A Where'd You Learn to Drive Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Only one "interesting" occurrence this past week at Casa Kittling. I went out to empty the trash one morning to discover that some idiot had hit a gatepost on our fence and wrecked the gate. When I went over for a closer inspection, I noticed a bright yellow piece of paper rolled up and stuck in the leaning gate. 

I pulled it out, straightened it, and read, "Need a Handyman?"

Maybe I've read too many mysteries and have learned to be suspicious of motives, but I had to wonder if someone was trying to drum up business by creating situations where things would need to be repaired. It was just too much of a coincidence (another biggie in the crime fiction world) to have a damaged gate and profferred solution at the same time. Since the post is set in concrete, this is not going to be a simple repair. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

On a brighter note, look at the t-shirt I stumbled across on the internet!

 

 

Now is that perfect for us or what?!? Before anyone asks-- and I know someone will-- I don't know the name of the company that sells this, but I would imagine googling "Death by TBR t-shirt" should do the trick.

Stay healthy, stay cool, and enjoy the links!

 

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• The Internet Archive was forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win.
• The disturbing story behind Peacock's TikTok Star Murders documentary.
• Why writers are forced to become brands (and why that's bad).
• How Britain's libraries provide much more than books.
• Forget the YA novel that's "The Road" meets "Deliverance": Publishing Twitter is the true dystopia.
• Hollywood's newest money-making scheme is... books.
• Which Emily Henry books are becoming movies Happy Place, Book Lovers, and others.
• New York City libraries will get their budget funding back-- and reopen on Sundays.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The real targets of Project 2025's war on porn.
• Why would a private university be leased public library space? Retaliation.
• The Katy Independent School District (Texas) bans five more books and updates its controversial library policy.
• A professor details Florida's state-directed changes in science textbooks. ("Climate change" is verboten.)
• There's nothing "advanced" about the Harford (Maryland) School Board's AP decision. (African-American studies were dropped.)
• It may not have passed in 2024, but sponsors have put a bill to arrest librarians back on file for the 2025 session in Alabama.
• The Franklin County (Virginia) public school board has approved a library book policy survey.
• Right-wing pundits and out-of-state advocates will help create Oklahoma social studies standards.
• The King William (Virginia) board voted to withdraw from the Pamunkey library system.
• A new rule restricts what's allowed on shelves in South Carolina public libraries.
• How libraries across Idaho are implementing the new materials law.

 

 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists have recovered 900 artifacts from Ming Dynasty shipwrecks in the South China Sea.
• A newly deciphered papyrus describes a "miracle" performed by five-year-old Jesus.
• A scientist is claiming that a long-lost Assyrian military camp devastated by "the angel of the Lord" has finally been found.
• These badges shed new light on the enslaved workers who built Charleston.
• An ancient beach destroyed by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD has reopened after restoration.
• The oldest wine ever discovered contains a horrifying secret ingredient.
• The world's oldest deep-sea shipwreck has been discovered a mile beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
• This Rubens masterpiece was significantly altered by another artist.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• A behavioral shift: Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico have learned how to steal food from fishing nets.
• Tasmania is looking to hire a wombat walker and other odd jobs.
• Frog saunas may be the key to saving amphibians from a deadly fungal infection.
• A super smart corgi has learned sign language so well that she reacts to her humans' conversations.
• How the new Ravenmaster at the Tower of London gets the birds ready for the day.
• Charlotte the "pregnant virgin" stingray has died after a diagnosis of reproductive disease.
• Don't call wombats heroes, but their burrows do provide food, water, and shelter for other animals.
• Ants perform life saving operations-- the only animal other than humans known to do so.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The Miami murder mystery that transfixed America.
• The growing evidence that Americans are less divided than you may think.
• The first tango in Paris made a stir worth remembering.
• From powwows to smartphones, see the past and present of Indigenous plains life in narrative art.
• How Colombia's biggest murder investigation was swayed by a dream.
• What happens when an American family moves to a tiny French village?
• What you need to earn to live comfortably in each U.S. state.
• Relics of the USS Arizona.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The forgotten Black explorers who transformed Americans' understanding of the wilderness.
• This woman is killing it: Vicki Delany and the Constable Molly Smith series.
• The Smithsonian has acquired the earliest known photograph of an American First Lady.
• Remembering Mary Katharine Goddard, the only woman whose name appeared on the Declaration of Independence.
• Arthur Barry, the gentleman thief who charmed Jazz Age New York.
• Excluded from national leadership, Black women were the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement.
• Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program is expanding to every area in Kentucky. (The more I learn about this woman, the more I love her.)
• Mary McLeod Bethune was at the vanguard of more than fifty years of Black progress.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Seven discontinued canned foods that we'll probably never see again.
• These iconic characters are about to enter the public domain.
• Fifteen dark and darkly comic thrillers.
• NPR recommends these ten non-fiction books.
• A guide to Stephen Booth's Cooper and Fry police procedural series.
• The wild western world of the Silver Rush mysteries by Ann Parker.
• Goods to make your reading nook the coziest ever.
• What the New York Times missed: 71 more of the Best Books of the 21st Century.

