Back at The Poisoned Pen!

After much deliberation, I decided to throw caution to the wind and head to my favorite bookstore, The Poisoned Pen, for an author event. It had probably been three years since the last time I'd gone. That time, Denis and I wound up being stranded for two and a half hours on a cold, wet, dark street corner waiting for Paratransit to pick us up.

Since I am now flying solo, the thought of being stranded alone and in the dark had little appeal for me, but since this event was in July with warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours, I decided that enough was enough! I was going, blast it!

I am so glad I did! It was so good to chat with Patrick and Barbara and local author Deborah Ledford as well. To be honest, it was like coming home. 

One of the few good things that happened as a result of Covid is the fact that you can watch this event, too, either on The Poisoned Pen's Youtube channel, or on Facebook. I also highly recommend both of Weiden's books, Winter Counts and Wisdom Corner.

Left to Right: Patrick Millikin, David Heska Wanbli Weiden, Barbara Peters

David Heska Wanbli Weiden

Did everything go smoothly transportation-wise? Getting there was fine. The return trip home was a different story, but you'll have to wait for the next weekly link round-up to get the scoop!

A Hallelujah We're Getting Some Rain Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Another unremarkable week here at Casa Kittling. I may be becoming dull, but I've gotten to the point where I rather like unremarkable weeks, and for some strange reason, this has reminded me of a pet peeve.

I'm sick to death of being hounded to review every person I come in contact with and everything that I buy. How about you? And-- have we as humans gotten so feeble-minded that every time we make any sort of appointment, we have to be reminded by phone, by text, and by email that we do, indeed, have an appointment? For cryin' out loud, I haven't lost my mind yet! I value not only my time but the time of the people I have to deal with. If I make an appointment, I immediately put it on my calendar. I do not need to be reminded over and over again starting two weeks out that I have somewhere I have to be. And to get back to my original thought, the more businesses bug me about leaving reviews, the more I'm tempted to leave them bad ones. Not that I'm contrary or anything...

Yes, I know I have an appointment!

Now that I have that off my chest, it's time to round up some goodies. Virtual hugs to you all, and enjoy the links! (And please keep your fingers crossed that our monsoon season keeps giving us some badly needed rain. Thanks!)

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Copyright is not enough. Why writers need new strategies to stand up to AI.
• How-- and why-- to cull your book collection.
• The Terminator is about the last moments in a woman's life before she becomes a mother.
• Marriage and the maiden name.
• Researchers say the 800-year-old mystery of a lost medieval legend is solved.
• In the wake of court losses, Rhode Island codifies the Right to Read.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• 18 Egyptian tombs with dozens of gold "tongues" have been discovered along the Mediterranean Coast. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
• Take an exclusive look at three newly discovered medieval shipwrecks in Menorca's "Cove of Mysteries."
• Ancient DNA suggests that Kazakhstan's Iron Age "Golden Man" and other elite Scythians of Eurasia inherited their high social status.
• A long-lost ice-age ecosystem, including fossils of lion-size armadillos and giant ground sloths, have been discovered in a Texas "water cave." 
• Researchers have found an ancient Korean society that practiced sacrifice and high inbreeding.
• See artifacts that archaeologists discovered in this 1,600-year-old Byzantine Christian town buried in an oasis in Egypt.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The spiritual meaning of dragonflies.
• Are moose Colorado natives or introduced outsiders?
• The lucrative bird-singing contests that are pushing species to the brink.
• "Murder hornets" might strike terror in humans, but these frogs can eat them for lunch.
• Scientists found a rare tusked whale alive at sea for the first time.
• Lemurs are having a mysterious "baby boom" in Madagascar. Here's why that might not be a good thing.

