The I Want to Hurkle-Durkle Weekly Link Round-Up

 

The start to this week was not good. I won't go into details, but insult was added to injury when I had to deal with both the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service. No wonder I want to do a bit of hurkle-durkling!

On a happier note, I'm about to finish reading Steve Cavanagh's Two Kinds of Stranger. I always like to watch legal eagle Eddie Flynn beat all the odds to win a case. What's next? I can't quite make up my mind between three books: Mark Pryor's The Most Mysterious Bookshop in Paris, This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page, or The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Want to help me decide?

It's getting closer to Suzanne and Daisy's visit. It will be wonderful to have someone to talk with besides myself. 😀

I hope all of you are safe, healthy, and happy with plenty of good books on hand. Virtual hugs to you all!

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Worried about the demise of reading? Go to France, where they're up to their eyes in print.
• What Kristopher Jansma learned about American men in his all-male book club.
• Adaptations, deceptive narrators, expanding cozy market: Mystery and thriller book trends in 2025.
• A nationwide book ban bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
• How about a drone-powered flying umbrella that automatically follows the person around?
• Hidden Door has rolled out a literary roleplaying platform.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• This Stone Age woman was buried like a man, revealing flexible gender roles 7,000 years ago in Hungary.
• Nineteenth-century "Lover's Eye" jewelry was the perfect accessory for secret affairs.
• A gold coin discovered by a metal detectorist in the UK may have been dropped by a Viking invader from the Great Heathen Army.
• A woman found a folder in a drawer. When she opened it, she discovered 35 forgotten Rembrandt etchings.
• Lotus shoes: tiny footwear for Chinese women whose feet were bound as children. (What women haven't had to put up with through the millennia!)
• "We do not know of a similar case": a 4,000-year-old burial in a little-known African kingdom has mystified archaeologists.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• 72 captive tigers in Thailand have died from dangerous infections, sparking concerned over animal welfare.
• Caribou are the only deer species in which females grow antlers. Scientists just figured out why. 
• Take a look at 24 astounding images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.
• Birds are declining faster and faster in 3 U.S. hotspots.
• Kanzi the bonobo could play pretend-- a trait thought unique to humans.
• Celebrate winter in the wild with 15 photos of animals enjoying the snow.

►The Wanderer◄

• See 15 wild and wondrous photographs of Yellowstone National Park.
• Treetops emit ultraviolet sparkles during thunderstorms. Researchers just filmed it in nature for the first time.
• The Berlin Cathedral is reopening its massive crypt-- home to the bones of one of Europe's most powerful dynasties.
• Crime and the City: Zagreb.
• Nora, an ancient city in Sardinia, was home to pirates, and is an archaeology lover's dream.
• Why the Hallmark Card Company owns thousands of priceless artworks.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Women who changed the laws shaping economic independence.
• In India, these trailblazing female stunt bikers rule the road.
• John B. Cade's project to document the stories of the formerly enslaved.
• How medieval women expressed their "forbidden" emotions.
• Ron Teasley, pioneering baseball player and one of two surviving Negro League veterans, has died at the age of 99.
• H.H. Richardson and the making of an American Romanesque.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Ten chilling Alaskan mysteries.
• Six atmospheric thrillers set during heatwaves.
• Twenty books that need movie or TV adaptations.
• Five great father-daughter crime-solving duos.
• The best historical mysteries out in 2026.
• From Lagos to the American South: five great thrillers by Black writers. 

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!