(1) Charles London (left) and his agent, Robert Guinsler, greet guests in the conference room at Sterling Lord Literistic, where they held a small party last week to celebrate the publication of One Day the Soldiers Came, in which London sets down the life stories of child soldiers in several nations. Behind the scenes, London had some great stories to tell me about going into the field as a research associate with Refugees International (to whom he is donating a portion of the book’s proceeds), where he learned that the pettiness of office politics doesn’t evaporate in a war zone.
(2) Then it was off to the SoHo fashion boutique Lola y Maria, where owner Gina Pagano (center) hosted a champagne reception for Andrea Meyer in honor of her first novel, Room for Love. (They’re joined by designer Michelle Peglau.) Meyer based the novel on an article she wrote for the NY Post about using a fake roommate search to meet guys; these days, she’s married and living in Los Angeles, where she’s working on the screenplay for a remake of the horror film Audrey Rose.
(3) After that, Tracey Toomey and Leanne Shear, the former bartenders who turned to writing with the 2005 novel The Perfect Manhattan, threw a party at Lotus to celebrate their new book, Cocktail Therapy, which is a much more modest venture—a collection of drink recipes they pitch as good for what ails your troubled heart. As the free drinks were being passed ’round, I thought it was maybe a little late in the season for mojitos, but I wasn’t complaining.