging through endless reams of facts is invaluable, and I enjoyed his inclusion as well as watching the rest of the team do everything they could to bring a heartless business to justice. 

The plot of The Proving Ground is filled with twists and turns, even bringing in a case that Mickey lost years ago. The Lincoln Lawyer anticipates some of those twists and turns, but he gets blindsided by others, and this really keeps readers on their toes. 

As much as I enjoyed the plot and the characters, I think what I learned about artificial intelligence meant even more to me. When I think of AI, I'm often reminded of Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park when he says, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." Michael Connelly's The Proving Ground is not only excellent entertainment, but it also warns us of a clear and present danger.

The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly

eISBN: 9780316563840

Little, Brown & Company © 2025

eBook, 400 pages

Legal Thriller, #9 Mickey Haller

Rating: A+

Source: Net Galley

The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

 

First Line: The young woman standing in front of him was smiling.

The most successful detective in Bristol's police force is Detective Sergeant George Cross. He's on the autism spectrum, and his single-minded persistence and attention to detail make him difficult to work with, but his 97% conviction rate speaks for itself.

A homeless man's death is dismissed as a random act of violence, but George insists on investigating it further. His determination pays off when he finds a connection to a fifteen-year-old cold case. Despite skepticism from his colleagues, George can be counted on to solve both cases and bring a murderer to justice.

~

Having read high praise of this series from trusted sources, I knew I had to give the first book in the DS George Cross series, The Dentist, a try. Those trusted sources did not steer me wrong. Although crime solvers on the autism spectrum seem to be the flavor of the month, so much so that I've not finished a few books featuring them, Tim Sullivan drew me right into his story.

Part of the reason why The Dentist works so well is that readers get to see George, not only from his own perspective, but also from other characters' viewpoints. His partner, DS Ottey, is both exasperated by and protective of him, and watching brand-new rookie Alice MacKenzie figuring out how to work with him is a treat. George's father, Raymond, is also on hand to provide a little backstory as well as some of the wit and humor that shines throughout this book.

I enjoyed how the mystery unfolded and was anxious to see how George would bring the guilty to justice. This Maigret-loving, church-organ-playing detective has become a character I definitely need to read more about. Bring on the next book!

The Dentist by Tim Sullivan

eISBN: 9780802167101

Atlantic Crime © 2025

eBook, 384 pages

Police Procedural, #1 DS George Cross

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

The Best Laid Plans Weekly Link Round-Up

 

We had another storm roar through the Phoenix metro area, and for the first time in over a century, we received five straight days of rain. Fortunately for Casa Kittling, we received five straight days of rain (that flooded the yard, not the pool) but very little wind. Southeast Phoenix wasn't so lucky. There was a microburst in the Tempe/Scottsdale area accompanied by winds in excess of 70 MPH. I've experienced three microbursts here, and, let me tell you, they are very scary and can cause quite a lot of damage. 

I was planning to go to the Desert Botanical Garden this week, but after viewing videos of the damage in the Phoenix Zoo (which had to close for three days for cleanup and repair), I began to wonder if it was wise to go. The Phoenix Zoo is next-door to the Desert Botanical Garden. Then I read that many of the trails in the garden had been flooded. Not wanting to bog down on my scooter, I decided to let everything dry out and go next week.

Some of the damage at the Phoenix Zoo.

As I watched videos of the storm damage, I saw that many of the downed/uprooted trees were either palo verdes or eucalyptus. The eucalyptus trees caused the most damage because of their size. Thinking about those trees at the zoo jogged my memory. When I read Adrian Hyland's The Wiregrass, I learned that Australians called eucalyptus trees "widow makers." Seeing all the damage they've caused in the latest storm here, once again, I am glad that I don't have any of those trees here on the property!

