An Enjoying the Summer Weekly Link Round-Up

Not much to report here at Casa Kittling. The monsoon season has yet to begin. Our new windows for the house are being made. Denis and I are having fun watching trivia game shows and getting fits of giggles. Well, neither one of us actually giggles, but you get the picture. Life is good, and we're having fun.

Deborah DeWit's "Summer"

Speaking of pictures, here's one of my favorites, Deborah DeWit's "Summer." It's a favorite because it reminds me of summer days in my childhood. The outdoors has always been one of my favorite places to read, although growing up in central Illinois meant that there were several months when it was too cold to do so.

I tended to prefer reading in a place of concealment. Not because I was shirking chores or trying to hide what I was reading. No, my penchant for hiding was due to two things. One, I didn't want my reading disturbed by humans. Two, if I stayed still while I was reading, chances were good that critters would come within range. Yep, books and critters have been two very important things my entire life, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'd better check on those links in the corral. It's almost pool time, and I have to decide which of three books I'm going to read this afternoon. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Stop hating on adjectives!
• How the West is destroying itself through its fear of migrants.
• The Strand Bookstore has been granted landmark status despite the owner's objections.
• In Cold Blood and the murders Truman Capote missed.
• How would Nancy Drew's mysteries differ in the present day?
• Torn apart: the vicious war over young adult books. 
• You can tell a lot about a country by how it treats its libraries.
• Did Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes have more in common with the American hardboiled noir than with the English puzzle mystery?

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Scotland's five tiny artificial islands date to the Stone Age.
• James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 is for sale-- including the gadgets from the film. 
• Artifacts found in the North Sea point to a submerged Stone Age settlement.
• After more than eight decades, these exquisite Whistler watercolors make their public debut. 
• This long-ignored document, written by George Washington, lays bare the legal power of genealogy.
• The Louvre's first VR experience lets visitors get close to the Mona Lisa.
• A third-century Roman coin found in a field breaks an auction sales record.
• Fear of foreign food may have led to the death of Crusader King Louis IX.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Biologists have discovered an underwater octopus city, and they're calling it Octlantis. 
• Decades after DDT was banned, it still impacts Canadian lakes.
• Minnesota will pay residents to grow bee-friendly lawns.
• A survey shows your cat's attitude is closely linked to its breed. 
• Ancient dogs weren't the workhorses we thought they were.
• The mysterious bison herd roaming on an island off the California coast.
• A longhorn steer from Alabama has a horn span wider than the Statue of Liberty's face.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Sarah Stewart, the woman who revealed the missing link between viruses and cancer.
• Joy Harjo has become the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate. 
• Mitzi Roberts is a real-life Michael Connely character in the LAPD, and she's gunning for Harry Bosch's job.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The Grand Canyon will soon be a dark sky park.
• The crime fiction of Algiers. 
• 633 divers cleaned up a Florida beach-- and broke a world record.
• Faulkner House Books, a bookshop in the New Orleans house where William Faulkner once lived.
• Rindoon, the enchanting ruins of a once-powerful medieval Irish town.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The class conscious narrator: society's detective.
• Five great novels about sisters. 
• Language wars: the nineteen greatest linguistic spats of all time.
• Fifteen famous knitters who might surprise you. 
• Reading the rainbow, a Pride reading list.
• A tongue-in-cheek article about what your favorite beach read says about you.
• Twenty-three of the best historical fiction books coming out this summer.
• The best beachside bookstores.

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!