►The Wanderer◄

• Life inside Icelandic turf houses.
• This 700-year-old English church nearly closed-- but then the vicar discovered a stash of gold coins under the altar.
• Welcome to Toronto, world capital of the urban raccoon.
• Malaria had nearly been eliminated around a giant dam in the Amazon, but then it came roaring back. Experts just discovered why.
• Ireland launches its permanent "Income for the Arts" scheme, becoming the first government committed to paying artists. 
• See 11 images of mangrove forests and their wildlife, showcasing the trees' beauty and fragility.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The two Dolly Parton classics she wrote on the same day.
• Meet Sak Tahn Waax, a Maya math whiz who lived more than 1,000 years ago and left behind a "really elegant, complex" formula.
• The public shaming of Jonas Hanway, England's first umbrella user.
• 5 historical figures who didn't actually exist.
• DNA reveals the identity of teenager John Pumphrey who died in the Revolutionary War, cracking a nearly 250-year-old cold case.
• Rebecca Lehmann on Anne Boleyn and the fatal power of unmanageable women.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 15 books that deserve a sequel.
• 7 fascinating Italian jobs you didn't know still exist.
• The most searched word definitions in every U.S. state.
• 6 comedic crime novels and thrillers.
• 5 suspense novels driven by female ambition and competition.
• 18 new dual-timeline novels.

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!

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

 

First Lines: It's interesting to note that there are two groups of people who are rarely, if ever, suspected of murder. These groups are elderly women and little girls.

When her neighbor turns up dead in their quiet Melbourne suburb, whispers begin to swarm around 81-year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick. Why should the neighbors be whispering about Elsie? She's grumpy, fiercely independent, never without a sarcastic comment, and minds her own business. But someone found out her secret.

Elsie hasn't always been Elsie. At one time, she was Mad Mabel Waller, Australia's youngest convicted murderer-- a secret she's kept buried for decades.

That is, until 7-year-old Persephone moves in across the street. Full of opinions, questions, and no sense of personal boundaries, she sets her sights on Mabel and refuses to be deterred. With a 7-year-old shadow, a neighbor who seems to have it in for her, the police sniffing around, and the media circling like vultures, Mabel does the only thing she can: she takes matters into her own hands. 

~

The first two sentences of Sally Hepworth's Mad Mabel told me that I was in for something special. By page five, I was in love with Mabel. Perhaps it was because I identified with her a bit, but I loved her voice and her grumpy, sarcastic wit. I lost count of the times I laughed out loud at one of Mabel's comments. 

But there's more to Mabel than being a sharp-tongued, grumpy old lady. As she told her story to two young podcasters, my heart broke for her. The more I read, the more I wanted a Happily Ever After for her. Was I under her spell? You bet.

The marvelous thing about Mad Mabel is that the entire cast of characters shines. They aren't static or cardboard. They change before our eyes, and they hold surprises for us. Not only did the characters hold surprises, but the plot did, too. One of the characters seemed a bit "off" to me, and by the book's end, I was miffed that I didn't guess the truth about the person.

If you're in the mood to be charmed by a character to the point where you'd move heaven and earth to bring her joy; if you're in the mood for a story where you have a little trouble putting all the puzzle pieces into the correct places, well, there's only one thing to do: read Mad Mabel.

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

eISBN: 9781250284556

St. Martin's Press © 2026

eBook, 348 pages

Standalone Thriller

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

JR Returns & I Make a Guess This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Some of you may remember JR the raccoon who showed up here a couple of years ago to paddle in the swimming pool and eat the treats I put out for him. Well, he came back for a couple of days this week. Someone asked me how I knew it was the same raccoon. For one thing, he pulled over the same birdbath that I put his treats in, even though the birdbath is in a different place now. He also went over and checked the spot where that birdbath used to be. I waited for him to show up twice before I put out anything for him, but he hasn't been back since. I guess I wasn't fast enough, darn it.

I've also mentioned my nameless friend that I was concerned about. I may have an aversion to deerstalker caps (or hats in general), but not knowing his name has been bugging me for a long time. Persistence has paid off-- I think-- and I now believe I've identified him. All I will say is T.M., and perhaps I will find out if I'm right. (Although I do understand if he wishes to remain anonymous. I just have one of those inquiring minds.) 

