If we are a bacon nation (oh, we are!), the T-shirt on the upper left provides an excellent state of the union for this week’s Bacon Nation-themed Live By the Book feature. Our country’s bacon mania is so broad-reaching that not only can you taste bacon in many forms (see the aforementioned cookbook by Peter Kaminsky and Marie Rama), you can bathe with it, dress in it, pick your teeth with it, ride on it (yes, that’s a bacon skateboard), and even wrap yourself in it (see the bacon bandages). See, bacon does make everything okay.

Go ahead, pig out.

This week, in celebration of Easter (or at the least the commercial version with bunnies, eggs, and chirpy little chicks) and in anticipation of spring (sweet, sweet springtime!), we’re back to our Live By the Book series with some egg-cellent offerings from The Fresh Egg Cookbook by Jennifer Trainer Thompson.

Egg potholders, egg flower pots, a chicken purse (I saw someone wearing this bag — twice! — in the past week), the egg barbecuing machine (shaped like, not for), a heart-shaped egg frying “stencil,” and the best in farm-to-sidewalk fashion: a pair of good, old-fashioned rubber galoshes. Could we be any more egg-cited?!?

Leave a note in the comments (your best egg-themed pun, please) to win a copy of the book!

With St. Patty’s Day around the corner, today’s Live By the Book is inspired by The Good Luck Book by Stefan Bechtel and Laurence Stains. From head to toe, from suspenders to bow tie, and from here to the end of the rainbow — it’s oh-so-easy being green! Or, of course, you could just Leprechaun Yourself.

What’s your good luck charm? A four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s foot, a horseshoe, a penny? Tell us in the comments, and you will be entered to win a copy of The Good Luck Book!

To celebrate the recent publication of photographer Jordan Matter’s Dancers Among Us: A Celebration of Joy in the Everyday, we dug deep into our coffers of dance fever: Slouchy legwarmers, ribbon dance wands, oh-so-glam leotards, Bacon-era Footloose…

… castanets, tea towels and aprons for the kitchen dancers (they, too are among us), that signature red umbrella (ohmigosh, did you know that other dancers hold umbrellas, too?), and a fine array of dancing shoes for wherever and whenever the mood strikes! (Oh, and a camera, so that even though you’re dancing like no one’s watching, you can still be documented.) Perhaps you might even find yourself… dancing in the streets.

Congratulations to author Jordan Matter, whose book debuted at #29 on the New York Times extended bestseller list after less than a full week on sale! Here’s the image that launched it all:

Happy Election Day, everyone! I wonder if Jordan is off photographing dancers casting their ballets…ahem…I mean ballots.

Star Wars Reads day is almost upon us (October 6, I’m looking at you!), and we’ve determined that there couldn’t be a better way to celebrate than a week of Star Wars book love. We have an interview with a Star Wars author, a Star Wars style guide, and a Star Wars library giveaway (scroll all the way down)–and it’s only Tuesday! It follows, then, that today’s Live By the Book style guide is inspired by Chris Alexander’s Star Wars Origami. May the folds be with you…

There’s no shortage of Star Wars gear out there in the galaxy, so we included items across the spectrum in hopes that you’ll find a little something for everyone on your list.  Whether you’re a party animal or a politician (Kenobi for POTUS!), a thinker or a talker, a sleepyhead (yes, it’s a Tauntaun sleeping bag) or a coffee brain, have a sweet (cookbook and cookie cutters!) or savory tooth (light saber chopsticks <3), we’ve got you covered. Oh, and what would a Live By the Book feature be without some bookends?…

Bear with me, because this is about to get a little circuitous, but where would bookends be without a full library of books? The Star Wars Reads Day (#starwarsreads) giveaway is now live and runs through Monday, 10/8/12 at noon PST. Enter for a chance to win (US residents only) this sampling of the library of Star Wars books!

Use the Force!

Following close on the heels wheels of The Truck Food Cookbook, this week’s Live By the Book style guide takes us all back to school, with The Mom 100 Cookbook: 100 Recipes Every Mom Needs in Her Back Pocket by Katie Workman. It’s only fair, now that the kids are back into their routine, that Mom gets to hit the books, too. Call it the textbook for the kitchen, the cheat sheet for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, Katie lays out a curriculum that can be adapted to any scenario (bake sale brownies due tomorrow?; in-laws coming for dinner? have the remnants of an elegant cheese plate languishing in the back of the fridge?) that delivers delicious dish after delicious dish that even the pickiest eaters can get down with. Here’s this week’s style syllabus to get you pumped to prepare meals for the kiddos…

…including Match & Munch puzzle piece sandwiches (for finicky, no-crust sandwich aficionados!), a lasagna tray to please everyone at the table (just like Katie’s “fork-in-the-road” recipes!), a split decision pie pan that allows for multiple flavors, two peas in a pod salt and pepper shakers (just sprinkle to taste!)…. Do I detect a theme? As it turns out, you can please them all. (And you’ve got a trophy to prove it.)

And hey, if not, at least you can defend yourself — with a tray of Fudgy One-Pot Brownies!

Last week’s edition of Live By the Book had us thinking about ice cream. Obviously. And as we thought about ice cream (a lot), we eventually thought about ice cream on wheels. And when we thought about ice cream on wheels (stay with us, here), we thought about other deliciousness on wheels. And that, naturally, made us think of The Truck Food Cookbook: 150Recipes and Ramblings from America’s Best Restaurants on Wheels by John T. Edge, this week’s style guide inspiration!

Whether truck food to you means burgers or tacos, french fries or grilled cheese, pizza or egg sandwiches, sushi or sliders, waffles or dumplings, donuts or (ahem!) ice cream! — we’ve got a little something for everyone.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for…Ben & Jerry’s! — a name that has become virtually synonymous with that melty, cool goodness known as ice cream. This week’s Live By the Book style guide is inspired that very topic, and the book Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. I could probably stop there, but why on earth would I do that?

Here are some of our favorite mooovers and shakers in the ice cream world, from the imminently practical (get yer paws off my pint!) to the playful, from the plush to the penguin. Here’s to chilling out max and mixing up your own signature flavors!

And while you’re making all sorts of new friends by making ice cream, you can also make fashion waves: a summer dress, a detachable Peter Pan collar, some heels that make you look like you stepped in a melting ice cream cone (much better than gum!), a nail polish set in four shades of sherbert, and an apron tie-dye for.

Speaking of ice cream duos…let’s take a magical moo-stery tour through the land of Ben & Jerry with Jimmy & Stephen (that’s Fallon, of “Late Night Snack” & Colbert, of “Americone Dream”) as they learn to be lovers-not-fighters in the ultimate late night ice-cream-flavor-off. Udderly charming, to be sure.

And if the moo-sic doesn’t rid them of their ice cream headaches, perhaps they should consider Chocolate Therapy to help them work through their issues. What’s your favorite Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor? Leave your answer in the comments and you could win a copy of the book!