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

Race With Danger by Pamela Beason

 

First Lines: It wasn't even eleven p.m. How could the streets of Bellingham be so deserted?

 

Seventeen-year-old champion endurance racer Tanzania Grey has been running ever since she came home from a Halloween party with friends to find her parents murdered and her little brother screaming. It's been three long years, but now she's an emancipated teenager with a new name and a need to win the Verde Island Endurance Race's million-dollar prize to save the life of her friend, Bailey.

The five-day race traverses a remote volcanic island that's home to beasts that slither, fly, swim, and slink through the jungle. As daunting as that sounds, the wildlife turns out to be the least of Tana's problems when she draws the name of Sebastian Callendro as her partner. Sebastian's personal life has put him firmly in the national spotlight-- a spotlight that Tana absolutely does not need. Not only is her name false, but everything else in her biography is invented, too. She's been running from the men who murdered her parents, and if her cover is blown, she could be next.

~

Pamela Beason has a knack for creating interesting main characters who have a penchant for wildlife and the great outdoors. I've read two of her other series, one featuring Summer Westin, a wildlife biologist and freelance writer, and her series featuring Dr. Grace McKenna and Neema, a gorilla who uses sign language. I've enjoyed both, so when I read the synopsis of Race With Danger, I had to give it a try. I'm glad I did.

Tanzania Grey is a bristly, opinionated seventeen-year-old who's spent the past three years hiding from the men who killed her parents. She doesn't know why anyone would want to kill them, and she doesn't know what happened to her little brother. She feels guilty about leaving him behind, but there's no way she could've kept both of them alive. It's a miracle she finally found a good family to take her in. 

Tana may work as a zookeeper, but her passion-- and her talent-- is for endurance racing, a sport that I knew nothing about until I picked up this book. As the author tells us, "Natural dangers are what set endurance races apart from mere marathons," and the terrain Tana, her partner, Sebastian Callendro, and the other runners must cover is extremely treacherous. In many ways, Sebastian is every bit as interesting as Tana due to all the media attention that's turned his life upside down. I enjoyed watching the two of them learn to trust each other as they conquered each new obstacle in the race. 

During this five-day endurance race, Tana is tested many times, not just physically but morally as well. As she reminds herself, "...there's a big difference between being alive and being able to live with yourself." The action sequences of the race are thrilling, but it's watching Tana make these tough decisions, and wondering about the circumstances surrounding her parents' deaths that will definitely have me reading the next book in the trilogy.

Race With Danger by Pamela Beason

eISBN: 9780991271511

Wildwing Press © 2015

eBook, 272 pages

Thriller, #1 Run for Your Life trilogy

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Enjoy Reading Outside!

 

Found Image

This week's outdoor reading spot brings back many fond memories of the swing on my grandparents' screened porch. When I wasn't doing chores or working in the library or out in the swimming pool, I could be found on the porch swing, rocking back and forth to create that comforting creak of the chains as I turned page after page of my latest book.

 

There are plenty of flowers on this porch, but the one in my memory had beautiful purple clematis planted by my green-fingered grandmother at each end, which helped cool and provide shade for anyone relaxing there. Even after my grandparents had air conditioning installed, that porch was a favorite hangout. So many books read, so many conversations, so much laughter...

Are any of you as fond of porch swings as I am?

Wilderness Vacation by Todd Borg

 

First Line: Josie Strong was holding a fork when it slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

 

UCLA Medieval History professor Josie Strong is one of the few Black women professors in the country. She's made a success of her career, but when her daughter Samantha's friend is murdered and Samantha is thrown into an emotional tailspin, Josie certainly doesn't feel like a success as a mother. 

Josie books a wilderness vacation out of cell phone range to bond with her daughter. What she doesn't realize is that a killer will follow them into the wilderness, and the only thing she has to protect her daughter and herself is her knowledge of medieval weaponry.

