(READING) You’ve got to love a lady who has voluntarily classified much of her literary oeuvre (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith) as “lesbo Victorian romps.” Her new World War II novel is not that, sadly, and it contains only two meager references to Dickens (that I could find). But The Night Watch is as skillfully plotted as Fingersmith, and it’s historical fiction of the most absorbing kind—evoking an era that bears the comforting weight of its past even as it patently strains for the future. (Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave, 386-4636. 7 pm, free.)

Annie Wagner is The Stranger's former film editor. She was born and raised in Capitol Hill, but has since lived in such far-flung locales as Phoenix, AZ, Charlottesville, VA, and Wedgwood. After graduating...