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Though it’s billed as a “culinary romance,” Jacqueline Deval‘s Reckless Appetites possesses a plot flimsier than wet strudel leaves: A young woman named Pomme plots the meal with which she hopes to seduce a certain man. She makes the mistake of first consulting the literary authorities, from Colette to Pepys to Henry Miller to Lord Byron, whose lover warmed polenta between her breasts as they gondolaed through Venice. Ever uncertain of the provenance of their next meal, writers had plenty to say on the subject of food; Deval spends much of the book savoring this literary bumper crop, from which she’ll serve up a reading at 7 p.m. at Chapters, 1512 K St. NW. FREE. (202) 347-5495. (Bill Gifford)