~

Since I am a huge fan of Todd Borg's Owen McKenna series set in gorgeous Lake Tahoe, I immediately pre-ordered Wilderness Vacation as soon as I heard about it. Although it took me some time to warm to medieval history professor Josie Strong and her fourteen-year-old daughter, Samantha, I now know that I'm going to enjoy this series.

After all, who wouldn't like a book featuring an out-of-shape medieval history professor whose glasses are always fogging up? Josie is an intelligent woman. She's made a success of her classes by bringing in medieval weaponry to wake up her students and interest them in history; however, I do question her decision to book a vacation in a remote Canadian wilderness area. Neither she nor her daughter has the slightest knowledge of canoeing or how physically demanding it is to carry a canoe and supplies from one lake to another. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Borg is a master at writing thrilling, fast-paced action scenes, and as Josie and Samantha tried to escape a very determined killer through rough terrain, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The author also has a fondness for dogs-- one that I share-- so it was good to see that these two women soon collected a canine companion. Another thing that I really appreciated is the behavior of the sheriff in the wilderness area. So many authors, in the same circumstances as this sheriff, would have Josie and Samantha treated as prime suspects. Not Borg. His sheriff is intelligent enough to gather all the facts and trust the two-- even though what they did was incredible.

And as the action returns to Los Angeles, another character joins the cast. Cumberland Durand, a former student of Josie's as well as a computer hacker, is an unlikely hero, but his skills shone when he teamed up with Josie and Samantha.

Strong characters, thrilling action, a vivid setting... bring on the next book!

Wilderness Vacation by Todd Borg

eISBN:  9781931296755

Thriller Press © 2024

eBook, 285 pages

Thriller, #1 Josie Strong

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

On My Radar: Kate Carlisle's The Knife Before Christmas!

 

Although my enjoyment of cozy mysteries has slackened in the past couple of years, there are still a few series that are favorites. Kate Carlisle's Fixer-Upper series featuring contractor Shannon Hammer is one of them. Carlisle has created a good solid cast, and she certainly knows how to craft intriguing mysteries. In addition, I always enjoy the contracting, architectural, and design elements that she incorporates into each book. (And I just have to tell you that the pink tape measures that Carlisle handed out one year are priceless. I still have two because it seems as though Denis wants nothing to do with a pink tape measure! All the others in the house disappear regularly.)

 

So I had a big smile on my face when I learned that there would be a new Fixer-Upper mystery this year. Let me tell you more about it! 

Available October 22, 2024!

 

Synopsis:

"Christmas has come to Lighthouse Cove, but business hasn’t slowed down for Shannon Hammer. She’s been contracted to renovate a local hotel owned by the Garrisons, a family that’s so devoted to the holidays they serve a seven-course dinner every night from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Last year’s festivities featured a train that transported guests around the breathtaking Cliffside property. This year, Shannon and her crew have been commissioned to build a Victorian-style carnival midway with games and prizes galore.

Everyone in town loves the hotel’s spirit, except the Garrisons’ children and their spouses, who are hum-bugged by the money being wasted on holiday cheer while their inheritance goes up the chimney. Things turn nasty when a mischief-maker close to the family is found dead. It’s up to Shannon and Mac to catch a sinister Scrooge before all of Lighthouse Cove receives coal for Christmas."

Each book in this series has Shannon and her crew working on something different: restoring old Victorian houses, a castle, installing solar panels-- you name it. Now it's a Victorian carnival midway. I'm really looking forward to it!

How many of you are familiar with this series? Inquiring minds would love to know!

A Postcards from Arizona Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I was reminded recently of a favorite purchase when I was a child and on a summer road trip. One of the best places to stop was Stuckey's. Clean restrooms, good hamburgers, those pecan logs!, but-- most importantly-- the racks of postcards. I had a pretty decent collection of postcards from many of the places we visited, but I got rid of it years ago. Now I'm wondering how well the postcard market is doing. It's had to have taken a big hit from camera phones and the like. I might have to look into that... Any fellow (current or former) postcard collectors here?

 

 

Meanwhile, it's hot here in Phoenix. The only place I've been recently is the wound care clinic. Denis is still going on midnight swims and scaring the cats, and I'm about to finish a watermelon-colored baby blanket. All is well here, and I hope it is where you are, too. 

