The House Smells Like Lavender Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Another quiet week here at Casa Kittling. We did have to have someone come out and trim our Brazilian pepper tree so it was no longer overhanging the solar panels on one side of the house. You wouldn't believe what an effect that had on how much power those panels generate!

Have a great Labor Day weekend! Stay cool, stay healthy, and always have a stack of good books close at hand. I'll leave you with another item from my virtual closet.

 

Oh! If you're wondering why the house smells like lavender, it's because Michelle was here and gave it a good clean. She is so much help, I love her to bits.

How could I resist this one?

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Barnes & Noble's purchase of the Tattered Cover bookstore has been approved by the federal bankruptcy court.
• From folkway to art: the transformation of quilts.
• When it's time to change your reading habits.
• A page-turning history of the beach read.
• The pros and cons of armchair detectives.
• A room of one's own: in praise of seclusion in the service of the craft of writing.
• How Rancho Cordova (California) is helping kids build home libraries.
• Book clubs are experiencing a comeback-- but modern readers are adding their own twists.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Iowa can now enforce its book ban law after the appeals court overturned an injunction.
• Georgia County Commissioner John Ambrose has vowed to shut down the Monroe County Library if they don't remove LGBT books from the youth section.
• The Elizabeth (Colorado) School District's new classroom library ban has been put on hold.
• In response to increasing attempts at book bans, the Moorestown (New Jersey) library has become the first "book sanctuary" in South Jersey.
• The Arkansas State Library Board again refuses to block funds to certain public libraries.
• Valley religious leaders in South Texas have penned a letter opposing book bans.
• AB 1825 may torpedo attempts in California to have outside groups vet library books and materials.
• Emotions ran high at a library budget hearing in Hayden, Idaho.
• Fauquier (Virginia) schools will notify parents when their children check out library books.
• The Fort Bend (Texas) Independent School District trustees debated policy revisions for instructional materials.
• The new College of Florida tossed hundreds of library books and emptied its gender diversity library. 
• A San Diego County leader has introduced a proposal to protect banned books.
• School libraries in the UK are being censored as a survey revealed that 28 librarians were asked to remove books from shelves.

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• An 1,800-year-old ring depicting a Roman goddess was discovered by a 13-year-old boy near a quarry in Israel. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• A study suggests that, amid its volcanic eruption, Pompeii was also rocked by an earthquake.
• Researchers have unearthed a mysterious structure beneath a Maya ball court.
• This replica of a Bronze Age ship, made from reeds and goat hair, just sailed 50 nautical miles.
• A Roman wall built to contain Spartacus's forces has been discovered in Italy.
• Lasers have revealed a Roman-era circus in Spain where 5,000 spectators watched horse-drawn chariot races.
• A moat that protected ancient Jerusalem's royalty has been discovered near a parking lot.
• A shipwreck has been found in Lake Michigan 130 years after sinking with its captain's "intelligent and faithful" dog onboard.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Static electricity may help butterflies and moths pick up pollen.
• Sharks are congregating at a California beach. AI is trying to keep swimmers safe. (I never have liked being in water where I can't see what's in there with me...)
• Tigers are disappearing from Southeast Asia. A forest in Thailand is offering new hope.
• Watch rare footage of a baby wolverine taking his first steps outside his den.
• When vultures nearly disappeared in India, half a million people died, too. (Everything on this planet has a purpose.)
• Nine dog breeds at risk of disappearing.
• How an army of "stork sisters" protects Assam's endangered Muppet-like birds.
• Fe, the oldest common loon in the world, just had her 42nd chick.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The Sherlock Holmes Collections in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is the largest in the world dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
• Crime fiction in Sweden's fastest growing city: Malmö.
• Experiencing place in fiction: on allowing characters to get lost.
• The valiant effort to restore the Caribbean's sea urchins.
• The breathtaking beauty of the Bavarian Alps over four seasons, captured in an aerial tilt-shift timelapse.
• The oldest civic library in Italy, the Biblioteca Civica Gambalunga, can trace its foundation back to 1619.
• One year after a devastating fire, Lahaina's 151-year-old banyan tree is healing.
• A tourist carved his family's initials onto a wall in Pompeii. (Can we go over to his house and carve our initials in it?)

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• The assassinations that targeted India's journalists.
• Who patented patent leather?
• Heman Bekele is Time Magazine's 2024 Kid of the Year.
• The life and legacy of "Founding Mother" Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.
• Dr. Gerty Cori revolutionized biochemistry, becoming the first woman to win a Nobel Prize for Medicine.
• Amateur sleuth Andreane Rellou has identified the mystery women in a museum's Fabergé frames.
• Native American author Tommy Orange has been selected as the next Future Library writer.
• Nella Larsen's lessons in library school.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• What ten classic books were almost called.
• Eight books you didn't know were originally self-published.
• Six scientific benefits of reading more.
• Ten non-fiction books about history's greatest mysteries.
• Eleven thrillers recommended by Lee Child.
• The ultimate list of books set in Paris.
• The Cal Claxton series is a gritty legal thriller series you don't want to miss.
• The best mystery and thriller movies of the 1980s.

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!