The I Sense a Trend Weekly Link Round-up

 

After a scorching July, the Phoenix area has broken yet another weather-related record: the driest monsoon season. Rain in the Sonoran Desert is cyclical. We get winter rain (hopefully), and we get summer rain (hopefully), and for a place that barely gets seven inches of rain per year, these are vital. 

Thankfully, we did get a little rain here last night, and I had the chance to enjoy something that I seldom do: read a good book while listening to rumbling thunder and rain running off the roof and splattering on the ground.

It's been another quiet week here, and until I get cleared from my weekly visits to the wound care clinic, the weeks will remain so. When you're on home health visits, you're supposed to stay home, and I tend to abide by most rules (unlike some patients my nurses have told me about). There's an exhibit of Indigenous art that's opening at the Heard Museum on September 1, and Ann Cleeves and Craig Johnson will be at The Poisoned Pen on Labor Day, and I really really REALLY want to attend both! I'm hoping for Good News today when I board Dial-a-Ride to see Dr. K.

Back in 2020, I shared this photo with folks...

Laptop case, mask, Kindle cover, eyeglass holder... and I bet you'd never guess what my favorite painting is, right? Well, I needed a small pill box and after much searching, I finally found the one I wanted...

 

You should've heard Denis laugh when I showed it to him!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• At Readercon, print is still king.
• How to buy Kindle books: a step-by-step guide for all devices.
• Chris Vognar wants to know why he hoards more books than he can possibly read.
• Should Book Twitter switch to Book Tumblr?
• The wrath of Goodreads.
• A TikTok publishing house is bad news for books.
• What do we want from the bookish internet?
• Paperback or hardcover? Used or new? Let's talk about our book habits.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Tracie D. Hall is leading her fellow "warrior" librarians in the fight of the century.
• Teacher Sarah Bonner put an LGBTQ+ book on her classroom reading list. Then someone filed a police report.
• The Temecula (California) School District Board has been sued over its ban on the teaching of critical race theory.
• Grappling with a new law, resellers say that fearful Florida teachers are tossing books.
• The American Library Association and the American Association of School Librarians are responding to the Houston (Texas) Independent School District's decision to eliminate 28 school libraries and their respective school librarians. Yes... these 28 libraries are to be converted to "detention centers".
• Botetourt County (Virginia) debates raising the library book checkout age amidst concerns over explicit content.
• Residents spoke out against creating a book-rating system at the Timberland (Washington) Regional Library.
• Wyoming library director Terri Lesley was fired for refusing to remove LGBTQ books from the children's section.
• From PEN America: Booklash: Literary Freedom, Online Outrage, and the Language of Harm.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• An "exceptional" Roman shipwreck was discovered with hundreds of intact 2,000-year-old jars off the coast of Italy.
• Every equinox the Maya Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chich'en Itza puts on a spooky ancient light show.
• A Roman-era cemetery with over 100 tombs has been unearthed in Gaza.
• Archaeologists discovered a 900-year-old English cathedral's hidden medieval crypt.
• X-rays have revealed that the Crusader sword found in the Holy Land was bent, possibly in a naval battle.
• UNESCO recommends adding Venice to the list of World Heritage sites that are in danger.
• A rare "Ides of March" dagger coin minted by Brutus after Julius Caesar's murder went to auction recently.
• How an English exile ended up at the court of Genghis Khan's grandson.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Fishermen spotted a rare endangered Rice's whale in the Gulf of Mexico.
• How birds called fork-tailed drongos can spot look-alike "imposter" eggs in their nests.
• Tickling rats reveals a brain region linked to laughter and play. (I want to hear a rat laugh.)
• A little black shelter cat named Sir Indiana Bones works at a skeleton museum in Oklahoma City.
• A clever black bear figured out how to shut down an annoying water fountain.
• A rare roseate spoonbill was recently spotted in Wisconsin for the first time in 178 years.
• Watch an orphaned baby hyena bond with a rescued puppy.
• India's cheetah reintroduction is threatening an Indigenous tradition.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Get a bird's-eye view on the Minnesota Zoo's new elevated walkway.
• Airlines will be required to make bathrooms more accessible. (Which will give them anotehr excuse to jack up the fees they charge. Not that I'm cynical or anything...)
• And while I'm on the subject: Why airplane legroom has decreased over time.
  
• Gardiners Island in East Hampton, New York is still in the family after a 400-year history which includes a witch hunt and a pirate.
• The Kindred Spirit mailbox on Bird Island, North Carolina saved a nature reserve.
• The Italian town of Pienza silenced a historic bell that kept tourists awake. Now, the locals can't sleep.
• View 15 beautiful lighthouses.
• Take a look at a unique floating hotel room in Sweden covered in hundreds of sustainable birdhouses.
• The 20 U.S. cities American tourists love and hate the most.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The "Night of Terror" when women were beaten and tortured for the right to vote.
• Stephanie Kwolek: the groundbreaking chemist whose invention stops bullets.
• Susie King Taylor: from a secret school to becoming the first Black army nurse of the Civil War.
• Yepoka Yeebo on John Ackah Blay-Miezah, the Ghanaian con man who swindled the world.
• Remembering William Friedkin.
• Sports legend Althea Gibson served up tennis history when she broke through in 1950.
• Pioneering Black zoologist Charles Henry Turner's insights were a century ahead of their time.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 12 mysteries to read if you love Only Murders in the Building.
• Celebrate the next National Book Lovers Day with these 17 books.
• 19 of the best books set in the Midwest.
• Authors on their favorite fictional escapes.
• The best descriptions of first love in literature.
• 7 Dutch crime dramas to binge watch.
• Will Dean's top ten locked-room thrillers.
• Five excellent mid-century 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.

No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!