Hello, chickens. Welcome to Sunday.

I hope you're keeping cool and your summer has officially kicked off to a good start. I spent most of last week in Colorado visiting family, enjoying weather a bit more arid than the muggy heat of Tennessee. Though I'm not complaining—after a couple weeks in a suitcase, there really is no place like home. 

Here's what happened on the Internets this week:

This owl melted my heart. I literally tear up every time I see the pictures, and the story behind them is just as heartwarming. It makes me think that staring into the great unknown isn't perhaps as scary as it once was. 

One of our favorite book sites, BookRiot, listed 10 thrillers & mysteries to read this summer (spoiler alert: you may recognize one of them!).

On Cartography & Comparison—aka the difference between Google Maps and Apple Maps. This is one of the coolest stories you'll read all summer. Really great for those of you who love maps and like to argue about directions. 

How many notebooks do you really need? (if you're me: a bunch) I'm always on the lookout for a perfect physical system, but I've settled pretty well into my Habanas lately. Though true confession: I bought a Midori travel notebook system last night. Sigh.

This bookish jewelry is all kinds of adorable. Want!

Food for thought: "Why following your passion isn't always the best advice." This video was interesting to me for a numbers of reasons, possibly because I did put my passion on hold for so long and simply pulled down a paycheck. I think it's important to have pride in your work, and teach kids a trade. Because if the world collapses, someone's going to have to rebuild it...

And closer to home:

On The Wine Vixen, I talked about my go-to red when it's summer and it's scorching and you want something boozy and cold.

Want an omniscient view of how FIELD OF GRAVES came into being? Here you go!

It's been quite a past few weeks in the headlines, hasn't it? That, coupled with lots of tour travel, had me pensive about traveling and made a few things clear: like what I need to be doing for the rest of the summer (hint: I'm taking a big online break from social media, blogging, the works.) Assistant Amy will be running things, and I'll bet you don't even miss me. 😘 

That's all from me, lovelies. Enjoy your day, and hug on your people. You both deserve a little love today.
 

xoxo,
J.T.