The Drying Out Weekly Link Round-Up

Another storm came rumbling through Phoenix, and once again we're drying out. I appreciate every drop of rain we've received, and I'm certainly glad that our big cactus got straightened out beforehand!

Papa Verdin keeping busy.

It's been a quiet week, except for Monday when I hot-footed it over to The Poisoned Pen to see Craig Johnson. As many appearances as that man makes I wonder how he finds time to write! 

Other than that, I've been doing a bit of garden taming-- pruning back hedges that are going wild over all the water, pulling weeds. You know... all that fun stuff. The first round of baby birds have grown up, and I would imagine that new batches of eggs will be hatching in the weeks to come. We're going through oranges like there's no tomorrow.

In the evenings I'm knitting up a storm. I've just finished watching all 25 episodes of "Foyle's War" that are available on Netflix, and I see that a new season of "Murdoch Mysteries" is waiting for me via the Acorn channel. Somehow Agatha Christie knew that knitting and mysteries go hand in hand!

Now let's round up these links!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How does history influence George R.R. Martin?
• The World War II diaries of Astrid Lindgren (think Pippi Longstocking) have just been published in Sweden.
• One man's hunt for Shakespeare's first editions.
• After the success of Wolf Hall, the BBC will be adapting another Hillary Mantel novel.
• I love Kathleen Taylor's Tory Bauer mysteries. Just thinking about certain scenes in them can make me laugh. (When I first read them, I laughed so hard that I cried.) I don't recommend them often because they can be difficult to find. Now they're available on Kindle, $2.99 each! Yippee!
• Lionsgate has landed the U.S. rights to Genius, a film about famed literary editor Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth).
• Have you ever wondered what is considered to be a suitable gift for a queen? 
• Having loved Season One of True Detective, I couldn't resist taking a look at the trailer for Season Two.
• I'll bet you didn't know that there were influential female philosophers in the 17th century. Some people are trying to make it much better known. 
• One of my favorite crime fiction writers, Ann Cleeves, talks about the inspiration she finds from Shetland.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The body of Alexander the Great's father has been found in a tomb with a foreign princess.
• An archaeological find under a French supermarket illuminates the country's medieval history.
• A 19th-century shipwreck has been uncovered on a New England beach.
• A group of people on a small Shetland island banded together and bought a crumbling mansion for £5. They spent 15 years restoring the house and grounds. They did such a fabulous job that Belmont House is now worth £1.2 million. I'd love to stay there!
• Scientists keep coming up with more ways to identify us. Now there's personal microbiomes and long-range iris scanning.
• The gold-filled tomb of a Chinese "survivor" mom has been discovered.
• Scientists have identified a mysterious sword-filled Caribbean shipwreck.
• How did 92-year-old former Spitfire pilot Joy Lofthouse celebrate VE Day this year?  
• Grace Hopper would've hated the title people have given her: the Queen of Code.
• A stone circle found on Dartmoor could be as old as Stonehenge.
• A Matisse painting looted by the Nazis is being returned to the owner's heirs.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• If you're in Montana, that old caboose you're thinking of climbing aboard may not be abandoned. 
• The world's most amazing remote islands where you can escape civilization. 
• A brand new island forming off the coast of Japan is giving scientists the rare opportunity to study how life begins to colonize barren land.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Did you know that there's such a thing as a fully warm-blooded fish? Neither did I!

►I  ♥  Lists◄

• Books that have been permanently lost.
• 12 reasons to date a woman who reads. (They're good reasons to marry her as well.)
• 10 books that make you want to travel. 
• 10 moody facts about Jane Eyre.
• 10 beautiful literary locations that inspired beloved novels.
• 63 gifts for book lovers and avid readers. 
• The top ten British mystery shows. (5-6 of these would make my own personal list.)
• Does your favorite book fanatic love necklaces and pendants?
• Who are the bestselling authors no one has ever seen? 
• Do we talk funny? 51 American colloquialisms. (The rest of you may not, but I know I do!)

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.

Have a great weekend, and-- read something fabulous!