So while I wait for everything to dry out, I continue to work on my clear-out, a shelf and a drawer at a time. I hope you are all safe and well. Virtual hugs to you all!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Exploring the use of illustrations and artwork in horror novels.
• The future of technology makes it harder to solve fictional crimes.
• A new law will make New Hampshire library records available to parents.
• The AI industry is horrified to face the largest copyright class action ever certified. (Then don't steal other people's hard work without even a by-your-leave.)
• The semi-fictional book that transformed the culinary world.
• Bookshelves to Bylines: When libraries and journalists join forces.
• Halloween used to be a lot more romantic.
• Why independent bookstores will save us from censorship.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A married couple in New Orleans found a stone in their backyard. It turned out to be an ancient Roman soldier's gravestone. Mystery solved.
• You can now walk through the Colosseum's secret tunnel once used by ancient Roman emperors.
• A skeleton-filled well in Croatia likely holds the remains of Roman soldiers.
• Up to 20,000 coins from the early Middle Ages were discovered by a man digging for worms near Stockholm.
• An anthropologist claims the hand positions on a 1,300-year-old Maya altar have a deeper meaning.
• Psychedelic beer may have helped a pre-Inca empire in Peru schmooze elite outsiders and consolidate power.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• See 15 winning images from the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards.
• A maternal lynx who was rescued from a fur farm helps to raise kittens, puppies, and bear cubs.
• Once smuggled animals are rescued, law enforcement officers call Mandy Fischer.
• Colorado is building the "world's largest" wildlife overpass, giving elk and other big creatures a safe path to cross a busy freeway.
• Why Fire Island has seen an explosion of feral cats.
• Leafcutter ants have blind spots, just like truck drivers.

►The Wanderer◄

• Six supposedly haunted libraries.
• Claude Monet's beautiful paintings of Venice are headlining an exhibition for the first time in more than a century.
• Where was Karen Pirie shot? Revisiting key filming locations of the Britbox crime series.
• The Coral Triangle: the giant hidden "Amazon" beneath the sea that appears somewhat resilient to climate change.
• A secret room of Michelangelo's drawings will open to the public for the first time ever. 
• Crime and the City: Western China's Chengdu.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• A legal loophole allowed New Jersey women called the "petticoat band" to vote a century before suffrage.
• Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's "Iron Lady," has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
• This Hungarian author once wrote a 400-page book with a single period. Now, László Krasznahorkai is a Nobel Prize winner. (Sorry, but I won't be adding that particular 400-page book to my Need to Read list...)
• My first thriller Isabella Maldonado.
• How legendary artist Robert Rauschenberg's obsession with flight led him to create stunning imagery featuring spacecraft, birds, and insects.
• Visionary African American politician Edward P. McCabe dreamed of creating an all-Black state in Oklahoma Territory.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 65 essential children's books.
• The Millions' Great Fall 2025 Book Preview.
• Eleven uniquely structured mysteries and thrillers.
• 18 must-read books by Indigenous authors.
• 15 new books set in haunted houses.
• 22 highly anticipated book-to-screen adaptations coming later in 2025.

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!  

The White Girl by Tony Birch

 

First Line: Odette Brown rose with the sun, as she did each morning.

For thirteen years, Odette Brown has quietly raised her granddaughter, Sissy, on the outskirts of Deane, a small rural Australian town. As far as Odette is concerned, the quieter their lives, the better. Sissy is a fair-skinned Aboriginal child, and welfare authorities remove such children from their families. But Odette's world could be destroyed by the arrival of a cruel-eyed, by-the-book policeman. It's going to take every bit of Odette's courage and cunning to keep her granddaughter out of the hands of the government-backed Sergeant Lowe.

~

I was immediately swept away into the world of Australia's post-colonial past when I began reading Tony Birch's The White Girl. Australia's treatment of the Aborigines mirrors that of the U.S. government's treatment of Native Americans. In Australia, the policy of separating Indigenous children from their families is now referred to as the Stolen Generations, and Odette Brown is desperately trying to keep her granddaughter from vanishing into an uncaring government's maw.

