A Pumpkin Spicy Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I have a weakness for pumpkin spice that dates back to the pumpkin pies my grandmother made (from scratch, naturally). There's something about the taste and smell that makes my head and my heart happy. 

I hope all you who celebrate Thanksgiving are having the type of holiday weekend that makes your heads and hearts happy. Denis and I had a quiet day yesterday, enjoying our turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, followed by watching some favorite movies. 

Last week, the two of us got our Covid and RSV vaccines and did a little shopping around Target. It had been so long since I'd been in the store that I couldn't believe how different it looked after all the remodeling that was done. Monday, we had new insulation put in the attic. It will be interesting to see how much difference it makes to our heating and cooling bills.

I am so thankful for so many things in my life. First and foremost, the people in it. Not just Denis and other family members and friends, but others-- like my faithful blog readers and the nurses I see each week when I go to my doctor's appointment. Fortunately, none of them read my blog (that I'm aware of), so there should be no repercussions over this sneaky photo I took while they were busy rewrapping my leg.

 

Busy, busy, busy!

 

I'm also thankful for material things: the roof over my head, clean clothes to wear, books, and something almost as good as getting a box of books in the mail...

Future baby blankets for donation

It's time for some pumpkin spice tea to go along with a piece of pumpkin pie and the good book I'm reading. Thank you-- all of you-- for spending time with me. You're the best.

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How the government is removing our right to read in private.
• How the Black press helped integrate baseball.
• Northern Ireland libraries can no longer afford to buy books.
• The bestseller list is broken.
• A short history of hairdryers.
• The importance of knowing and sticking to your own bookish limits.
• AI detection startups say Amazon could flag AI books. It doesn't. And from The Guardian: Authors are shocked to find AI ripoffs of their books being sold on Amazon.
• Healing soul wounds: Grappling with the Indian boarding school era.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Children and parents begin an uphill fightback against book bans in Florida.
• Banning books won't stop puberty.
• An Alabama library mistakenly adds a children's book to their "explicit" list because of the author's name. 
• Book bans in Texas spread as a new state law takes effect.
• Suffield (Connecticut) library director Julie Styles resigns, claiming political interference from town leaders over LGBTQ books.
• A Virginia school board member who last year called for the burning of "sexually explicit" books was named its chair.
• Boston philanthropists launch a new effort to ship Floridians "banned books".
• Book ban attempts are on the rise in Minnesota schools.
• U.S. book bans are taking a toll on a beloved tradition: Scholastic Book Fairs.
• Which banned books have been removed from Iowa schools?
• Book ban requests could cost the Nazareth Area School District (Pennsylvania) over $100,000. (Something to remember when these extremists start screaming about taxes.)
• The Leftover Woman author has become an unlikely lightning rod in a book-banning campaign.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The 1,400-year-old tomb of an emperor in China reveals evidence of a royal power struggle among brothers and a warlord.
• A "very rare" Bronze Age arrow with a quartzite tip was uncovered from melting ice after 3,000 years.
• A 2,300-year-old grave in Israel contains the remains of a Greek courtesan who may have accompanied Alexander the Great's army.
• An "exceptional" 1,800-year-old sarcophagus unearthed in France held a woman of "special status".
• 1,400-year-old figures depicting Norse gods were unearthed at a former pagan temple.
• A Norwegian family found 1,200-year-old Viking treasure while searching for a lost earring in their yard.
• A rare 1,00-year-old brooch has gone on display in England.
• A 700-year-old coin depicting Jesus and a medieval king has been discovered in Bulgaria.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Why tortoiseshell and calico-patterned cats tend to be extra feisty.
• Nine animals that have invaded Florida. (We're not talking Moms for Liberty here...)
  
• A 92-year-old Australian lungfish who loves belly rubs ad figs is most likely the oldest fish in human care.
• Opportunistic orcas have developed a new feeding behavior that appears to be killing them.
• Flamingos were spotted in Wisconsin for the first time on record amid a string of rare appearances. 
• Kelping is a "global phenomenon" sweeping the world of humpback whales.
• Watch a tiny hummingbird with a beak longer than its body.
• A new patch inspired by octopus suckers could deliver drugs without needles.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Scientists have created synthetic sponges that soak up microplastics.
• Fifteen photos that capture the beauty of Italy.
• Zealandia, Earth's hidden continent, was torn from the supercontinent Gondwana in a flood of fire 100 million years ago.
• Manhattan's first public beach opens along the Hudson River.
• The loneliest road in every state in America.
• Take a drone journey through the hidden Icelandic Highlands.
• Two Ocean Pass Creek is the only body of water that flows into both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
• In search of writers' haunts.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The brief, bloody story of Los Angeles' own "Bonnie and Clyde".
• A look inside wildlife crime scene investigators.
• The real history behind Killers of the Flower Moon.
• Jason Arday, the remarkable Cambridge professor who learned to speak at age 11 and read at age 18.
• Zelia Nuttall, the globe-trotting scholar who unlocked the secrets of the Aztecs.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• The best descriptions of ambition in literature.
• BookBub's best mysteries and thrillers of Fall 2023.
• Mysteries that blur the line between crime-solving and comedy.
• Coffee house cozy mysteries.
• Camping cozy mysteries.
• Ten books about oceans and ocean life.
• Twenty movie musicals from the last fifty years.
• Eight howdunnit 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!