The Acclimatization Weekly Link Round-Up

The weather here in Phoenix has been very undroughtlike the past couple of months. In fact, the overcast skies and the rain remind me more of where I grew up in the Midwest. I'd like to complain about it, but I can't. We definitely need the rain, and I figure Mother Nature is doing her best to get me acclimatized before Denis and I head off on vacation.

I don't think I'm the only one who's a bit confused about the weather. My timing was perfect to go sit outside about an hour ago. I got to watch a wild peach-faced lovebird tanking up on apples and seeds at our feeder. Wild peach-faced lovebirds are not unusual here in the Valley of the Sun, but it's been several years since one has visited Casa Kittling. Since there was only one of the beautiful bright little birds, I think this was a "just passing through" visit, but we shall see!

Bookish News & Other Interesting Stuff

• Researchers working an Elizabethan shipwreck at the bottom of the English Channel may have found a fabled sunstone.
• Sproutkin, a newly launched subscription service, wants to be a Netflix for Children's Books. (Let's hope they handle price increases better than their model.)
• Think twice before giving away your kids' old books!
• New subway libraries encourage commuters to read on the go.
• 96-year-old Los Angeles blogger pops onto Amazon's bestseller list.
• Did you know that Wal-Mart had been thinking of buying Barnes & Noble?
• A Lonely Planet guide saved the lives of three boys.
• An interesting post on Criminal Element that begins "95 percent of all antiquities in the U.S. have been smuggled."
• Author Rhys Bowen talks about those gallant young gals in their flying machines.
• Do you have a crime fiction soundtrack?
• The curse of You May Also Like.
• In Soviet Russia, a book just may be reading you.
• Author Kate Collins wonders what fans really want to see on her Facebook page.
• A Holocaust survivor who was saved by Oskar Schindler writes his memoirs.

Book Candy

• Nothing like retiring to a nice vacation spot outside of Tokyo and asking your architect to build "a house with a bookshop and a cafe where neighbors and visitors can stop by."  

I  ♥  Lists

• 10 lists that read like poems
• Name the 25 most common 3-letter words.
• 12 beautiful poems for book lovers.

New to My Google Reader

•   Best Crime Books

That's all for this week.  There may not be a round-up next weekend, but we'll see what happens! Have a fantabulous week, everyone!