A Blackouts Can Be a Good Thing Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I know having a loose screw in the metalwork that's holding his spine together has to be bothering Denis, but he's doing a good job of hiding it (for the most part). That's a good thing, since he faced a setback last Friday. When he went in to have a high-resolution MRI done, he found that he'd been scheduled for a low-resolution one that would take at least three hours. Why anyone would think that a surgeon would want a low-resolution scan done... But that's beside the point. Now he has to wait to get one scheduled with the Big Gun Machine that does high-resolution scans in ten minutes. While that was going on, I was having my own kind of fun at the wound care clinic. 

It really made me smile when an author contacted me, wanting me to attend her author event at The Poisoned Pen next month. I would love to go, but it's in the evening, and the last time Denis and I took ParaTransit there, we spent over two hours waiting on a cold, dark street for them to pick us up and take us home. At least it won't be cold in June, so that's something to take into consideration.

Chalk up another incident that proves it stinks to get crippled up. Denis pulled the curtains closed in the guest bedroom, and the curtain rod and curtains pulled out of the wall. I'd always wanted to put blackout/thermal curtains at that window because it gets the lion's share of direct blazing desert sun in the summer, so the time had been thrust upon us. Problem was neither one of us were capable of taking on the task anymore. (And I can remember me and my drill putting up all-new curtain rods when I bought the house.) So we hired someone to come in Saturday afternoon to do the job for us. Those curtains make so much difference!

 

An acacia tree in bloom.

I hope all your scans are the right ones and that all of your curtains are staying right where they should be-- Enjoy the links!

 

 

 

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• What phones are doing to reading.
• Book clubs are having a moment.
• What writers spend in a week of their lives.
• A survey has found that generative AI is proving a major threat to the work of translators.
• Bookmory review: Better than Goodreads, but with some caveats.
• Why the elderly make the best customers: On bookselling in an aging town.
• This father shares what happens when you give your child books instead of a smartphone.
• The problem with BookTok isn't the pretty influencers or the fantasy books.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• "I can say things other people are afraid to": Margaret Atwood on censorship, literary feuds, and Trump.
• The Preston (Idaho) Library has restricted public access after a new library law passage.
• Speaking of that Idaho law, library officials say that the new law about harmful material is vague and difficult to implement. 
• Librarians are under siege in Montgomery County, Texas.
• Battling against activism in North Carolina's school "Battle of the Books" selections.
• A new librarianship emerges in the era of censorship demands.
• Here's who's behind the battle of the school book fairs.
• Arkansas' Jason Rapert pledges to keep advocating for book censorship as the next library board meeting nears.
• Book bans, threats, and cancellations: Asian American authors face growing challenges.
• The Cy-Fair (Texas) Independent School District is planning to eliminate some librarian positions to close a $138 million deficit. 
• "Afraid of knowledge": Randi Washington, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, takes on book bans.
• Why these Alabama citizens are suing the Prattville library board.
• A Minnesota bill to ban book bans is now on the governor's desk.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Microplastics are contaminating ancient archaeological sites.
• In Colonial Williamsburg, thieving rats save history.
• A trove of Viking combs sheds light on an English town's medieval history.
• An 8,200-year-old campsite on "Paleo-Archaic" peoples has been discovered on a US Air Force base in New Mexico.
• Viking Age women with cone-shaped skulls likely learned the head-binding practice from a far-flung region.
• Medieval English coins were made with melted Byzantine silver.
• This is what being in your twenties was like in 18th-century London.
• Everything you heard about chastity belts is a lie.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Black-capped chickadees are masters of memory, and scientists are finding out why.
• How Singapore became an unexpected stronghold for a critically endangered bird.
• The fifteen most popular cat breeds in the world.
• A chiropractor gave a giraffe with a stiff neck a pain-relieving adjustment.
• Sea otters have helped bolster California's kelp forest.
• 77,000 baby salmon survived a truck crash in Oregon by leaping into a nearby creek.
• Decoding the sacred genetics of Japan's Sika deer.
• Watch a pair of courting cottontails play a game of leapfrog.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• I would love to visit New Zealand's Kapiti Island Nature Reserve.
• The world's largest wildlife crossing will help animals walk safely over eight lanes of California traffic.
• The Golden Age of Australian Crime and Mystery TV continues.
• The Louvre is thinking about moving the Mona Lisa to its own room underground.
• I'd also like to visit the Sinchi Warmi Amazon Lodge in Ecuador, a jungle hideaway run entirely by Indigenous Kichwa women.
• Los Angeles as setting and character.
• Why trains make the perfect thriller and mystery setting.
• The most common last name in every country, mapped.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The 18th-century baron who lent his name to Munchausen Syndrome.
• The colorful criminal escapades of the Gunn Brothers of San Francisco and Manhattan, and the classic 1942 noir novel that came out of it all.
• Paul Yamazaki on the important, joyous work of running an independent bookstore.
• Hazel Ying Lee, the Chinese-American aviatrix who overcame racism to fly for the U.S. during World War II.
• Six badass librarians who changed history.
• Sybil Ludington, the 16-year-old revolutionary hero who rode twice as far as Paul Revere.
• At her globe-spanning nightclubs, Black entertainer Ada "Bricktop" Smith hosted a Who's Who of the 20th century.
• Filipina spy Josefina "Joey" Guerrero used her leprosy as a cover to thwart the Japanese during World War II.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Sixteen books to read if you're fascinated by the Titanic.
• The 81 best, worst, and strangest Dr. Watson portrayals of all-time, ranked.
• These legal thrillers set in New York City will keep you up all night.
• Seven more legal thrillers.
• Seven books by autistic authors.
• Bookish items to help you manage your TBR list.
• Ten extremely valuable author signatures.
• 2024: A year of literary true crime.

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!