An Eye-Rolling Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I once saw a t-shirt that read "Some Mornings It's Not Worth Chewing Through the Restraints." It still makes me laugh, probably because I occasionally have one of those days. Last week I had several of those days.

Somehow I managed to pull a few muscles around my left hip which made it agony to get on and off my scooter as well as putting a cramp in several other movements I make several times a day. I've done this before-- only on the right side (I hate to repeat myself)-- so I knew it was a matter of taking it easy on those muscles and doing all those repetitive movements another way. Mission accomplished. Now I'm back to "normal" and grateful that the human body is so adaptable.

The brutal heat has set in here which means that Denis and I will curtail our visits to outdoor venues and switch to indoor ones. We haven't made a move to go to any museums yet; I think we're both waiting for the final words from our surgeons as to what will be happening to us next.

 

But we don't mind staying at home. It's cool. It's comfortable. (And it's filled with books and yarn and movies!) Here's virtual hugs to you all. I hope you're all cool and comfortable, with plenty of books at hand.

 

Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• How Walmart's business model encourages gender discrimination.
• Which is the best book tracking app? A comparison of five book trackers.
• Here's why bringing One Hundred Years of Solitude to the screen took decades.
• If you don't shelve your books by color, you don't deserve books. (Eye roll, please...)
• Why are debut novels failing to launch?
• Should I feel guilty for checking out a book instead of buying it?
• AudioFile Magazine has announced the 2024 Golden Voice Award winners.
• Why did ransomware hackers target the Seattle Public Library?

 

►Book Banning & Censorship◄

• Uncovering the cover-up: How the Republican Pennridge (Pennsylvania) School Board directors secretly banned books.
• A Florida school district banned a book about banned books.
• A Texas county removed 17 books from its libraries. An appeals court says eight must be returned.
• The estimated cost was $54,500 to review materials in Jamestown (North Dakota) libraries. 
• A proposal to remove materials depicting sexual images from Knox County (Tennessee) Schools' library shelves fails.
• A new Lodi (California) school district policy allows parents to decide on appropriate books for teens.
• They came for the school library. Now they're at the public library in Escambia County, Florida.

 

 

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• Ancient Mycenaean armor is so good, it protected users in an 11-hour battle simulation inspired by the Trojan War.
• Centuries-old Maya beekeeping tools have been unearthed in Mexico.
• Metal detectorists have unearthed a 300-year-old coin stash hidden by a legendary Polish con man.
• The oldest known Aboriginal pottery has been discovered in Australia.
• See the graffiti bored British soldiers carved into a castle door more than 200 years ago.
• An Austrian man discovered hundreds of mammoth bones while renovating his wine cellar.
• A 17th-century home was unearthed during an archaeology lab construction.
• Letters written by ancient Roman commanders have been found in a pet cemetery in Egypt.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• DNA reveals how German cockroaches came to dominate the world.
• Mexico's howler monkeys are dying, "falling out of the trees," during a scorching heat wave.
• Prairie dog language.
• A study has found that some birds may use "mental time travel."
• Two coyotes were euthanized after an attack in a Scottsdale, Arizona neighborhood.
• Two bald eagles in California brought a baby hawk to their nest as food. Now they're raising it instead.
• Imperiled eagles are altering their migration routes to avoid the war in Ukraine.
• After rats were eradicated from this small island, seabirds thrived.

 

►The Wanderer◄

• The Sapodilla Hill carvings in Turks and Caicos were made by shipwreck victims from the Age of Sail.
• This Boba Fett figure is now the most valuable vintage toy in the world.
• Who took the cocaine out of Coca-Cola?
• UNESCO announced the 2024 World Book Capital.
• The 15 best small towns to visit in 2024. (I've actually been to two of them.)
• How the United States laid claim to the Mississippi River, one mile at a time.
• Denver: mountain air and plenty of crime fiction.
• I wouldn't mind going to Tasmania to check out a Jimmy Possum chair.
  

 

►Fascinating Folk◄

• A new edition of Emily Dickinson's letters upends the myth of her reclusive genius.
• The women who fried donuts and dodged bombs on the front lines of World War I.
• James Lee Burke on Hemingway, Orwell, and a new chapter in the American battle against Fascism.
• Ancestry releases records of 183,000 enslaved individuals in America.
• Mary Cassatt's paintings take women's labor seriously.
• The scandalous witch hunt that poisoned 17th-century France.
• The unmasking of a 19th-century occult imposter.
• The real story behind Firebrand and Henry VIII's tumultuous relationship with his sixth wife, Catherine Parr.

 

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Twelve historical code words and phrases.
• Cozy mysteries set around the world.
• The twelve best sports journalism books.
• Ten compelling subplots cut from movies.
• Eight of the best books about intergenerational friendships.
• Twelve thrillers featuring amnesia.
• Ten iconic movies that pass the Bechdel Test.
• 25 of the most covered songs in music history.

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!