The Eyes Don't Have It Weekly Link Round-Up

 

At this writing, Denis and I are awaiting the results of our doctor visits and doing the usual chores around the house. Yawn-worthy news, to be sure, so I'll share a photo of the mail I've recently received.

Those of you who are faithful followers (bless you!), know that I've known about these books for months. I pre-ordered them all, and I've been eagerly awaiting their arrivals. So what happens? Naturally, they all show up at the same time. I need a couple of extra pairs of eyes because I want to read them all simultaneously!

May all the bumps in your roads be as "major". Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• This tiny scribble by Michelangelo sold for over $200,000.
• The original Star Trek Enterprise model has resurfaced decades after it went missing.
• Rare editions of Pushkin are vanishing from libraries around Europe.
• Yes, people still buy books.
• A man found John Lennon's forgotten guitar in his father's attic.
• Gen-Z and millennials love reading books, but being a "reader" means something more.
• There may be hope. Nearly one-third of young adults strongly identify as readers.
• Authors stand to lose so much from a potential TikTok ban.
• The complicated ethics of rare-book collecting.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• A bill protecting libraries and librarians has passed the Illinois House and heads for the Senate. More from WGEM, Springfield.
  
• Alabama libraries must quickly restrict "inappropriate" kids' books or risk losing $7 million in funding.
• The Nassau County (Florida) Public Schools have been sued for removing a children's book about a same-sex penguin couple.
• A St. Charles County (Missouri) library might close three branches and eliminate some jobs.
• A Huntington Beach (California) book ban has divided the community.
• A MAGA commentator calls for people to burn books.
• A Lebanon (Ohio) lawmaker has introduced a bill to charge teachers and librarians with felonies for "pandering obscenity."

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Archaeologists were looking for a medieval hermitage. They found a "monumental" prehistoric henge.
• Bottles of 250-year-old cherries were discovered beneath George Washington's home.
• Archaeologists may have found the villa where the Roman emperor Augustus died.
• Lasers revealed prehistoric Irish monuments that may have been "pathways for the dead."
• A rare "Excalibur" sword from Spain dates to the Islamic period 1,000 years ago.
• Archaeologists discovered medieval artifacts ahead of a bridge demolition in England.
• This ancient building may have served as a rest stop for an Egyptian pharaoh's army.
• An Iron Age necropolis that predates Rome has been unearthed near Naples.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Galena, the box-loving cat in Lehi, Utah, accidentally got shipped to an Amazon return center in California. (That's okay. I almost packed my dog in one of my suitcases when I was going on a business trip. I learned very quickly to keep checking to make sure he hadn't hidden himself away again!)
• Rescuers saved 130 beached pilot whales in Western Australia after a mass stranding.
• 100 weird and wonderful medieval dog names.
• An extremely rare blue rock thrush spotted in Oregon might be the first ever in the United States.
• How should Colorado handle its booming moose population?
• Four zebras escaped from a trailer on a Washington State Highway, and one was still on the loose.
• The famous "Grizzly Bear 399" in Grand Teton National Park has emerged from hibernation with her four new cubs.
• In a first, an orangutan healed his own wound using a known medicinal plant.
  

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The exploits and exploitation of Indian street magic, Jadoo.
• Analysis suggests that biodiversity loss increases the risk of disease outbreaks.
• Penny licks were England's most nefarious ice cream paraphernalia.
• Scientists are investigating a puzzling underground "anomaly" near the Giza Pyramids.
• Latvia: a small country with a big literature.
• The Yinzers of Glasgow: on the Scottish origins of Pittsburgh's unique dialect. 
• Four must-see museums for bibliophiles.
• Tree rings reveal that the summer of 2023 was the hottest in two millennia.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Locks of Beethoven's hair are unraveling the mysteries of his deafness and illnesses.
• See the reconstructed face of a mummy stored in a high school library since 1915.
• Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters pioneered counting calories a century ago, and we're still dealing with the consequences.
• What Alice Munro has left us.
• Benjamin Franklin was the nation's first newsman.
• Zheng He, the great eunuch general.
• A fabulous celebration of history's greatest divas.
• Tennis icon Venus Williams scores her own Barbie doll.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• CNN's list of beach reads.
• 2024's best beach reads.
• Seventeen mysteries and thrillers with the best twists of all time.
• Fifteen books set in the Pacific Northwest.
• Eight mysteries with unconventional crime solvers. 
• Thrillers written by celebrities.
• Twelve books that people say are life-changing reads.
• Crime novels with a sense of place and manners.
• Why are so many fictional writers solving crimes in detective novels?
• The three types of detective duos you find in historical 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!