Nightstand: Bloodhound by Tamora Pierce.

Coffee table: GIA notes!

Kindle: The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley.

Audiobook: Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede

Internets:

Everyone in the jewelry world is currently freaking out about the JAR exhibit at The Met (myself included). Here’s a look at some of the jewels.

How beautiful is this antique dress?

Cocktail Science: MIT Researchers and José Andrés Make Edible Drink Garnishes That Swim Like Insects – this is amazing. I adore José Andrés.

This guide to writing ridiculously good emails lives up to its name.

Have you seen the jewelry that was created for the new Hunger Games movie? I think it’s really cool.

Self-marketing with Action Figures – !!!

I’m dying over this vintage coat. It’s green. There’s leopard trim.

These photos of rare books at The Strand are so, so lovely.

Finally, who has seen the new Hunger Games movie already?? What did you think? I’m going later this week, and I can’t WAIT.

Nightstand: Trickster’s Queen by Tamora Pierce.

Coffee table: My GIA class notes!! Makers marks, the content of alloys, and vocab words galore.

Kindle: The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth and The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley. I’m a fast reader and I spent 10 hours on planes this weekend. I’m in the middle of Horses, at the beginning of Cameron Post and also finished Libba Bray’s Going Bovine and Tamora Pierce’s Trickster’s Choice.

Audiobook: In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce. We had to take a hiatus on this one because the library loan ended and there was a short wait to get it back.

Internets:

Most important link of the day right here! I am co-hosting an online book club for The DC Ladies and November is the first month!! My fabulous cohost is kicking things off by leading us through Where’d you go, Bernadette? It is not to be missed.

Lee Harvey Oswald’s Wedding Band Fetches $118K at Auction – I find this fascinating. You have to wonder about the motivation of the person who bought it.

One of my Book Riot peers wrote this very thoughtful piece in response to the news of a mom who is editing out the scary parts of Harry Potter as she reads it to her child.

Museum of Science Fiction May Become Reality In D.C. – EPIC. Would you visit?

I wrote a roundup of bookish wedding cakes for Book Riot. The Game of Thrones cake is beautiful and it warms my heart that someone had a Dune wedding cake. Which is your favorite?

This is an entire farm filled ONLY with miniture animals. Why haven’t you clicked yet?

World’s Largest Paraiba Tourmaline Unveiled – You know I love me some Paraiba, and this one is incredible. What do you think of the necklace? I think I’d prefer to see that stone in a simpler piece. Something that magnificent doesn’t need so much embellishment.

This fabulous interview with a romance novel author includes the phrase “real heroines rip their own bodices.” What more do you need to know?

Nightstand: The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce. Rereading because I just read her new book about Briar and Rosethorn (Battle Magic) and one book of Briar is never enough.

Coffee table:  Fire by Kristen Cashore.  LOVE this book. Rereading to research for a Book Riot post.

Kindle: Graceling by Kristen Cashore. Sensing a pattern?

Audiobook: In the Hand of the Goddess by Tamora Pierce. YA all around!

Internets:

20 Photos of Famous Authors in Awesome Costumes – Epic. Writers know how to party.

There’s no reason you’d want to skip reading an article called “Did Cervantes Invent the Turducken?”

I could never possibly spend enough time looking at the Miniature Libraries of Marc Giai-Miniet. SO WONDERFUL.

A Pug Dressed as a Wrecking Ball Won $25,000 in a Costume Contest – I think this was well earned.

5 Cozy Bread Bowls to Hold Your Soup (and Your Dreams) – YES. This. It is all I want.

People have been making noise recently about possibly changing the racial slur that my hometown’s football team uses as its name (and its accompanying offensive caricature of a mascot). I’m not a football fan, but I think this name change is long overdue.

Get a peek at the mockingjay dress in this new Catching Fire footage. What do you think?