A Summer Cleaning the Blog Weekly Link Round-Up

I finally found some time to work on the appearance of my blog. It's been looking past its sell-by date for a long time, which is not a good thing since newcomers might have taken a look and thought the poor thing had been abandoned.

There's a newer, simpler look to Kittling: Books... not that it was anything fancy to begin with. I've always thought content to be more important than looks, although in this day and age of branding and all that jazz many people would disagree.

I'm still not done tinkering with it, or maybe I am. I've discovered that, in the years since I last worked on the blog template in a big way, Blogger seems to have decided that blog owners should not be allowed to monkey with the coding in order to have everything just the way they want it. I'm not Quick Draw McGraw when it comes to HTML and all that stuff, so I may tinker a few more times and then decide to quit before I blow the thing up.

Shortly after I started this blog, I had an award-winning series called Scene of the Blog that featured book bloggers, where they blogged, their shelves, and anything else they wanted to share. I've been wanting to create a sort of "Golden Oldies" page and include that series as one of the items, but in checking through the links, I've found so many blogs that are no longer in existence. It's sad. But... life brings changes, doesn't it? 

On that note, I think I'll head on out to the corral to commune with the links. They seldom ever give me any trouble, bless 'em. Head 'em up! Moooove 'em out!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Target has launched a Harry Potter line of clothing, accessories, and home goods. 
• The Notre Dame fire has revived demand for skilled stone carvers in France.
• The CW's Nancy Drew won't directly adapt any books, but it will be horny. (Honestly? Nancy Drew? Horny?) 
• Should books include credits like films?
• The modern American works longer with less vacation than medieval peasants. 
• A thriller author and her forensics expert partner celebrate the literary and investigative merits of the all-time great thriller, The Silence of the Lambs.
• Mailing babies: When it was legal to send children through the U.S. Postal Service in the early 20th century. (What?!?)
• How women are leading the charge to recycle whole houses.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A shrine to the Apostle Peter has been unearthed in Israel.
• A buried treasure poses a Holocaust puzzle for a museum in Hungary.
• Does the mystery of Stonehenge involve pig fat? 
• A hoard of Roman coins has been linked to the epic revolt of Celtic Queen Boudicca.
• Were these 3,500-year-old carvings of nude women used as an ancient fertility drug? 
• Why archaeologists and volcanologists are clashing over excavations at Pompeii.
• 6,000-year-old fabric reveals that Peruvians were dyeing textiles with indigo long before the Egyptians.
• From baked dormouse to carbonized bread, 300 artifacts show what Romans ate.

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Scientists have resuscitated a 41,000-year-old worm. Here's how. (I wonder if the worm appreciated it.)
• Fourteen fun facts about dragonflies.
• How zoo animals keep cool during a heatwave.
• The sea pangolin is the first-ever species endangered by potential deep-sea mining. 
• This new shark species looks like a tiny sperm whale. 
• A new species of giant flying squirrel has been discovered in China.
• Wolves and bears are being returned to a rare patch of ancient woodland in Britain.
• Poachers forced this rhino subspecies to two. Scientists are in a race to save them.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Joy Harjo has become the first Native American writer to be named U.S. Poet Laureate.
• Eliza Leslie: the most influential cookbook writer of the 19th century. 
• Cara Black on her long-running detective series, her impeccably dressed detective, and how Paris is always a good idea.
• Why 19th-century ax murderer Lizzie Borden was found not guilty.
• JoAnn Hardin Morgan, the only woman in the room at Apollo 11's historic moon launch.

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• The Bockenheimer Warte subway station entrance in Frankfurt, Germany looks like an old tram car crashed into the concrete sidewalk.  
• London signs up as the first "National Park City."

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄

• Consider the airport thriller.
• Merriam-Webster's What's that smell? quiz. 
• We asked thirteen novelists, from Lee Child to Ruth Ware, "What's the best murder you ever wrote?"
• The five children's books every adult should read.
• The top ten books about Baltimore.
• Eight paranormal books you need to read.
• The crime novels of Buenos Aires.
• Five essential Cuban novels.

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!