A Smiling Weekly Link Round-Up

 

I've been enjoying myself so much that I've let some things slide here on the blog. I don't post five days a week as I used to. (Actually, I once posted seven days a week, so I guess this cutback isn't unprecedented.) There will be changes, but I have absolutely no intentions of disappearing entirely-- I enjoy all y'all's company too much. I have a backlog of books that I need to tell you about and completed knitting projects that I have yet to share. There are also several books that are on my radar that I'd like to alert you to. So many things, but Lazy Me has gotten used to the siren call of a book and a patch of sunshine.

Denis and I hopped on our scooters and zipped over to Target recently. I had accrued quite a few bonus rewards that could only be redeemed in the store, plus there was a prescription for my leg (still improving--yay!), and I wanted to get caught up on my Covid and flu vaccines. We got everything accomplished-- taking home $75 worth of merchandise after paying only $20 for it-- and buzzed back home. 

Denis mugging for my camera

Denis just came back from seeing his new pain management doctor, and she seems much more proactive than the previous MD. She's prescribed a stomach-friendly pain killer as well as a minimally-invasive procedure to address his lower back pain. (He's got bone-on-bone vertebra below where all the surgery was done.) Things are definitely looking up, and we're planning to celebrate my birthday/our 23rd wedding anniversary with a trip to the Phoenix Zoo to see all the new residents (which include lion cubs and meerkats). 

I'd better shut up and start rounding up those links. Sending smiles and virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• All we want to do is track our reading in 2025, but these apps are getting controversial. 
• And the book banning nonsense rages on... The Pine-Richland (Pennsylvania) School Board meeting on a controversial book policy turned into a 7-hour shouting match.
• In 1894, French writer Octave Uzanne predicted the end of books and the rise of portable audiobooks and podcasts.
• I list therefore I am: Letting go of reading goal anxiety.
• Can you name the book based on its obscure subtitle?
• The Great Teddy Bear Panic of 1907.
• 56 small tasks to be proactive against book censorship in 2025 and beyond.
• How a community of romance novel readers became activists.

►Channeling My Indiana Jones◄

• How archaeologists discovered Europe's oldest-known book.
• Someone sent a fuzzy photo of a painting to Christie's. It turned out to be a rare watercolor by J.M.W. Turner.
• Scientists are using lasers to reveal intricate tattoos on Peruvian mummies.
• A 10th-century woman buried with weapons in Hungary is the first of her kind, but researchers are hesitant to call her a warrior.
• Metal detectorists discovered 1,200-year-old graves that may have belonged to high-status Viking women.
• An 11th-century silver coin hoard has been unearthed in England.
• Medieval crowns and scepters were discovered hidden inside the walls of a crypt beneath a Lithuanian cathedral.
• Archaeologists have discovered an intricately decorated tomb belonging to a doctor who treated Egyptian pharaohs 4,100 years ago. More from Live Science.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• Four lynx have been illegally released into the Scottish Highlands. Officials think "guerrilla rewilding" is to blame.
• In a study on mice, scientists show how the brain washes itself during sleep.
• 25 incredible images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.
• Energetic and loyal: Meet the Danish-Swedish Farmdog, the newest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club.
• Orange dwarf cave crocodiles: the crocs that crawled into a cave, ate bats, and started mutating into a new species.
• A rare and giant Steller's Sea Eagle has been spotted thousands of miles from its home in an eastern Canada park.
• Meet the tiny, adorable owls that have mastered the art of hiding.
• The iconic, one-eyed "Queen of the Wolves" died after a fight with a rival pack in Yellowstone National Park.

►The Wanderer◄

• Melting ice is revealing the remains of 5,900-year-old trees in Wyoming, uncovering a long-lost forest.
• The Story Museum, an Oxford museum where visitors can have tea with the Mad Hatter and climb through the wardrobe to a fantasy land.
• This insightful map shows the language each country around the world want to learn the most.
• When a deadly winter storm trapped a luxury passenger train near the Donner Pass for three days. (I've been through the Donner Pass several times, but I always go there in the summer...)
• A frustrated reader visits America's oldest bookshop.
• Crime and the City: Botswana.
• Visitors can see the view from Henry I's tower at Corfe Castle for the first time in nearly four centuries.
• The science and benefits of "fart walks".

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How Susan and Rosalie La Flesche made Omaha history.
• Harry C. Hindmarsh, the editor who drove Ernest Hemingway away.
• John Singer Sargent's portrait of Ena Wertheimer-- the painting that challenged sexual norms.
• The travails of Maria Parir: On the plight of Indigenous women in the Brazilian Amazon.
• The remarkable life of Harriet Bell Hayden, one of Boston's most fervent and daring abolitionists.
• Artist Rogan Brown creates intricate paper sculptures inspired by shapes found in nature.
• Maria Tallchief, America's first Native American prima ballerina, changed ballet forever.
• Thank Frenchwoman Barbe-Nicole Cliquot for creating the champagne industry.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 19 old-fashioned words for writers.
• 8 questionable moisturizers from history.
• 8 of the most anticipated mystery, thriller, and crime books of 2025.
• 24 books set in bakeries.
• The best historical fiction of 2025.
• 16 weird work-related ailments.
• 20 mysteries that would have Miss Marple's seal of approval.
• The most anticipated books of 2025.

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!