I have a new pinwheel to add to my collection. It came in the mail this week. (Thank you for it and everything else. You know who you are!) It's the best spinner of them all and is now on my scooter whirring away every time I go outside. Hey, it even spins when I'm around the ceiling fans here in the house!

It's been another scorching week here in Phoenix. I've been doing my outside chores as quickly as possible to avoid the worst of the heat, then I come inside to read and work on tissue box covers.

Virtual hugs to you all, my friends! Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The end of reading is here.
• The heat wave that made America legalize shorts.
• New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a bill calling for increased book bans.
• Austin, Texas, could become a "Book Safe Harbor" as censorship fights escalate.
• Amazon offers AI translation for self-published Kindle books.
• Everything you need for a a reading picnic.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A pair of 2,000-year-old gold rings, one engraved with Indian script, was discovered in an Iron Age burial ground in Thailand.
• A 2,500-year-old tomb of a "warrior prince" with a chariot and helmet was discovered on Italy's Adriatic coast. 
• Builders discovered an ancient Minoan ruin on Crete. Then, things got tense.
• 3D printing gives new life to an ancient game board discovered at a Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall in England.
• The oldest known plague victims have been found in a 5,500-year-old burial ground in Siberia-- and many of them were children.
• Hundreds of Spanish settlers died at the "Port of Famine." This newly discovered silver coin reveals where the doomed colony was founded 400 years ago.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Sperm whales living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea seem to have developed a distinct dialect from those in the west.
• The return of Florida's wild flamingos.
• Cyborg cockroaches could help find survivors of natural disasters. New diving suits allow the insects to expand their search underwater. (Finally, a roach I can like...)
• Can a turtle tuck its head all the way inside its shell?
• Stream the beautiful highs and violent lows of albatross life with this new 24-hour camera on Midway atoll.
• How do dogs watch TV? A new study suggests that it might depend on their personalities.

►The Wanderer◄

• Crime and the City: Bari, Italy.
• Alexander Hamilton's First National Bank revolutionized the U.S. economy. After sitting shuttered for years, the Philadelphia landmark reopened as a museum.
• Vincent van Gogh adored the color yellow. A new exhibition in Amsterdam wants you to fall in love with the hue, too.
• Experience the grandeur of the Italian Alps with these 15 photographs.
• How America's industrial elite built their own palaces.
• A scenic road winding through Theodore Roosevelt National Park finally reopens after six years.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Did this duke poison his brother? A new DNA analysis may solve the centuries-old Medici mystery.
• Spanish officer Bernardo de Gálvez besieged the British during the American Revolution, giving George Washington time to plan a pivotal attack.
• Meet Julia Ward Howe, the remarkable poet who wrote the Battle Hymn of the Republic and fought for women's suffrage.
• The true story of Laura Ingalls is wilder than Little House on the Prairie.
• To finance their lifestyle, Clara and André Malraux went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost everything wrong.
• The King and I spotlights an English governess who modernized Siamese society. The real Anna Leonowens exaggerated her influence and lied about her origins.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 8 vineyard mysteries you can savor.
• 9 great books about survival at sea.
• 21 mysteries and thrillers set at sea.
• 6 films Silvia Moreno-Garcia recommends for writers.
• July's best international crime fiction.
• 9 murder mysteries set in resorts.

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!

Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

 

First Line: I surveyed the wreckage around Wisdom Corner.

In a promise to his partner, Marie, who is running for a position on the tribal council, Virgil Wounded Horse has been working on putting his past behind him. No more work as a hired vigilante on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. No more smoking. No more drinking. Not everyone has been happy with his decision to stop dispensing justice, but Virgil has persevered... until a beloved member of the community is murdered.

Forced to return to the job, Virgil finds that the victim was threatened by a street gang from a neighboring reservation, and a shady politician who will stop at nothing to gain more power may have something to do with the murder, too.

