Round the matterhorn

And we begin with a li’l bit of piracy, Chinese-style. Those rogues have taken Bill Clinton’s MY LIFE and completely rewritten it. Gee, I never knew Bill espoused Mao’s beliefs and that he didn’t have much at all to say about human rights abuses….oh yeah, and it’s way shorter too! Extra cool!

Carol Memmott of USA Today rounds up the tough chicks of crime fiction, including Kathy Reichs, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich and Laura Lippman.

Judith Maas enthuses greatly over Jacqueline Winspear’s next installment in the Maisie Dobbs series, BIRDS OF A FEATHER. Now I’m starting to wonder if I just started reading the book at the wrong time, and that’s why I couldn’t finish it….

Lots of goodies at the Telegraph this week(which still updates soooo late) especially on the crime and thriller side of things: Jessica Mann raves about Mark Mills’ AMAGANSETT, William Leith approves of Rob Reuland’s new novel, Andrew Martin wishes Scott Phillips’ COTTONWOOD was longer, Sukhdev Sandhu looks at a literary thriller from David Dabydeen, and Susanna Yager goes a bit hog-wild rounding up the latest in crime fiction.

Also, Jasper Rees looks at the growing trend of “Posh Porn,” or women who are writing sexually explicit memoirs. The usual suspects–Catherine M, Melissa Panarello, and a certain Ms. de Jour–get namechecked.

On Tuesday, Brian Brivati wrote a fascinating piece for the Guardian on how a biography can take over your life and mess with your head, and concluded that one shouldn’t write with indifference–only hate or love. Now, David McKie responds with a different view.

Rebecca Caldwell returns to her author profile duties at the Globe and Mail (where were you, honey? Long time!) by interviewing Louis de Bernieres, who emerges after a 10 year absence with BIRDS WITHOUT WINGS.

The Guardian put up a bunch of new entries for their short-short fiction contest. Mine, alas, is not one of them. Probably because it had a plot…

With the annual Romance Writers of America convention around the corner, it seems somewhat fitting to link to this profile of Connie Flynn at the Arizona Republic, who does the aforementioned thing.

And finally, Jennifer Weiner and her friend Joanna go underwear-shopping, and well, hilarity ensues. At least for me.