 

Stay healthy, stay cool, and read plenty of good books. Enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Do authors really need to spend their own money to make a book successful?
• Same river, same man-- one person's adventures in rereading.
• A defense of Agatha Christie's The Mystery of the Blue Train.
• Britain's Simon Templar from The Saint-- and the man who made him.
• A leaked document shows that after almost thirty years, Amazon's original book business is booming.
• Monster smut is the big new thing in publishing.
• In search of the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe's Tamerlane.
• TikTok's opaque censorship protocol has led to the development of euphemisms adopted offline, too.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• The Fort Worth (Texas) Independent School District will return some banned books to libraries after over 100 were pulled for review.
• The Ozark Library (Alabama) announced a temporary closure to remove books, complying with the new state policy.
• School officials in a Florida county seek to be shielded in a lawsuit over book bans.
• Leander (Texas) Independent School District parents call on the district to remove "graphic" and "obscene" books.
• The "Children's School and Library Protection Act" has gone into effect in Idaho.
• Franklin County (Virginia) public schools will review their book policy in an attempt to keep tabs on teens' reads.
• The Oklahoma State Board of Education has rejected a judge's advice to restore a former Norman teacher's license.
• The Prattville (Alabama) library board has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit.
• Brazil's unparalleled spate of book bans is a page out of the US culture wars.
• A conservative group in Texas aims to remove over 600 books from schools.
• A study has found that women of color are disproportionately targeted by book bans.
• A US Appeals Court will review its prior order keeping banned books on shelves in a Texas county.
• A law adding specific restrictions to the state's "Age-Appropriate Materials Act" went into effect in Tennessee. 

 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A 2,500-year-old slate containing drawings of battle scenes and a paleo-alphabet has been discovered in Spain.
• Ernest Shackleton's last ship, Quest, was discovered off the coast of Canada.
• In this ancient workshop, Greeks crushed snail glands to make the purple dye worn by royalty.
• A treasure trove has been recovered from ancient shipwrecks 5,000 feet underwater.
• "Incredibly fascinating" Roman, Iron Age, and Bronze Age settlements have been unearthed in a UK dig.
• The Gilgamesh flood tablet: A 2,600-year-old text that's eerily similar to the story of Noah's Ark.
• A twice-looted Titian masterpiece that was once discovered at a bus stop was put on the auction block.
• A 1,700-year-old "emergency hoard" of coins dates to the last revolt of Jews against Roman rule.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Kevin, the world's tallest male dog, died days after receiving the Guinness World Record.
• See 12 captivating bird images from the Audubon Photography Awards.
• Pablo Escobar's abandoned hippos are wreaking havoc in the Colombian jungle.
• Chimpanzees may self-medicate with plants, using the forest as a pharmacy.
• These ten dog breeds make the best hiking companions.
• These stunning butterflies flew 2,600 miles across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping.
• Watch a wild elk play soccer with teenage boys in Colorado.
• Five amazing dolphin behaviors, explained.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The crime fiction of Montevideo.
• I wouldn't mind visiting the Nachusa Grasslands, 4,000 acres of restored grassland in northern Illinois.
• Inside Fiji's fiery battle against plastics.
• Watch mountain cedar trees sneeze huge clouds of pollen.
• "It's hard to communicate how unbelievable this is": Hurricane Beryl is the earliest Category 5 storm on record.
• Why American sunscreen falls short of the rest of the world.
• How about a visit to Boleskine House in Scotland-- a manor with a history of mysterious fires, magic, and eccentric tales.
• Ow an abandoned elevated railroad in New York City became the popular "High Line" Public Park.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Meet Vivian Maier, the reclusive nanny who secretly became one of the best street photographers of the 20th century.
• Chris Offutt on nature, Appalachia, and the "code of the hills."
• How all-female "juries of matrons" shaped legal history.
• Aphra Behn, the first Englishwoman to earn a living with her writing, is finally getting her due.
• Dr. Marian Pettibone discovered and described new forms of oceanic life.
• The Pay Phone Bandit who baffled the FBI in the '80s.
• The remarkable legacy of artist and feminist Audrey Flack.
• Why Ernest Hemingway's younger brother Leicester established a floating republic in the Caribbean.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ram Murali's 10 favorite Agatha Christie short stories.
• New Yorkers share their 2024 beach reads and summer books.
• 13 sounds today's kids have probably never heard.
• 10 of history's most misinterpreted quotes.
• How many of these 35 general knowledge trivia questions can you get right?

That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!

The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri

 

First Line: The alarm clock started ringing wildly.

