Bookish things for a bookish day

To celebrate World Book Night, here are some bookish things.  Rather fitting don't you think?  

These are a couple of happy purchases I made at lunchtime.  I was rather busy today buying some jiffy bags, making up a parcel, and hotfooting it to the post office to send it on it's way (in case you are wondering, the parcel contains the place cards for our wedding, which I am sending to a friend as his brother is apparently rather gifted with beautiful penmanship, and so he has kindly agreed to write out the place cards for me - I am beyond excited to see what they will look like).  Anyway, despite all this busyness, I found some time to visit my favourite charity shop.  A visit is always a danger, as more likely than not I end up walking out with something.  In this case, two things: The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower and a book called The Pioneers, which is part of a series called The Old West. 
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I'm not sure what induced me to pick up The Needle in the Blood, as it doesn't sound like my kind of book of all (it sounds like a crime thriller or something similar), but the strapline on the front had me hooked - "A powerful tale of sex, lies and embroidery".  Now the sex and lies bit didn't really do it for me, but embroidery!!!!  A work of historical fiction about the commissioning and creation of the Bayeux Tapestry, I'm looking forward to reading this (even if it also brought back some terrible flashbacks of getting locked in the cubicles when my parents took my brother and I to see the Bayeux Tapestry!).  And I couldn't leave behind The Pioneers.  As a result of Laura Ingalls Wilders' magnificent Little House books, I'm fascinated by this period of American history.  And what a beautiful cover it has!  I'm not sure if you can see the wonderful embossed cover.
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And the whole book is filled with wonderful photographs ...
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... paintings ...
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... and other intriguing bits and pieces.  I suspect this will be a joy to flick through and read.
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And here is my current read, The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan.  I can't remember how many times I have read this book (a pretty good indication of how much I love it), but it's one I never tire of re-reading (like all Amy Tan's books).
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