A Pick a Number Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I've been doing more nest feathering here in the living room. I've added large bolsters to each side of the daybed, and I think Denis is beginning to get decidedly envious of my comfy space... especially when he walks past and catches me snoozing. 

There has been one piece of furniture that I haven't been happy with, and that's the old end table that I put together from a flat pack many moons ago, so I went hunting for a new one and narrowed my choices down to four. Here they are.

Those of you who are Facebook friends will already recognize this, but for those of you who aren't, I'd like you to choose the one you like best. Is it #1, #2, #3, or #4? Let me know in the comments, please. You know, inquiring minds and all that! Next Friday, I'll share a photo of this nest of mine complete with bolsters and new table. (By the way, table #2 is photographed at an angle that makes the top look very small. It isn't. It's the same size as the bottom shelf. And as for the wheels on table #4, they do lock.)

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• A translator on the intense excitement of translating a mystery, line by line.
• How One Hundred and One Dalmatians saved Disney.
• Author David Housewright on DNA and crime fiction.
• The new wave of destination thrillers.
• How authors try to control their image from beyond the grave.
• Scottish crime writer Denise Mina on being inspired by The Master and Margarita and why Harper Lee was right not to keep publishing.
• Ashley Weaver on safecrackers in fact and fiction.
• How the pandemic is rewriting the workplace novel.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Ten of the world's oldest temples.
• Italian art restorers used bacteria to clean Michelangelo masterpieces.
• Inside this McDonald's in Rome, you can eat your Big Mac while sitting next to a 2,500-year-old Roman wall.
• Sand dunes preserved these Roman baths in Spain for thousands of years.
• Hidden inscriptions have been discovered inside Anne Boleyn's execution prayer book.
• Egyptian officials unveil new archaeological finds.
• An English dogwalker found a 65-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton on a beach in Somerset.
• Archaeologists unearth beads made of human teeth in an ancient Turkish city.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Without humans around, Sri Lanka's zoo animals enjoy a pandemic baby boom.
• Meet Fernanda, the Galápagos tortoise that was lost for over a century.
• Some cattle helped police apprehend a suspect following a car chase in Wisconsin.
• Why do mosquitoes buzz in our ears?
• A seventeen-year-old run up and shoved a female bear off the wall in her backyard in order to protect her dogs. (Sheesh. I did something similar when I was twelve, but that was long before anything ever "went viral.")
• A giant river otter has been spotted in Argentina for the first time in decades.
• It's time to celebrate! After a twenty-year manhunt, an infamous poacher who killed 70 endangered tigers has been caught. (The price of tiger penis soup is probably going to skyrocket.)
• By creating a "landscape of fear," wolves reduce car collisions with deer. (Restore Mother Nature's balance and who knows how much balance will be restored to our own lives?)
• The Tower of London has revealed their newest raven's mythical name.
• Watch this clever pig take care of a noisy vacuum cleaner.

 

►The Happy Wanderer◄

• Generations have refused to move this doll from its dusty resting place to preserve a Danish castle from a watery fate.
• The Swiss city that's full of cat ladders.
• Independent Book Review's favorite indie bookstores in the world. (I'm partial to number ten.)
• Is communication possible between trees and people?

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• An inside look at one woman's life in the FBI Academy.
• Sixteen women wartime heroes you should know.
• Helen Taussig, the doctor who pioneered pediatric cardiology and saved "blue babies." 
• Tsökahovi Tewanima, the Olympic star who just wanted to go home.
• How Cher helped rescue the world's loneliest elephant.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ten short story collections to read this summer.
• Six great literary thrillers about spies, espionage, and double agents.
• The Astrology Book Club: what to read this month based on your sign.
• Nine classic detective fiction novels every mystery fan needs to read.
• The best mystery and thriller movies coming to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime this June.
• Seven historical fiction reads that put a twist on the genre.
• Twenty-five must-read books by Asian and Asian American authors.
• Seven novels about running away from the past.
• Seven uninhabitable houses in fiction.

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.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!