 

When a Swedish television series begins filming in Vigàta, there is a frenzy of excitement. This new series is set in 1950, and the director asks locals to track down movies and vintage photos to faithfully recreate the town as it looked at that time. 

 

Ernesto Sabatello finds some movies shot by his father up in his attic. The films-- dated from 1958 to 1963-- were always shot on the same day and always had the same location, the outside wall of a country house. Montalbano is intrigued by the mystery of Sabatello's story and begins to check it out.

Meanwhile, a middle school is threatened by a group of armed men, and when Montalbano and his team begin looking into the situation, the inspector finds himself taking a closer look at the students themselves... and even into the world of social media.

~

By this time (book 25 of 28 in the series), I feel as though Salvo Montalbano is a beloved uncle, and The Safety Net brings this wily curmudgeon into the world of teenagers and social media. It also brings him into a situation all too familiar to Americans-- gun violence in schools. 

With his trademark humor, Andrea Camilleri sets us down in a town seething with excitement over the presence of a film crew in its midst. Some of the situations Montalbano and his team have to deal with are quite funny. But Camillleri can be quite serious, too.

The author shares his opinions about gun violence in schools as well as what he thinks about the internet and social media. ("How was it possible... that this vast new realm had only created a multitude of loners...?") And Montalbano shines when dealing with teenagers in this story. He starts out believing that he doesn't even come close to speaking the same language as the youngsters, but once he begins to apply himself to the task, he's better at it than he'd imagined. And-- wonder of wonders-- he even sits down with Catarella to do some work on the computer!

I've loved this series for a good long time. I love the setting, the food, the humor. The mystery of the home movies here in The Safety Net is a good one as well. But what I really love is Salvo Montalbano, a man so particular about his food that, if you invite him to dinner and he makes an excuse not to come, you know you're a bad cook. I hate to see my time with this series getting nearer to the end.

The Safety Net by Andrea Camilleri

Translated from the Italian by Stephen Sartorelli

eISBN:  9780525506621

Penguin Books © 2020

eBook, 269 pages

Police Procedural, #25 Inspector Montalbano

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

While Miz Kittling Knits: !mpossible

 

 

I think I'm the same type of knitter that I am as a reader. I read two books at the same time (one physical and one eBook), and I have two knitting projects going on at the same time. Right now, I'm working on a baby blanket as well as washcloths for the main bathroom. The second is an ongoing one that will eventually wind up with several photos because I've fallen in love with a certain yarn, and I don't know when to stop. The woman who comes in every other week to do some housecleaning seems to love this particular yarn, too, because she keeps an eye on what I'm making from it.

But that is not the project that I'm going to share with you today. Today, it's a lightweight afghan from a simple pattern using moss (seed) stitch borders all around with a stockinette stitch central panel. I used US size 6 circular needles and an acrylic yarn with a metallic thread running through it. I fell in love with this yarn well over a decade ago, bought as many skeins of it as I could, and it took me this long to figure out what I wanted to make with it. I won't give you the particulars because the yarn has been discontinued for years. I will tell you the color, though-- Peacock-- and it is the closest thing I've seen to all the colors in peacock feathers that I've ever seen.

 

The finished afghan

A closeup for the colors. The blue metallic glint refuses to show itself.

 

I chose a simple pattern for this yarn because I wanted to showcase the colors. It's light and soft, perfect when there's a slight chill in the air.

 

Now... what have I been watching while I've been stitching away?

 

 

 

I've been a fan of Jeopardy!-type quiz shows since I was a child (and Art Fleming was the host of Jeopardy!). Do I still watch Jeopardy!? You bet, though I still mentally hear Johnny Gilbert announce, "And here's the host of Jeopardy!-- Alex Trebek!"

I don't know what made me click on !mpossible from the Roku screen, but I almost immediately became hooked, and Denis and I both enjoy watching an episode or two every evening. Here's a brief synopsis from the IMDb website: "Rick Edwards hosts the daytime quiz show in which 21 recurring contestants must avoid choosing the impossible answer as they compete for the chance to win 10,000 pounds."

It is a UK-based quiz show, and whenever the questions or categories involve politics or sport, I might as well take a nap because I know next to nothing about UK politics or cricket or soccer. I have found, however, that I'm pretty darned good when it comes to picking the impossible answers even when it's a subject I know little about. Go figure. 

 

I like testing my knowledge on a quiz show that's not geared toward Americans, and... well... umm... I have a guilty secret. I also enjoy looking at Rick Edwards, the host.

 

Can you really blame me?