Kittling: Books: A Winding Down Weekly Link Round-Up

It always comes too soon. The afternoon of Tuesday, August 15 showed me that summer is winding down. There's a nasty little part of me that wants to blame friends on Facebook who've spent all summer griping about the heat and posting photos of autumn. But I know it's not their fault. It's the natural order of things.

There are all sorts of signs of this winding down, at least to me. The angle of the sun changes so that it stays behind the palo verdes all afternoon. I don't really need my two umbrellas after 4 PM. This change also means that I have to move the solar panel in order for the fountain to continue running. And the aerator has to be turned off. Now I don't want the water to cool down. I want it to stay at its current temperature for as long as possible.

The cicadas sound as though they're mourning the passing of a season, and as far as I'm concerned, they are. All I can do is enjoy every last little bit of the season that I possibly can. And look forward to next summer.

Pfft! I'm going to take my melancholia out to the corral. Those links need tending. Head 'em up! Moooooooooove 'em out!

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

Why can't films and TV accurately portray hackers?
Buckingham Palace remembers Princess Diana with a new exhibit.
According to a new survey, what's the funniest word in the English language?
The best recurring joke on Game of Thrones is about grammar.
Can the internet's true crime obsession lead to real-life justice?
Childrens' authors take on the refugee crisis.
The sci-fi technology that could power microbots.
On the rise of Scandinavian crime fiction.
U.S. academics have discovered a dramatic growth of swearing in books.
eBook sales in the UK are expected to drop as a bookshelf resurgence sparks a "shelfie" craze.
Crime writer Val McDermid on her latest book and the secret to getting away with murder.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

Ancient DNA is being used to track the Mesa Verde exodus in the thirteenth century-- a mystery most thought would never be solved. Here's another look at the subject from the UK's Daily Mail.
This New Mexico petroglyph might reveal an ancient solar eclipse.
What a 6,000-year-old knee can teach us about arthritis.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

Watch what happens when lightning hits a river.
The top ten museums of the West.
The farm with the barn that inspired Charlotte's Web is on the market at $3.7 million.
Crime and the City: Glasgow is still a hard, hard town.
A new memorial will soon honor the heroism of Native American veterans.
The childhood home of the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin is for sale on eBay.
A new type of library on a once-abandoned Colorado ranch.

►Fascinating Folk◄

Cowboy rangers of the early U.S. Forest Service.
Mauro Morandi has lived alone on an island for twenty-eight years.
Florence Harding, not Eleanor Roosevelt, may have created the modern First Lady.
Benjamin Lay, the "Quaker Comet," was the greatest abolitionist you've never heard of.

►I ♥ Lists◄

The homes of eighteen legendary writers.
The top ten parties in fiction.
Literature's great swimming pools.
Seven things people who use bookmarks will never understand about people who dog-ear books.
Ten bookish umbrellas for your rainy day.
Twenty-three words that every book lover should integrate into their daily vocabulary.
Top ten books about birds.