A Help Me Decide Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Denis has had his MRI. The front garden is a bit torn up waiting for the forms to be laid and concrete to be poured for new, scooter-friendly paths. So, it's a bit of a waiting game. Denis's spirits continue to improve, and I can't tell you how much that brightens my day, but right now, we're in a waiting game, so I thought I'd ask for your opinion on something.

I'm just about to finish my third and final Christmas afghan, and I've chosen this pattern for my next one.

 

"Sand Dunes" Pattern Afghan

 

I want to use either a soft pale gray yarn or a soft light blue yarn. Here's where y'all come in. Which color do you prefer?

 

If you prefer this one, leave a comment saying "Gray."

 

If you prefer this one, leave a comment saying "Blue."

By the way, if you've already responded on my Facebook page, there's no need to do it again. Thanks for your input, and enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What do your favorite books say about you?
• From The Guardian archive circa 1976: How to have a comfortable read in bed.
• Jennifer Weiner on how plus-size women finally landed on book covers.
• How book descriptions can ruin a good book.
• Notes from a prop master: Making the Book of Secrets for National Treasure 2.
• Have scientists designed the perfect chocolate?
• Why do so many cold cases go unsolved?
• How to have a positive bookish community (even on Twitter).
• What makes a great, or terrible, audiobook performance?
  

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Barnes & Noble is being sued in Virginia Beach over Gender Queer and The Court of Mist and Fury.
• You need to talk about the sex parts in banned books.
• When right-wing attacks on school textbooks fell short.
• Congress holds a second hearing and focuses on censorship in classrooms.
• A brief book banning history lesson from author Jeffrey Siger.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The remains of an Aztec dwelling and floating gardens have been unearthed in Mexico City. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• A Palestinian farmer dug up a 4,500-year-old goddess sculpture. 
• This 308-year-old violin could become the most expensive ever sold. 
• These Bronze Age "grave daggers" were actually used to butcher animals. 
• 8,500-year-old stone houses are the oldest known structures in the UAE. 
• A $26.8 million painting of strawberries smashed records, but now it's stuck in legal limbo in France. 
• Russian forces reportedly stole priceless Scythian treasures from a Ukrainian museum. 
• Jamestown, America's first permanent English colony, could soon be underwater. (I'm so glad I visited Jamestown and walked its streets. The first of my ancestors to get sick and tired of Europe landed at the docks in Jamestown in 1636. The family's had itchy feet ever since.)
• Archaeologists unearthed 3,000-year-old giant statues in an Sardinian necropolis. 

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• This elephant's excellent mothering skills help rare twins defy the odds to survive.
• A Ukrainian explosive-sniffing Jack Russell terrier named Patron has been awarded a medal by President Zelenskyy for his service during the war.
• Max the hero dog saved a mother with dementia who was lost for three days in the forest. More from CBS News.
  
• Bats tell predators to buzz off-- literally.
• How do octopuses change color?
• How do you help an elephant with a toothache?
• Watch this Border Collie mom use her lightning-fast instincts to catch her pup falling from a twenty-foot window.
• Researchers say extinction faces one in five reptile species.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• 91% of the Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed in 2021 was bleached.
• And in a follow-up to the link above, scientists now know why sunscreen harms corals. 
• Founding the first English-language library in Gaza.
• What makes the Library of Congress a monument to democracy. 
• Iconic photos give a rare glimpse into the Smithsonian's storage rooms. 
• How bad is the Western drought? A study finds that it's the worst in twelve centuries. 

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The best villains in classic crime books.
• When Sidney Poitier went to the Moscow Film Festival.
• Did an enslaved woman named Liss try to warn the Americans of Benedict Arnold's treason?
• Emma Straub's advice on what to wear to a book launch.
• Colin Firth and Matthew Mcfadyen on the bromantic power of two Mr. Darcys.
• Meenakshi Amma, the sword-wielding grandmother bringing women back to Indian martial arts.
• We've all seen the television shows, but what does a forensic anthropologist really do?
• Janie Forsyth McKinney, the twelve-year-old who defied the Ku Klux Klan to help Civil Rights activists after their bus was firebombed.
• Dolena Fox is one of the world's first female Yup'ik commercial pilots.

 

►I ♥ Extra-Long Book Lists◄

• Sixteen twisty mysteries set in glamorous locations.
• Books about renovating old homes. 
• Five classic Australian crime reads. 
• Tracing the portrayal of mental disorders in literature over time, in five books. 
• Some of the most ridiculous cookbooks to ever exist. 
• Ten wilderness stories. 
• The twenty most influential memoirs of all time. 
• Atmospheric mysteries set on islands. 
• Fourteen historical fiction novels featuring nurses. 
• Some of the most influential Asian American literature of all time. 
• 150 more book characters by their Myers-Briggs type. 
• Twenty genre-blending historical fiction books. 
• Fourteen must-read Chinese books in English translation. 
• Ten books of queer and two-spirit Indigenous fiction you need to read. 
• Fourteen Gothic novels for fans of Rebecca. 
• Ten Pacific Islander and Pasifika authors you need to know about.
  

 

 

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!