With the stakes growing higher by the day, Virgil needs to find the killer as quickly as possible because the lives of those he loves are at stake.

~

Back in 2021, I highly recommended Weiden's first Virgil Wounded Horse mystery, Winter Counts, and I'm happy to say that his second, Wisdom Corner, is every bit as good. 

The author puts readers right in the heart of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. He weaves fascinating bits of Native American history into his story, like the Carlyle Indian School football team, and shows us all how Indian boarding schools and the proven inequality of the American criminal justice system have made their marks on Native lives. Native American culture and delicious food are also part of this rich tapestry.

But any fictional tapestry is incomplete without an engaging cast of characters, and Wisdom Corner has that, too. Virgil's struggle to have a more acceptable lifestyle is real, and his partner, Marie, does everything she can to help him. Marie's fight for a seat on the tribal council is only one of the ways she shows how much she cares for the people on the reservation. Virgil's nephew, Nathan, is a high schooler trying to have a meaningful life on the reservation-- which is extremely difficult to do for any young person there. I think my favorite new character was Rose Charging Cloud, the chief of police for the Rosebud Sioux tribe. Being Black, Native, and female, she's had a tough road to her job. At first, I didn't like her, but she certainly grew on me. 

Once again, as in Winter Counts, the bad guy was very easy for me to spot, but there was some excellent misdirection steering readers toward other suspects. If you enjoy learning about other cultures in a propulsive mystery populated with vivid characters, I highly recommend Wisdom Corner, but I will say that you should really read Winter Counts first. (Why settle for one great read when you can have two?)

Wisdom Corner by David Heska Wanbli Weiden

eISBN: 9780062969002

Ecco Books © 2026

eBook, 320 pages

Native American Mystery, #2 Virgil Wounded Horse

Rating: A

Source: Net Galley

A Color Me This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

This past week has been another pleasant one, with little to talk about other than the deep scratch on my elbow that I have no idea how it got there, and the huge bright yellow butterflies that use my back garden as a freeway. The hummingbirds absolutely love the bubbling hanging solar fountain-- so much so that they spend a lot of time chasing each other away from it, the territorial little devils!

The rest of the time, I've been stitching. Here's my growing pyramid of tissue box covers. There's one missing because it's a surprise that hasn't yet been seen by its recipient.

I'll be starting work on the one for my home health nurse, and then-- if the spirit still moves me-- I'll work on a few more. My niece, Daisy, has requested one, and I found the perfect pattern for it. I dug up a few more patterns from my stash that I'd like to use. Want to see how I work out color combinations? It helps if you have the empty top of a run of bookcases to plot things out.

Decisions, decisions!

Virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Vintage READ posters adorning libraries and classrooms for decades go on auction as the American Library Association turns 150. (I love those posters and had some of them adorning the walls of my workspace for years.)
• A new study says that your brain prefers to read on paper rather than on screens. (My brain always has to be different. It prefers my Kindle.)
• Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time? (I never have thought ignorance was cute.)
• Why Jane Austen adaptations just keep coming-- and we keep watching.
• Publishers charge Anna's Archive with copyright infringement.
• What if readers like A.I.-generated fiction?
• Teenage boys in the UK are reading primary-level books while girls' tastes expand.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• This ancient monolith unearthed in Mexico may depict people receiving "divine liquid" in a ritual.
• See these ancient Etruscan frescoes that Italy bought for millions and put on public display in Rome.
• Sold for just £5,588, this amber pendant turned out to be a rare Tudor-Era portrait of Elizabeth I. Now it's going on auction for £100,000.
• 500-year-old freeze-dried potato snacks were discovered in an Inca storage room in Peru.
• Deep in the Mexican jungle, archaeologists discovered a lost Maya city that may yield clues about the civilization just before it collapsed.
• Were Vikings really "uncivilized" barbarians? A large textile-production site discovered in Denmark challenges that stereotype.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The elusive, critically endangered manumea-- and one of the closest living relatives of dodos-- was spotted for the first time in five years.
• Incredible, first-of-their-kind images show an orca being born in Norway-- and the rest of its pod forming a protective circle.
• Listen to a lion's second type of roar, which was just discovered by scientists.
• "Robo-Bunnies" are the newest weapon in the fight against invasive Burmese pythons in Florida.
• The life and times of Brighty, the Grand Canyon's most legendary burro.
• These urban birds evolved longer beaks during Covid-19 lockdowns. Then, they changed back.

