Photo: Getty

I Was So Impressed...
by George H.W. Bush's humility and love for our country in the recent HBO documentary 41. In the film, the former president shares an acronym he learned as a navy pilot that he says also describes his happy life with his wife, Barbara, in Maine: CAVU, or "ceiling and visibility unlimited." I liked it so much that I came up with my own four-letter motto: LALL, or "living and loving life."

Photo: Craig Blank Photography

I'm Always on the Hunt For...
a stylish evening clutch that can fit more than lipstick and a Tic Tac. So when the O fashion editors showed me this one by Jodi Been, I was sold. It holds everything from my BlackBerry to my keys.

$182 with code OPRAH; AntoniaBee.com

I Read This Book on a Looong Flight to China...
to visit my son, Will, who is living in Shanghai. It's Lee Woodruff's new novel, Those We Love Most (out September 11), and it grabbed me from the first page—and made the 13-hour trip fly by. It's about the pain and guilt a mother faces when her son is hit by a car while riding his bike to school. Add infidelity and complicated family struggles, and I'm thinking it should be a movie!

Photo: J Muckle/Studio D

I'd Never Even Heard of a Black-and-White Cookie...
until I started working in New York 12 years ago. Now my favorites are from William Greenberg Desserts, on Madison Avenue; they're always moist and taste like cake, and you can even customize your colors if black-and-white is too boring for you. Greenberg's cookies come in two sizes: ginormous and sensible. You can guess which one I usually go for...

Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting

I Can't Wait For...
the new CBS show Elementary, which brings the classic story of Sherlock Holmes to New York City, with Jonny Lee Miller (also known as one of Angelina Jolie's ex-husbands) playing the detective and Lucy Liu as his sidekick, a female Watson. We haven't seen Lucy in a megahit since Ally McBeal—where she was great as the mean girl—so I'm pulling for both her and CBS. (Did I mention I work there?)

Photo: Jonathan Wenk

Any Film Featuring Bradley Cooper's Gorgeous Blue Eyes Is Automatically on My Must-See List...
and they did not disappoint in The Words, which is so intense and confusing that I was pretty lost by the end! Cooper plays an author with a terrible secret—he didn't actually write his best-seller. He stars alongside Jeremy Irons and Dennis Quaid, and has some smokin' hot chemistry with Zoë Saldana, who plays his girlfriend, Dora. I intend to watch this one again so I can figure the whole thing out!

Next: How to make Gayle King's favorite cupcake

From the September 2012 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine