A Simple Pleasures, Simple Faith Weekly Link Round-Up

This is a week where I've found myself distracted. I have two dear friends who are being severely tested right now, and other than lending moral support from afar, there's not a darned thing I can do to help. Feeling this way gets me nowhere. Fast.

Over and over again while sitting in the pool with a succession of books, I find myself staring off into space, thinking of my friends. It's only when I happen to see random moments of beauty-- like this tiny verdin peeking out from the riotous blooms of my birds of paradise-- that I feel myself becoming calm and centered again. Nature does that for me. It always has. And each time I see one of these perfect little moments, I wrap them up and mentally send them to my friends. If sending positive thoughts is the only thing I can do, I'm going to do my best.

Just like I'm going to do my best to get these links rounded up and headed your way!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Which books didn't change your life? 
• Some of them number among the books I was given as a baby: the story behind Little Golden Books.
• An Israeli court has ruled that a family must transfer unpublished Kafka works to the National Library.
• Rest in Peace to a true hero: Sir Nicholas Winton died at the age of 106. He was known as "Britain's Schindler."
• Watch Sherlock Holmes examining the evidence in a series of charts. 
• This map shows where America's gun culture is most firmly entrenched-- and where it's not.
• I had fun with this quiz: Which fictional home is for you? My answer? Misselthwaite Manor in Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. 
• It doesn't happen often, but once in a great while hackers can make you laugh-- like they did down in Tucson.
• The hidden depths of swimming pools.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Miniatures of Bonnie Prince Charlie and his brother are going on display in Scotland for the first time.
• Unknown Thomas Cole paintings have been found in his home by an eagle-eyed specialist in paint finishes.
• Workers have found centuries-old artifacts under a Seattle bridge.
• They wanted to renovate their living room. Instead they found a 2,000-year-old ritual bath under the floorboards.
• There are some people I don't think I ever want to understand: ISIS says it's their "religious duty" to destroy Egypt's pyramids and the Sphinx.
• Archaeologists have found U.S. Army tins of bacon and sunscreen buried at Salisbury Plain.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• I really don't think I'll be staying in Peru's "pod hotel."
• 20 incredible places to visit in Scotland before you die. (I'd love to see the Kelpies.)
• 7 of America's most stunning road trips.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 16 stolen paintings that have never been found.
• The 30 best period dramas from the last thirty years.
• I'm going to have to do something about this! I've only been to three places on The Reading Room's Bookstore Bucket List! (Powell's, Leakey's and Barter's)
• Here's the list of new words going into the Oxford English Dictionary.

►Book Candy◄

• I wish the lockers in my high school looked like this!

That's all for now. 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!