4 for me. How about you?

►The Wanderer◄

• The U.S. ghost town that periodically rises out of a lake.
• 5 isolated islands that are strictly forbidden (and why).
• The Old Patent Office Building hosted Lincoln's inaugural ball and displayed that Declaration of Independence. Today, it's home to two world-class art museums.
• See stunning photos of new national park land that soon will be accessible from America's longest national trail.
• The Claude Glass revolutionized the way people saw landscapes.
• Raymond Island, the tiny Australian island where you can see koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How Indonesia's feminists use the internet.
• During World War I, progressive reformer Frances Kellor asked Americans to welcome immigrants-- and urged new arrivals to assimilate.
• Excluded at the March on Washington, Dorothy Height went on to become the "Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement."
• Indigenous ecologist Jason Baldes is restoring the keystone bison on tribal lands.
• How German button maker John Boepple searched the rivers of the American Midwest for the shells that could make him a fortune.
• Alan Lomax spent years traveling the country to record the sounds of America. The legacy of his obsession will live forever.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 20 great U.S. history books for July 4.
• The average salary needed to rent in each state, ranked.
• Eccentric investigators in Asian American and Asian cozy mysteries.
• Eight thrillers with beach and jungle settings.
• 18 must-read biographies and memoirs.
• 7 of the best crime thrillers and neo noirs from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

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!

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker

 

First Line: I know little of my birth, for my mother died long before she could tell me-- before I ever heard her voice or gazed at her face-- and my father banished the woman who helped deliver me, blaming her for my mother's death.

Sarah Shoemaker's Mr. Rochester is a retelling of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and I fell in love with it. The book is told from the point of view of Edward Fairfax Rochester himself, and readers learn about his life from the time he was a motherless boy roaming the lonely corridors of Thornfield Hall to his eventual marriage to Jane Eyre. 

Although Charlotte is not my favorite of the Brontë sisters (Anne is), I've always loved her Jane Eyre. I've watched the BBC mini-series starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton so much that I have vast swathes of the dialogue memorized. I've always wanted to learn more about Rochester, and Shoemaker does a marvelous job of filling in the blanks that both blend in with the original book and make for an engrossing story.

Here, Rochester is a boy/man starved for love, starved for someone to call him by his name, and I couldn't help but fall in love with him. His schooling, his fruitless attempts to earn his father's love, the family business, his marriage to Bertha Mason... as he weathers each storm, I became totally invested in his soul-withering journey toward Jane. The icing on the cake was learning just how much he was willing to give up to have a life with her. I kept wanting to hug the poor man!

I found so much to appreciate in Mr. Rochester. How he came to have his dog, Pilot, and his horse, Mesrour. I even learned the origin of one of my husband's favorite expressions, "cloth ears." 

Oh... by the way, if you're thinking of reading this book to learn more about Jane, I wouldn't recommend it. Jane shows up two-thirds of the way through the book. She had her own book, her own time in the spotlight. This is Edward Fairfax Rochester's time to shine, and he does. Brilliantly. 

Mr. Rochester by Sarah Shoemaker

eISBN: 9781455569823

Grand Central Publishing © 2017

eBook, 465 pages

Historical Fiction, Standalone

Rating: A+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

A Stitching Up a Storm Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Not much to say this week. My nieces in the UK are suffering through a heat wave. Although the temperatures are nowhere near what they are here in Phoenix, I feel for them because, not only are they not used to such heat,  neither are they prepared for it. I doubt Phoenix would be the metropolis it is without the invention of air conditioning, but countries with little experience of heat haven't had any reason to adapt for it. 

