Good Reads/Random Cool Sites (11/2/2009)

The surprising beauty of portraits on gravestones.

A beautiful, sad, memoir about male and female Mormon missionaries in Taiwan. (h/t: Letters from a broad).

I can totally relate to this post by John Elder Robison. I absolutely cannot do the "smile on command" thing either (or figure out the proper spacing from other people). That's why I use this picture as my "official" one. That's not my best smile, but it's definitely my best someone's-taking-my-picture-so-I-must-smile smile. It's the best smile I can produce in that situation.

And, appropriately enough, I suppose, Christopher Walken performs Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"