A Social Calendar Weekly Link Round-Up

Although you won't see this post until Friday, I'm putting the finishing touches on it Monday night, and I'm looking forward to the week's activities. It all starts Tuesday. Tomorrow night I'll be heading to The Poisoned Pen for "Soho Night" with four of Soho Press's authors.  Any time Tim Hallinan is in town is a good day (and James Benn, Matt Bell, and Martin Limón just add icing to the cake) .

Thursday Denis and I will be meeting author Paige Shelton for lunch at the Desert Botanical Garden. She likes the sound of the Patio Cafe where you can sit outside and be visited by ground squirrels, roadrunners, cactus wrens, Gambel's quail, and any other critter that takes a mind to show up. Paige and I have only met at The Poisoned Pen, so I'm looking forward to the different venue.

There are some other things thrown in there, too, but those are the biggies. In the mean time, it's housecleaning, laundry, and knitting for me. I just finished my last Christmas gift, so it's time to start on next year's.

Needless to say, just like the cactus wren in the photo above, I've been rounding up...well... not nesting materials... plenty of links for you. Time to trot 'em out of the corral!
 

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• A new Pew survey has discovered that kids are reading more than adults. Maybe there's hope for the future after all? (Did I just say that???)
• A pretty (?), impractical (!) way to organize your bookshelf. (Why do I think these people (a) don't read, and (b) have too much time on their hands?)
• A rare 17th-century Bible with a misprint amongst the Commandments is expected to fetch a tidy sum at auction.
• The definitive breakdown of famous books versus their movie adaptations. 
• These anatomy cross-sections are made entirely out of old books.
• The science of Little House on the Prairie.
• Qiu Xiaolong's Detective Chen novels give clues to unravel the mysteries of China.
• 27% of Americans have read an eBook in the past twelve months.
• YouTube Red is a $9.99 subscription that disables ads.
• Epic! is a subscription service targeted at children aged twelve and under, and those children have read over 10 million eBooks in one year.
• Modern literature is not Dead; it's Undead.
• Why author Susan Cheever is addicted to bookstores.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Facial reconstructions show how murdered sixth-century men and women (found in a grave in Edinburgh) might have looked.
• A secret tunnel has been found in an historical castle. 
• A marble Medusa head has been unearthed in ancient Roman ruins. More photos of the Medusa.
• I never have this kind of luck: a hiker has found a 1,200-year-old Viking sword in Norway.
• The plague spread 3,000 years earlier than the experts first thought.
• Lead poisoning ran rampant for wealthy medieval Europeans.
• A snake didn't kill Cleopatra. 
• The female Top Guns of World War II.
• The history of a Scottish castle which played a key role during the Wars of Independence may have to be rewritten.
• Inside Henry V's secret chapel at Westminster Abbey. 
• A 100-year-old box of negatives has been found frozen in a block of Antarctica's ice. 
• An ancient warrior's tomb complete with a huge treasure hoard has been found in Greece.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• When I think of America and nature, I don't tend to envision bald eagles. I don't know why, but one of the first animals I think of is a buffalo. A recent agreement between Arizona and federal officials will establish a protected buffalo herd in northern Arizona-- probably in the area of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
• Monarch butterflies may be saved by the California drought.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The forgotten houseboat hotels of Kashmir. 
• Eight of the world's most stunning bridges. (I've been on two from this list.)
• Aveiro, the candy-colored "Venice of Portugal."
• Scotland's businesses have been charging customers a fee for single-use plastic bags for a year now. The results are amazing, and it's something this country should be doing, too! (I also like what the government is doing with the "fee money.")

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 20 wordplay jokes for grammar nerds.
• 20 of the creepiest haunted houses, castles, and mansions in literature. 
• 30 great opening lines in literature. (A snail mail penpal and I used to play this game of identifying the opening lines of books. It's much harder when there's no Google!) 
• 24 hilarious tweets every book lover will appreciate.
• 17 beautiful rooms for the book-loving soul.

That's it 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!