Yes, I've been stitching up a storm on those needlepoint tissue box covers. My home health nurse kept looking covetously at one of the completed ones, so I'll be making her one, too. I send progress report photos to the person I'm making them for, and he's shown them to some of his friends. From the sound of it, I could have myself a booming cottage industry if I wanted. However, I don't want to. I tried that before, and I grew sick to death of making the same thing over and over. Using different color combinations wasn't enough to encourage me to keep on stitching for profit.

Here's a photo of three of the requested five that I've completed.

Looking at them, you wouldn't believe I used the exact same pattern on all three, would you?

Virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Can social media influencers save public schools?
• Are public libraries becoming children's libraries?
• The New Yorker has a new books newsletter called What We're Reading.
• An experimental brain implant allows people with paralysis to type their thoughts with their minds.
• Utah banned another book from all public schools, bringing the list to 28. Here's what it's about.
• HBO's Harry Potter trailer reveals the new cast and a surprise Christmas premiere date.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists have discovered evidence that a wooden prototype for Stonehenge may have aligned with the solstice 500 years before the stone circle.
• An ancient Egyptian stone monument depicting a Roman emperor as a pharaoh was discovered in Luxor.
• A 6-year-old boy spotted something sticking out of the ground in a field. It turned out to be a Viking sword.
• The Mask of Mictlantecuhtli: a 500-year-old mask of the Aztec god of the underworld, who tore apart the dead as they entered his realm.
• Archaeologists discovered a second cannonball from the Battle of the Alamo, and it was likely fired by Texans.
• Are these the earliest known dice in the world? Native Americans may have used them to play games of chance more than 12,000 years ago.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• These butterflies can live 25 times longer than their relatives. They might provide insights into healthy aging in humans.
• Female dolphins seem to remember which males were aggressive during mating season-- and may try to avoid them.
• A border collie named Milo goes to great lengths to complete his human's fetch challenges.
• Male bowerbirds in Australian cities are turning human trash into treasure to impress potential mates. (I've loved bowerbirds ever since watching one of Sir David Attenborough's documentaries.)
• Ants can get distracted by cookies, chips, and other junk food. Here's why that could be a problem for the environment.
• See the first-ever photographs of Cozumel's elusive dwarf fox, one of the rarest canids in the world.

►The Wanderer◄

• Major Oak, the 1,200-year-old tree with ties to the Robin Hood legend, is presumed dead after failing to produce leaves.
• Hidden tunnels dating back to Henry VIII's reign were discovered at this English boarding school, where the king once lived.
• Welcome to Pieve Santo Stefano, Italy's "City of Diaries."
• The ghost roads of Ireland's Great Famine.
• To see the magnificence and majesty of Machu Picchu without the hike, check out these amazing images.
• Literary travel ideas for every kind of book lover. 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Rollerena, New York's fairy godmother.
• By signing his name to massive jars, enslaved artist David Drake defied literacy bans in the South. Now, his masterpiece is on view with a famed Paul Revere bowl.
• Sequoyah, the man who created a written language for the Cherokee, did it so efficiently and elegantly, his peers thought it was magic.
• Andrea Wulf considers the rare humanity of 18th-century naturalist George Forster.
• 13 surprising facts about famous naturalist (and one of my heroes), Sir David Attenborough.
• "I will not comply": librarian Luanne James fights the censorship demands of the Rutherford County library system's board.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 7 historical figures accused of witchcraft.
• 6 common misconceptions about the Beatles.
• 7 Australian crime dramas to binge watch tonight.
• 6 suspense novels about art, museums, and forgers.
• The 5 greatest fictional recurring characters, according to Alison Gaylin.
• The must-read biographies and memoirs of Summer 2026.

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!