Odette lives on the outskirts of a rural small town where Aborigines are only permitted in town on Saturday mornings between eight and noon when they are allowed to shop at the company store. Tony Birch had me walking down the road, side by side with Odette. He had me worrying about her bright little granddaughter, who was still so naive about the world she lived in. When by-the-book Sergeant Lowe came to town, it soon became apparent that he loved having the power of life or death over people. Birch's writing is so evocative, so powerful, that I not only cared for Odette and Sissy, I not only worried about them, but I became very angry over how they were forced to live.

One passage in particular broke my heart: "The first children of the mission had been buried in nameless unmarked graves...The only indicators of the presence of the children beneath the earth were the wildflowers that revealed themselves each year. The seeds had been sown by mothers."

The White Girl is so incredibly powerful that it will remain with me for a long, long time. Read it.

The White Girl by Tony Birch

eISBN: 9780063213548

Harper Via © 2022

eBook, 272 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

A Reaching for the Bengay Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Since it hasn't quite cooled down enough to head to the Desert Botanical Garden, I've continued my quest to clear out all unwanted/unneeded "stuff" here at Casa Kittling. I'm happy to say that I've managed to take care of all the major areas, and the only things left are minor and easily taken care of. Here's a photo of the latest batch of stuff that was taken away this past Monday. (There are many items behind this front pile that you can't see.)

Most of these items will be donated or recycled. 

I had help with three big items, but the rest I managed to haul outside with many trips back and forth on my scooter. 

Although I'm very pleased with what I've managed to get done, there has been a downside: my right arm and shoulder let me know the error of my ways by becoming extremely sore. I'd never tried it before, but I remembered those TV commercials about Bengay and decided to see if it worked. It does-- and I even like the smell. An added bonus is that it also works on my arthritic hands better than the much more expensive ointment that my doctor recommended. It's not often-- at least in this house-- that cheaper is better. 

Next week looks much more promising for a visit to the Garden. Keep your fingers crossed, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Books in North Carolina school libraries are being targeted by some parents groups.
• The Thursday Murder Club and the resurgence of cozy crime.
• How American tech cartels use apps to break the law.
• Can you guess the movie title based on a synonym?
• Why were medieval Europeans so obsessed with long, pointy shoes?
• AI is making reading books feel obsolete-- and students have a lot to lose.
• Long Beach (California) will open up its eBook library so teens from other states can read banned books.
• After almost twenty years, Goodreads has a new logo fit for BookTok.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• 1,500-year-old eagle brooches filled with dazzling gems and glass were worn by powerful Visigoth women.
• Divers recover more than $1 million worth of gold and silver coins from 310-year-old "treasure fleet shipwrecks.
• A rare medieval hair-styling tool was found at Scotland's Eilean Donan castle. (Wish I'd found it during my visits there!)
• A metal detectorist unearthed Bronze Age jewelry in a Swiss carrot field. (Eh... what's up doc?)
• For centuries, Indigenous people lived in these desert canyons. Now, new technology reveals extraordinary details about this sacred site. (One of the best things Denis and I ever did was take an all-day tour of Canyon de Chelly.)
• Archaeologists discovered a 5,000-year-old tomb in southern Spain.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Five incredible dinosaurs you've probably never heard about. (I have my great-grandfather, Elmer Brown, to thank for my interest in dinosaurs... and my love of the Jurassic Park movies.)
• Watch these shy, adorable, nocturnal creatures (pine martens) explore their new home after being reintroduced in southwest England. (I love pine martens! Denis and I had one stop by our beach bothy every morning when we were staying in northwest Scotland.)
• Generations of bearded vultures stashed humans' treasures, including a 650-year-old sandal, in their nests.
• What energized this Arctic hare to keep going and going and going?
• The surprising imperial history of the Pekingese dog.
• A lonely cheetah cub at an Australian zoo now has an unlikely "best friend"-- a puppy.

