The Finishing Touches Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Although the mystery of why the previous owners of this old ranch house walled off a large chunk of their kitchen has not been solved to anyone's satisfaction, Denis and I have gained new knowledge of the house's history. It's a bright and chilly Thursday morning as I sit and type this. The remodelers are putting the finishing touches on the kitchen, and I can't wait to put everything to rights in there. Naturally, the Saturday finish time was optimistic; they had to special order some things and then couldn't come back until today, but I've learned to always take the promised finish time with a grain of salt. Too many things can happen!

 

Things are rather busy here, so I'll leave you with a photo of my view of the proceedings, and of course I'll be showing you the finished room in the near future.

 

 

 Enjoy the links!

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Renaming "reluctant readers".
• Why Nikki DeMarco doesn't read the book description.
• The most important poem of the twentieth century: On T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland at 100.
• Is it wrong not to finish a book? (It better not be!)
• Why learn to read?
• Reading between the lines: Race, equity, and book publishing.
• How to create an extraordinary reading experience.
• How Colleen Hoover became the queen of BookTok.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Here's how many Utah parent complaints have been filed-- so far-- about "pornographic" books in schools.
• Florida’s Education Department has quietly selected right-wingers for a book-banning council that’ll re-train public school librarians.
• Nearly 100 books have been pulled from Beaufort (Mississippi) school libraries for review of possible adult content. 
• Slidell (Louisiana) residents push for the library to remove books they claim are explicit.
• "Parent's Rights" platforms did not sway voters in a recent election in Canada.
• Visit the Banned-Book Bus with a scholar who helped develop critical race theory.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The exact burial spot of St. Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, has been found in a Turkish church.
• A falcon shrine with a cryptic message which has been unearthed in Egypt is baffling archaeologists. 
• Manuscripts in a Greek monastery tell a new story of Ottoman rule. 
• The graffiti of a medieval knight has been found in Jerusalem. 
• A metal detectorist has the find of a lifetime when a rare 700 AD gold sword pommel is uncovered. 
• Human "bog bones" have been discovered in a Stone Age campsite in Germany. 
• Archaeologists have unearthed 2,700-year-old stone carvings in northern Iraq. 
• A secret tunnel found in Mexico may solve the mysteries of Teotihuacán.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• To survive a typhoon, some seabirds will fly straight into it.
• A perfectly placed trail cam shows wolves, bears, and more crossing a beaver dam.
• Eight of the best books about birding.
• A new "oasis of life" filled with ravenous sharks has been found hiding beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean around the Maldives.
• A photographer helped build a waterhole to capture incredible photos of African wildlife.
• Watch squirrels compete against each other in a Backyard Squirrelympics.
• Videos of two rival baby beavers have been keeping me entertained.
• Rescuing whales on Australia's "Humpback Highway".

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Stop by the grave of the Lady in Red in Lexington, Mississippi.
• Explore five hotels with history in Charleston, South Carolina. 
• A journey through Edinburgh's bookstores.
• Explorers have found cameras abandoned by mountain climbers in Canada in 1937. 

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Madame Blavatsky, the woman who brought the occult to America.
• Agnes Sampson, the "witch" who confessed to plotting against King James VI.
• Lee Child and Andrew Child on discipline, dread, and writing late at night.
• Poisoned Pen Bookstore owner Barbara Peters is doing what she loves.
• Anna Pasternak, descendant of the author of Doctor Zhivago, lost her copyright court case.
• Toni Morrison will finally be on a U.S. stamp in 2023.
• The camp culinary adventures of Fanny Craddock, TV's first celebrity chef.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Six German mysteries and thrillers.
• Literary home office gifts. 
• Ten children's books by Native American and Indigenous authors. 
• The nine best Rebecca retellings. 
• Thirty treasures discovered in King Tut's tomb. 
• Nine works of dark humor. 
• A celebration of cozy mysteries with older protagonists. 
• Seventeen riveting thrillers. 

 

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