To be perfectly honest, I don't remember much of the Reading the World party at the French embassy other than that they had a stellar wine collection, but here's what my camera caught. Top: Anne Ishi of Vertical Books takes a smoke break with Bookslut's Jessa Crispin. Bottom: I chat with Wendi Kaufman (aka "The Happy Booker") and Tayari Jones; Edward Champion regales Mark Sarvas with the tale of his confrontation with Sam Tanenhaus.

I noticed that Big Monkey Comics was halfway between my hotel and the French embassy, which was playing host to the party, so I took the opportunity to drop in and meet Devon Sanders (left) in person, because I'm such a huge fan of his blog (unfortunately, Scipio Garling wasn't around that afternoon). We had more fun talking about Superman than ought to be legal; it kinda makes me sad I can't buy my comics there every week.