Only one "interesting" occurrence this past week at Casa Kittling. I went out to empty the trash one morning to discover that some idiot had hit a gatepost on our fence and wrecked the gate. When I went over for a closer inspection, I noticed a bright yellow piece of paper rolled up and stuck in the leaning gate.
I pulled it out, straightened it, and read, "Need a Handyman?"
Maybe I've read too many mysteries and have learned to be suspicious of motives, but I had to wonder if someone was trying to drum up business by creating situations where things would need to be repaired. It was just too much of a coincidence (another biggie in the crime fiction world) to have a damaged gate and profferred solution at the same time. Since the post is set in concrete, this is not going to be a simple repair. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
On a brighter note, look at the t-shirt I stumbled across on the internet!
Now is that perfect for us or what?!? Before anyone asks-- and I know someone will-- I don't know the name of the company that sells this, but I would imagine googling "Death by TBR t-shirt" should do the trick.
Stay healthy, stay cool, and enjoy the links!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- The Internet Archive was forced to remove 500,000 books after publishers' court win.
- The disturbing story behind Peacock's TikTok Star Murders documentary.
- Why writers are forced to become brands (and why that's bad).
- How Britain's libraries provide much more than books.
- Forget the YA novel that's "The Road" meets "Deliverance": Publishing Twitter is the true dystopia.
- Hollywood's newest money-making scheme is... books.
- Which Emily Henry books are becoming movies Happy Place, Book Lovers, and others.
- New York City libraries will get their budget funding back-- and reopen on Sundays.
►Book Banning & Censorship◄
- The real targets of Project 2025's war on porn.
- Why would a private university be leased public library space? Retaliation.
- The Katy Independent School District (Texas) bans five more books and updates its controversial library policy.
- A professor details Florida's state-directed changes in science textbooks. ("Climate change" is verboten.)
- There's nothing "advanced" about the Harford (Maryland) School Board's AP decision. (African-American studies were dropped.)
- It may not have passed in 2024, but sponsors have put a bill to arrest librarians back on file for the 2025 session in Alabama.
- The Franklin County (Virginia) public school board has approved a library book policy survey.
- Right-wing pundits and out-of-state advocates will help create Oklahoma social studies standards.
- The King William (Virginia) board voted to withdraw from the Pamunkey library system.
- A new rule restricts what's allowed on shelves in South Carolina public libraries.
- How libraries across Idaho are implementing the new materials law.
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- Archaeologists have recovered 900 artifacts from Ming Dynasty shipwrecks in the South China Sea.
- A newly deciphered papyrus describes a "miracle" performed by five-year-old Jesus.
- A scientist is claiming that a long-lost Assyrian military camp devastated by "the angel of the Lord" has finally been found.
- These badges shed new light on the enslaved workers who built Charleston.
- An ancient beach destroyed by the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD has reopened after restoration.
- The oldest wine ever discovered contains a horrifying secret ingredient.
- The world's oldest deep-sea shipwreck has been discovered a mile beneath the Mediterranean Sea.
- This Rubens masterpiece was significantly altered by another artist.
►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄
- A behavioral shift: Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico have learned how to steal food from fishing nets.
- Tasmania is looking to hire a wombat walker and other odd jobs.
- Frog saunas may be the key to saving amphibians from a deadly fungal infection.
- A super smart corgi has learned sign language so well that she reacts to her humans' conversations.
- How the new Ravenmaster at the Tower of London gets the birds ready for the day.
- Charlotte the "pregnant virgin" stingray has died after a diagnosis of reproductive disease.
- Don't call wombats heroes, but their burrows do provide food, water, and shelter for other animals.
- Ants perform life saving operations-- the only animal other than humans known to do so.
►The Wanderer◄
- The Miami murder mystery that transfixed America.
- The growing evidence that Americans are less divided than you may think.
- The first tango in Paris made a stir worth remembering.
- From powwows to smartphones, see the past and present of Indigenous plains life in narrative art.
- How Colombia's biggest murder investigation was swayed by a dream.
- What happens when an American family moves to a tiny French village?
- What you need to earn to live comfortably in each U.S. state.
- Relics of the USS Arizona.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- The forgotten Black explorers who transformed Americans' understanding of the wilderness.
- This woman is killing it: Vicki Delany and the Constable Molly Smith series.
- The Smithsonian has acquired the earliest known photograph of an American First Lady.
- Remembering Mary Katharine Goddard, the only woman whose name appeared on the Declaration of Independence.
- Arthur Barry, the gentleman thief who charmed Jazz Age New York.
- Excluded from national leadership, Black women were the backbone of the Civil Rights Movement.
- Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program is expanding to every area in Kentucky. (The more I learn about this woman, the more I love her.)
- Mary McLeod Bethune was at the vanguard of more than fifty years of Black progress.
►I ♥ Lists◄
- Seven discontinued canned foods that we'll probably never see again.
- These iconic characters are about to enter the public domain.
- Fifteen dark and darkly comic thrillers.
- NPR recommends these ten non-fiction books.
- A guide to Stephen Booth's Cooper and Fry police procedural series.
- The wild western world of the Silver Rush mysteries by Ann Parker.
- Goods to make your reading nook the coziest ever.
- What the New York Times missed: 71 more of the Best Books of the 21st Century.
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!