A Fingers Crossed Weekly Link Round-Up

 

It's going to be a busy week here at Casa Kittling, so I'm getting this round-up done early. There are going to be furniture deliveries, the usual medical appointments, and-- since the weather is going to play nice for a change-- Denis and I are planning to go to the Desert Botanical Garden. Yippee!

I feel so seen!

 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Older women make the best sleuths and spies (and criminals).
• European publishers praise the new EU AI law.
• So you want to be an artist. Do you have to start a TikTok?
• The case for paper: books vs. eReaders. (All these surveys can say what they will. My stance is that I want people to read, and I don't care how they do it.)
• The board game trial of the century.
• Art-ly cloudy: the meteorological mystery behind Edvard Munch's The Scream.
• What in tarnation is "tarnation"?
• Why are books featuring old protagonists trendy right now?

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• A Miami-Dade school asked parents for consent for Black History Month activities.
• Manga to be returned to Magnolia Middle School (Delaware), but the removal policy was not followed.
• In the Conroe (Texas) Independent School District, the books are quietly disappearing off the shelves.
• Nashville (Tennessee) students march, demanding change before the State of the State address.
• A book complainant came forward in Dorchester District Two (South Carolina), and others share their concerns. The ACLU of South Carolina speaks out about a proposed book can in this district.
  
• Indiana schools tackle book complaints.
• Changes could come to library regulations if two Georgia bills pass.
• Carroll County (Maryland) public schools retain several challenged books.
• Book bans are expanding from schools into public libraries in Sumner County (Tennessee). The group behind the shift is contributing to a culture of fear.
• How anarchists in North Carolina rescued books banned in Florida.
• Moms for Liberty completely collapses in some former strongholds.
• LeVar Burton responds to book bans with a Reading Rainbow video. More from School Library Journal.
  
• One woman writes of the gift of reading Toni Morrison to her Black daughter in an age of book bans.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Everyone thought this 4,000-year-old tomb has been destroyed. Then, an archaeologist found it.
• A lost Gustav Klimt portrait was rediscovered nearly 100 years after it vanished.
• One of Sweden's oldest stone tombs is mysteriously missing skulls.
• Nearly 400 ancient medical tools from Turkey hint at rare Roman doctors' offices.
• A Roman-era silver "toilet spoon" was discovered in Wales.
• A 2,000-year-old "bog body" of a teenager with a missing skull has been discovered in Northern Ireland. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• Archaeologists have discovered a 1,700-year-old jade mask inside the tomb of a Maya king.
• 1,300-year-old armor-- with bow, arrows, and sword-- were found underneath the remains of a war horse.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• A very considerate mouse was caught secretly tidying up a man's shed.
• Can killing one species of owl help save another?
• A kayaker encountered a humpback whale with her tail sticking straight up in the air.
• Why don't fruit bats get diabetes? New understanding of how they've adapted to a high-sugar diet could lead to treatments for people.
• Australia's third annual cane toad kill-a-thon happened in January.
• Watch sea otters play a game of water basketball.
• As the planet warms, Australia's numbats are at risk of overheating.
• Why do dogs wag their tails?

 

►The Wanderer◄

• Sea cucumber crime is a thing, and this is where it's happening. (Who starts these weird food fads in China anyway?)
• How Chinatown's Yu & Me Books rose from the ashes.
• The old headquarters of Murder, Inc. in Brooklyn, New York.
• The case for destroying old forest roads.
• The tiny house trend began 100 years ago.
• How Sweden continues to deny its settler-colonial past. 
• Korean bookstores in Los Angeles are dying. Here's now one survives.
• A new English dialect has emerged in South Florida.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The story of George McJunkin, a hidden figure in North American archaeology.
• Laurie R. King: A Crime Reader's Guide to the Classics.
• Black women Unionists in the Confederacy.
• How Black women have changed the face of spaceflight.
• See what Charles Darwin kept in his "insanely eclectic" personal library, revealed for the first time.
• The remarkable untold story of Sojourner Truth. (I've always loved her name.)
• On the all-female shoplifting gang who reigned supreme in turn-of-the-century London.
• Gudrid the Far-Traveled, the first Viking woman to sail to America, was a legendary traveler.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 17 chilling mysteries and thrillers set during snowstorms.
• Immersive historical novels that will transport you to Eastern Europe.
• Five of the best books about gossip.
• 10 mystery, crime, and thriller shows that were cancelled too soon.
• Stephen King thinks you should read these mysteries and thrillers.
• Five of the best recent books from Ukraine.
• The best annotation tools for readers.
• Ten of the best historical fiction books about books.

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!