OK, I've Gotten My Bearings Back

It took me a while to fully recover from last night--as it happens, even typing the word "martini" in the previous item's headline was enough to jumpstart my headache--but by this evening I was ready to head over to Black Orchid, where Sarah and I were among those coming by to celebrate Laura Lippman's new novel, To the Power of Three. Fellow writers Lauren Henderson and C.J. Carpenter also came around, and after the signing was over we all wound up walking over to a nearby restaurant for drinks and various antipasti. Back at Black Orchid, I'd gotten into a really interesting conversation with Laura's publicist and agent and one of the shop's co-owners about the sudden success of The Historian, which I really need to read soon, and when Bonnie (the co-owner) expressed her enthusiasm for historical fiction of all kinds, not just mysteries, I was able to plug one of my recent favorites, Mary Gentle's A Sundial in a Grave: 1610, a genuinely weird thriller set in 17-century France and England that has everything from mathematical conspiracies to wandering samurai. And a pretty strong dose of kink, thrown in for good measure. It's one of those 700-page books you keep reading until you've gotten to the end of another big chunk, and suddenly it's two in the morning...I think a lot of you would maybe like it as well.