The Loose Pages Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Denis is adjusting to life in the rehab facility. He quickly learned to carefully read what he was being handed to sign. (He got conned out of a bath by taking someone's word for what he was signing.) They've had to adjust his pain medication, and the biggest event of the past week has been having the staples removed from his incision. The poor man's probably felt like Frankenstein's monster.

 

The toughest part of this whole thing for me has been not being able to go see him. I'm right in the middle of arranging someone to go there to cut his hair and bring him a care package from home. In addition, I've been lining up things that need to be done/delivered/set up here at the house so everything is ready for him when he gets home.

 

Are you wondering about the "loose pages" title of this post? I thought you might. When Denis told me that he'd had his staples removed,  I asked him if any of his pages had come loose. His reply? "They blew away a long time ago."

 

I'll leave you with a photo I took of a visitor here to Casa Kittling. He's a male hooded oriole and quite the handsome fellow. I think I'll show you his missus next week.

 

 

 Enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• All tied up with a bow: Sulari Gentill, author of The Woman in the Library, on endings.
• The craft world is undergoing a democratization.
• This reader let her TikTok for You page choose her TBR.
• And while I'm on the subject of TikTok, here's an article from The Guardian: "After lockdown, things exploded": how TikTok triggered a books revolution. 
• Cara Black and Tara Moss talk fiction and fashion.
• Author Marshall Karp: Murder isn't funny, but gallows humor is.
• Audiobook sales are up for the tenth straight year.
• The weirdly specific trend that has taken over women's fiction.
• The oldest cookbooks from libraries around the world.
• Viewing the Civil Rights Movement through children's books.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists have discovered 134 ancient settlements north of Hadrian's Wall.
• An ancient Bronze Age city reemerges from an Iraqi river after extreme drought. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
• The Queen has an eye-watering collection of miniature things. 
• A 2,100-year-old burial of a woman lying on a bronze "mermaid bed" has been unearthed in Greece. 
• A 1,300-year-old corn god statue shows how the Maya worshipped maize. 
• This lavish silver box tarnished Mary, Queen of Scots, and contributed to her downfall. 
• Medieval Turkish pirates probably wielded this saber unearthed in Greece. 
• Tour a submerged cave packed with Paleolithic art without ever venturing underwater.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Watch an elephant, once dubbed the "world's loneliest" have summertime fun at a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary.
• NOAA warns of an "aggressive" dolphin causing "concerns for human safety" off the Texas coast.
• Male mice are terrified of bananas. Here's why.
• Although cute as pets, goldfish are highly invasive once in the wild.
• Listen as millions of Monarch butterflies make one of the rarest sounds on earth.
• Why don't we have giant animals anymore?
• Dogs sniff out Covid-19 with surprising accuracy.
• In a book I look forward to reading, the lost story of Lexington, the record-breaking Thoroughbred, races back to life.
• Scientists moved hummingbirds to high elevations to see how climate change might affect them.

 

►Movies & TV◄

• CrimeReads' guide to the best new shows coming out in June.
• Here's how paleontologists rate Jurassic World: Dominion. 
• 42 British mysteries you can stream on Amazon Prime. 
• The story of Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, and possibly the strangest American crime film of the 1970s. 

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Have you been to Forrest Gump Point? I have. Several times, in fact.
• This underwater canyon could become America's newest marine sanctuary.
• Extreme flooding devastates Yellowstone, forcing the closure of all park entrances.
• For Sale: A grand old president (that happens to be a tree).
• Spend the night in Gore Vidal's Ravello home, La Rondinaia.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Ian Rankin: "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a perfect gem of a story."
• Hopwood DePree: From Hollywood to restoring Downton Shabby. (Love that play on Downton, and DePree's ancestral pile is very close to where Denis grew up.) 
• Angola thought women couldn't clear landmines. These women proved them wrong. 
• The Black Buffalo Soldiers who biked across the American West. 
• Patricia Highsmith and her unusual pets. 
• In early modern Russia, the majority of accused witches were men. 
• Ricardo Moreno: How can humans and jaguars coexist? 

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ten must-read ecofeminism books.
• Sixteen cozy outdoor reading nooks.
• The history of twelve British superstitions.
• Books that follow a character over years-- or decades.
• Environments that transform into full-fledged characters.
• Seventeen readers share the book they still think about years later.
• Thirteen tales set in stately homes.
• Ten audiobooks with ensemble casts that bring stories to life.
• The best LGBTQ books of the year, according to Lambda Literary.

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