The Back to Normal Weekly Link Round-Up

 

After a few days of relief-- not enough to get used to-- the temperatures are back up to the 110°F/44°C range. Evidently, feeling like you're being roasted on a spit is the new normal.

Denis and I have been keeping a low profile. Neither one of us booked any trips to the Desert Botanical Garden or the Phoenix Zoo, so we must have known the cooler weather wasn't going to last. I've been enjoying film clips of the female kestrel who likes to stop by each week to take a bath right outside the living room window. I don't know why, but it always surprises me to see a raptor here in the heart of a huge metropolitan area. Each spring for five years, a Cooper's Hawk would take a leisurely bath in the birdbath in the back garden (and scare all the little birds into silence). They are such beautiful creatures.

Before I forget it (again), If you-- like me-- sometimes have trouble sleeping properly due to aches and pains, you might want to try Vicks ZzzQuil Nighttime Pain Relief Sleep Aid. It worked wonders for me, and it might for you. If you're wondering, the pain relief ingredient is acetaminophen.

Weather, birds, sleep aids... I think that's about it. I'm right at the last bit of Stephen King's Holly, and I must get back to it. Don't you love it when a book grabs you by the throat and won't let go?

Here's a t-shirt from my virtual closet. Isn't it a good'un?

 

 

Be healthy and safe and happy, and have a good weekend. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Quiz: Can you identify these crime movies from their taglines?
• Shakespeare, kings, and commoners all loved these hit English ballads.
• The trademark tug-of-war over "demure" shows a massive meme power shift.
• These colorful drawings defy expectations of Shaker art.
• Why do so many cartoon characters have four fingers?
• The Internet Archive lost its appeal over eBook lending.
• Disney has paused Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book adaptation in light of sexual assault allegations.
• Data shows that more than 180 UK public libraries have been closed or handed to volunteers since 2016.

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Independent book publishers fight back against book bans.
• In exile, Russian book publishers revive Soviet-era tactics to defy Kremlin censors.
• A Florida school district must restore books with LGBTQ+ content under a recent settlement.
• When threats of violence come to university libraries.
• One year later, a Bismarck (North Dakota) library discusses how it has adapted to the state book review law.
• The new proposed Grants Pass (Oregon) School District 7 policies indicate the board's shift to the right.
• The Prince William County (Virginia) school board will keep a challenged book in high school libraries.
• A Beaufort County (South Carolina) teacher has sued parents for defamation. They said she "groomed" students. 
• In Alabama, there's been a year of storms after the rainbow controversy. A newly installed board takes over, and the director resigns.
• A North Carolina library has cut ties with regional services over a 2023 Pride display.
• Cy-Fair (Texas) Independent School District's libraries are frequently closed after trustees cut the librarian positions in half.
• Five people standing up to book banners.
• Op-Ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune: "I've seen books change lives-- mine included. Young Utahns must have the freedom to read."
• Discussing book bans with Dave Eggers.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A Roman road was hiding beneath a primary school playing field in England.
• An archaeology student discovered a trove of silver Viking Age armbands in Denmark.
• Divers can now explore historic shipwrecks in Lake Michigan more easily.
• A long-hidden family scandal in Jamestown Colony has been revealed 400 years later by ancient DNA.
• Neolithic engineers built megalithic monuments with stones that weighed as much as two jumbo jets.
• Archaeologists have unearthed a stunning Bronze Age burial chamber in England.
• Archaeologists in Virginia unearthed a colonial-era garden with clues about its enslaved gardeners.
• Bison Licking Insect Bite: this 14,000-year-old lifelike figure was carved from a weapon.
• A woman's garage sale "costume" ring turns out to be a $382,000 diamond.
• A woman's $4 thrift store find turns out to be a nearly 2,000-year-old Mayan vase. (Why can't I ever find any of this stuff?)

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The Chernobyl disaster created an unexpected predator paradise.
• In this beautiful library, bats guard the books.
• Why animals don't cross this invisible border in the South Pacific.
• The surprising link between bats dying and human infant mortality.
• 13 captivating images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.
• The Iberian lynx is back from the brink. Now virtual fences could save it from becoming roadkill.
• A spy herring joined a large shoal from flatulent herring.
• How could a crocodile spend years cinched by a tire?

 

►The Wanderer◄

• How the Sears pre-fab mail order home kits of the 1900s led to the modern tiny house movement.
• Bask in the beauty of Brazil with these stunning photographs.
• Why are convertible cars disappearing from American roads?
• How a small town murder in Oklahoma sparked a Supreme Court battle over tribal sovereignty.
• How interstate highways are numbered in the U.S.
• The most-spoken language besides English and Spanish in every state, mapped.
• Why Minnesota makes the perfect setting for crime fiction.
• Plans to modernize Notre-Dame's stained-glass windows move ahead despite heritage experts' rejection.

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Justice for Lucy Westenrea: On reconsidering, and reimagining, one of the most mistreated characters in fiction.
• "I wanted to write a suburban Reacher": Richard Osman talks to Lee Child about class, success, and the secret to great crime writing.
• L.M. Montgomery's Plain Jane.
• The name's Bond... "Biffy" Bond? The real-life sailor, spy, and friend of Ian Fleming who "inspired 007."
• The funniest things Dorothy L. Sayers said about (and in) detective fiction.
• Amanda Jones will not be silenced.
• Marcie Rendon on writing about an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
• How William Wallace of Braveheart fame defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 8 brooding Gothic mysteries set in the British Isles.
• 10 historical fiction books set in Hawaii.
• 19 books perfect for long weekend reads.
• Books with lakeside settings.
• Tales of Old Cairo: the Mamur Zapt mysteries of Michael Pearce.
• Philo Vance, New York's smartest and most stylish sleuth in S.S. Van Dine's iconic series.
• 10 bookish planners.
• 20 albums turning 50 in 2024.

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!