►The Wanderer◄

• An Art Deco lover's guide to Paris.
• For the first time ever, you can see stunning, centuries-old murals at England's oldest hospital.
• Frida Kahlo's family home and artistic retreat has opened as a museum.
• Crime and the City: Capri.
• The highest bridge in the world just opened in China at more than 2,000 feet above the ground.
• The rambunctious, elitist chocolate houses of 18th-century London.
• Glacial melting in Alaska has created a new island.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The strange case of Henrietta Wiley, a wealthy New York heiress and socialite.
• The Dionne quintuplets captivated the world during the Great Depression, but their fame came at a cost.
• Two years after Cormac McCarthy's death, rare access to his personal library reveals the man behind the myth.
• Nathan Hale, the doomed patriot spy, probably never said, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country" before his execution.
• Did enslaved chocolatier Cato help Hercules Mulligan foil a plot to assassinate George Washington?
• Read the dramatic 17th-century memoirs of Alice Thornton, who wrote four versions of her life story.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Winners of the 2025 Kirkus Prize.
• Twelve failed constitutional amendments that could have reshaped American history.
• If you've never read Agatha Christie, start with one of these books.
• 25 new and upcoming heartwarming books.
• 13 things made collectible thanks to spelling errors.
• Visit the British seaside in these fifteen novels.
• The best naval fiction of all time.

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!  

Mark These Read

 

Welcome to the latest edition of my feeble attempts to catch up on my reviews. These catch-up reviews are going to be short and sweet, but at least you'll have an idea of what pages I've been turning the past few months! (I'll also provide links to Amazon in each title if you want to learn more about any of the books.)

Let's get started!

The Last Supper by Rosemary Shrager

#1 Prudence Bulstrode cozy mystery

Rating: B

My Thoughts: This mystery revolving around a murder during an English country house shooting party started a bit awkwardly, but soon hit its stride. The author is a celebrity chef, and readers certainly get an insider's look at both celebrity chefs and cooking. 

One thing I liked about Prudence Bulstrode (besides her name!) was the fact that she planned all her sleuthing around the meals she had to prepare for the guests at the country house. So many times, amateur sleuths seem to forget that they have bills to pay and blithely skip away to look for clues. 

Filled with interesting characters, a solid mystery, and plenty of humor, I'll be returning to see what Prudence cooks up next.

Michael's Wife by Marlys Millhiser

Standalone Suspense

Rating: C+

My Thoughts: Having enjoyed Millhiser's book, The Mirror, I looked forward to this tale of a woman with amnesia who finds herself thrown into one of those rich, entitled families that would put a nest of vipers to shame. Unfortunately, I found the book to be pedestrian and lacking suspense.

My advice: Skip this one, but if you like excellent time travel stories, find The Mirror.

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

Standalone Historical Fiction

Rating: A

My Thoughts: After watching the film, Out of Africa, I read many non-fiction books about that time period in Africa (fascinating!) One of the books that made my all-time favorite books list was Beryl Markham's memoir, West With the Night.

When I began to read Circling the Sun, I immediately fell under the spell of Markham's voice. This woman lived an incredible life, mixing the early days of aviation (she was the first person to fly solo west across the Atlantic), growing up with the Kikuyu in Kenya, African wildlife, and horse racing.

McLain's book is a tale well told, and I'll be reading more of her work.

The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen

#1 Martini Club thriller

Rating: A

My Thoughts: Maggie Bird lives in the seaside village of Purity, Maine-- along with several other retired CIA operatives. When Maggie's past rises up, she goes to those friends to take advantage of the more than 100 years of experience they share. 

As Maggie showed me how careful she is with every single move she makes, I was exhausted-- and grateful that I'll never have to live that way. Local police chief Jo Thibodeau is a hoot ("Outmaneuvered by a bunch of old folks"), and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her as well as Maggie's neighbor, Luther Yount, and his granddaughter Callie.

Side note: I've learned more about the state of Maine by reading mysteries!

There you have it-- four more books that I read over the summer. When will I catch up? Your guess is as good as mine!

Have you read any of these? Which ones? What did you think? Did I tempt you with any of them? Inquiring minds would love to know!

 

The Seven-Year Itch Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I know that some of you probably read the title of this post and mentally pictured Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate. (I had a dress like that once, only it was a blue and white print.) However, this time, the seven years has more to do with the weather here in the desert than it does subway grates.

