My sweet California friend Mary has a heart of gold and I absolutely adore her. Earlier this year, she traveled to an orphanage in Africa and through her words and images, it’s obvious the trip has shaped the course of her life. When she announced the launch of We Spread the Love, I was both proud and even more smitten with the girl. If you want to help, you can purchase a host of goodies from the shop—beautiful jewelry made by Ugandans, art prints of Mary’s and more.

I don’t fall for a lot of comic book flicks with the exception of two franchises — the latest Batman trilogy and the Spiderman series of the past 10 years. With each Batman flick of Christopher Nolan’s, I’ve left the theater entertained, confused, mind-blown. While The Dark Knight Rises was a l-o-n-g movie, I thought it was a fabulous resolution to this series. I cannot imagine anyone else as Bruce Wayne except Christian Bale. I loved the twist addition of Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the cast. By far one of the best flicks of the summer.

Beautiful Ruins is one of those books you just have to finish. Because the ending of the novel—how Walter manages to wrap up this saga—is really what makes this story as epic as it is. He manages to create a plot about a love child of the great actor Richard Burton that weaves back and forth in time, from 1960s Italy to mid-century Seattle to modern-day Los Angeles. It’s epic in scope, and—in lesser capable hands—could have never delivered the same wallop. And now it seems I’m pining for a holiday on the Italian coast.

I’ve worn the same lipstick for like, 7 years now. But I was feeling frisky in Sephora with my mom recently and picked up a red shade of NARS, a brand I’d heard a lot of great things about. I’m still getting used to a matte lipstick (and I confess, I cheat and layer on some old-school Lipsmackers gloss on top of it), but the color is long-lasting and looks great on.