Nothing much is going on around here. Denis and I are keeping a low profile and just enjoying the season, so I thought I'd send you my best wishes for this holiday season and for a bright and wonderful New Year.
Thank you all for spending time with me and sharing your love of books. Long may we continue to do so.
Casa Kittling in years gone by. |
Enjoy the links!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- Do main characters need to be likable?
- The first trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny shows a de-aged Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge in action.
- The value of owning more books than you can read.
- How Instagram turned a Holocaust memoir into a self-help manifesto.
- What is "goblin mode"? Oxford's public-voted Word of the Year is all about embracing your worst self. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
- How to stop autocorrect from sabotaging your texts.
- A new writer tweeted about a low book signing turnout, and famous authors commiserated. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
- According to The Guardian, writers' earnings have plummeted-- with women, Black and mixed race authors worst hit.
►BookTok◄
- Why book blogs still matter in an age of BookTok.
- How BookTok is helping young people get a taste for reading.
- BookTok's racial bias.
- Is BookTok saving or destroying the publishing industry?
- How BookTok trends are affecting the bookselling and publishing industries.
►Book Banning & Censorship◄
- When book bans came to small-town New Jersey.
- From The Moscow Times: Stores pull LGBT-themed books as Putin signs an expanded "Gay Propaganda" ban.
- Students and the Missouri ACLU sue an Independence school district for banning a library book.
- The Greenville (South Carolina) library board moves parenting books away from the children's area.
- Only a small group of parents are utilizing a new law to help ban books in Utah school libraries.
- Watch out. Book-challenging Catawba County (North Carolina) school board candidates take office; and Freedom Readers speak out at a meeting.
- No book bans here: Salem-South Lyon (Michigan) Library Board votes to keep 16 challenged books.
- Local moms in New York State are pushing back against Moms for Liberty.
- St. Marys (Kansas) renews its library's lease with no restrictions following a months-long moral debate.
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- A dig at a UK housing site is yielding major 7th century treasures. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
- Ancient mummy portraits and a rare Isis-Aphrodite idol have been discovered in Egypt. More from Yahoo! News.
- A 100 million-year-old fossil found in Australia is the "Rosetta Stone" of paleontology.
- A Washington search crew has discovered that site of a 147-year-old Gold Rush era shipwreck that claimed over 300 lives.
- What fingerprints tell us about Jerusalem's ancient artisans.
- Mexico's tourism train construction is revealing amazing Mayan artifacts... right before destroying them.
- A World War II treasure trove has been discovered.
- Notre Dame's spire had two hidden coffins beneath it. Now scientists know who was buried there.
►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄
- All the pretty beasts: What we choose to save of our natural world.
- These artificial nests are helping African penguins beat the heat.
- An electric pulse could scare sharks away from fishing hooks.
- How dogs explore the world through smell.
- In a resurfaced viral video, this pet squirrel in Idaho thwarts a would-be burglar.
- The U.S. faces a bomb-sniffing dog shortage.
- Toby the toad poses for dollhouse photos. (I know. I didn't believe it either.)
- A helpful border collie named Scruff collects plastic bottles for recycling.
►The Wanderer◄
- Understanding the Indian Child Welfare Act.
- The tiny shop in Brazil championing the literature of the Amazon.
- How much does a cloud weigh?
- The ten best mystery bookshops for super sleuths to visit. (One of 'em is right here in the Valley of the Sun.)
- The twenty smartest states in the U.S., ranked.
- Crime and the City: Tunis.
- The For Keeps Bookstore in Atlanta, Georgia.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- Benjamin J. Burton, a Gilded Age tale of murder and money.
- Meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine.
►I ♥ Lists◄
- Fifteen perplexing mystery puzzles to keep your sleuthing skills sharp.
- Seventeen culinary mysteries for people with a taste for sleuthing.
- How to lose a reader in ten ways.
- Eleven mysteries and thrillers that are so much fun.
- Ten non-fiction books about the stories behind books.
- The best books that draw readers in with immersive settings of time and place.
- Books for Gilmore Girls fans.
- Eight engrossing mysteries spanning multiple time periods.
- Bookish socks for winter nights.
- These are the 100 Greatest Films of All Time, according to 1,600 critics.
- The top ten winters in literature.
- Ten horse racing and jockey mysteries.
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.
Remember to celebrate the holidays by curling up with a good book!
Wishing you and Denis all the best, Cathy, now and in the new year. I hope it's a good one for you. And thanks for these links, as always. I'm going to check out that shipwreck, but not before sending my good wishes to you both!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margot-- and the very same to you!
DeleteMerry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas!
DeleteGlad to hear all is calm and bright at Casa Kittling! Wishing you and Denis a very Merry Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Gretchen!
DeleteHave a very Merry Christmas this year, Cathy! :D
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Lark!
DeleteI had to stop at the story about Notre Dame first.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and Denis!! Thank you for the gift of so many books and pictures - looking forward to 2023!
I thought you might want to stop off at that link first. ;-)
DeleteMerry Christmas, Kate!
Low profile at our house too. Happy holidays.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays, Harvee!
DeleteHappy Holidays and Hew Year to you and Denis. Hope the house and health are as good as possible. Thanks for the year of great links and book reviews,leading me to overdo the reserves at the library.
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays to you, Kathy. Here's hoping for a brilliant 2023 for us all.
DeleteHope you two had a nice, quiet Christmas! We did and enjoyed our kids coming to visit for the day. 2023 is almost here and I seem to be finally at the end of my book slump. I've actually finished 2 books in the last week and am well into another one. Whew! It will be a 'low number' year of reading for me, but that's OK. Lots of good books coming out in the next few weeks that I'm looking forward to.
ReplyDeleteDenis and I had a quieter Christmas than we'd anticipated, but sometimes you have to go with the flow.
DeleteI am so glad to hear that you're over your book slump. Hopefully, that means all your renovations are complete.