Last week, Phoenix got the most rain it's had in one day in seven years. 1.64 inches of badly needed water fell at Sky Harbor Airport on September 26. (Hey, when your average yearly rainfall total is 7 inches, that 1.64 is a lot of rain!) There was quite a bit of flooding, and I have to admit that I was chewing my fingernails for awhile as the yard became more and more saturated, the water kept running over the curb onto the property, and the levels kept creeping up. Fortunately, Mother Nature smiled on me-- the water came within a gnat's whisker of turning the pool into a mud hole-- but I didn't have to deal with that mess. Whew!

I've told you that I've been decluttering, clearing out, and reorganizing, so I thought I'd share an example. I got the wild idea of finding a shelving unit for the shower stall in the third bathroom that's accessed through the craft room. (It's really more of a "powder room"/"cloak room.") Denis was the primary user of this space, so I included it on my "hit list." Here are Before and After photos of that shelving unit. I can be dangerous when I'm in a Clear Out Mood!

I hope you're all doing fine and well-stocked with good books to read. Virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Are we entering a new Golden Age of Biography?
• Book banners are everywhere. These lawyers are playing offense.
• Denmark scraps a book tax to fight a "reading crisis."
• Growing up in a library is as magical as you'd imagine.
• The more advanced AI models get, the better they are at deceiving us-- they even know when they're being tested.
• People are trying to "deprogram" their MAGA parents through book clubs.
• The joys of reading a book containing multiple languages.
• How the 2025 government shutdown will impact libraries.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists found both a medieval dungeon and a Roman burial beneath a market square in England.
• Rare wampum beads were discovered at a 17th-century colony in Newfoundland.
• Did ancient Egyptians really booby-trap the pyramids?
• A new study found that a 7-year-old Maya child had a green jade "tooth gem."
• The Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, sank in 1916. For the first time, divers have recovered artifacts from its wreck.
• The mystery of the small dog in Rembrandt's monumental masterpiece The Night Watch has officially been solved.
• You can buy these Gilded Age jewels that once belonged to the Vanderbilt family.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• What are cats saying when they reach out to touch their humans with their paws?
• Why do big dogs die young?
• This invasive vampire fish is helping researchers understand the human nervous system.
• Chimpanzees consume the equivalent of 2.5 alcoholic drinks per day by eating fermented fruit.
• A rare  blue-and-green hybrid jay spotted in Texas is the offspring of birds whose lineages split 7 million years ago.
• The curious case of "Old Thom," an orca traveling alone in the North Atlantic.
• 15 photographs of bears.

►The Wanderer◄

• 9 unexpected places to see fall foliage in the U.S. (and none of them are in New England).
• A year by year accounting of every country name change within the first quarter of the 21st century.
• Inside China's new wave of conceptually innovative bookstores.
• The states with the most and least national park land.
• Why so many old British homes have bricked-up windows.
• More than 300 hats have been pulled from Yellowstone's geothermal features so far this year.
• Explore 15 classic castles.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Jane Goodall, legendary primatologist and anthropologist, has died at age 91. National Geographic's most iconic Jane Goodall photos.
• 17th-century artist Johanna Koerten was once a bigger star than Rembrandt. Why did history forget about her and her peers?
• How Davy Crockett, the rugged frontiersman killed at the Alamo, became an unlikely American hero.
• In 1909, Theodore Roosevelt embarked on an ambitious expedition to East Africa. Here's why his trip still matters today.
• What Jane Austen's possessions reveal about her literary ethos.
• Breaking barriers and soaring into history: Pittsburgh's "Three Helens" during the Gold Age of Aviation.
• When Picasso saved Matisse's paintings from the Nazis.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 20 of the best books to read in October.
• Visit Big Sky Country in these mysteries and thrillers.
• 15 whodunits offering a fresh spin on the country house murder mystery.
• 10 Agatha Christie movie adaptions that hit the mark.
• Cool down with these seven frozen desserts found around the world.
• Here are the 596 books being banned by Defense Department schools.
• 8  unexpected mystery writers you didn't know dabbled in crime fiction.

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!