The incredibly fantabulous weekend update

NYTBR: You know, I can’t really get so upset that La Stasio devoted most of her column space to Patricia Cornwell this week. Because she does, kinda, explain why TRACE is better than the last few Scarpettas. But OTOH, let’s see..Super Kay…or other, better crime novels? Eh, who listens to me, anyway. Oh, she also reviews Jasper Fforde, Caroline Graham, and the Lawrence Block reissue from ultra-cool outfit Hard Case Crime. Otherwise in the Book Review, Philip Roth explains how THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA came to be; Thomas Mallon finds echoes of Miss Jean Brodie in Muriel Spark’s new novel; and Laura Miller offers up a curiously muddled essay on the joys of paperback originals.

WaPo: A rather disappointed take on Gish Jen’s THE LOVE WIFE starts things off; Bill Sheehan digs the final installment in Stephen King’s epic DARK TOWER series; and Chris Shea examines high school reading lists and looks at what students are currently reading.

G&M: Margaret Cannon’s crime column looks at the latest by Reginald Hill (rave), Edward Wright (rave), Gail Bowen (big rave), Minette Walters (rave), Bruce Allen Powe (mixed rave) and Caroline Carver (not so much.) Otherwise, Margaret Atwood seems to have obtained a new side career as a librettist; David Gilmour is incredibly impressed with Robert McGill’s debut novel, THE MYSTERIES (which I’ve been eyeing for quite some time as well) and Martin Levin gets slightly miffed over an issue of semantics concerning Graydon Carter’s political novel.

Guardian Review: Lots of goodies here this week, starting with Maxim Jakubowski’s crime fiction column which opens with another stellar review for a certain Mr. Sunshine (Al Guthrie to the masses.) How cool is that? He’s just a total rockstar in the mystery world now. Otherwise in the Review, Graham Greene’s centenary is celebrated by Zadie Smith, Stephen King faces up to his lengthy career (and myriad of conquered demons), Jonathan Coe ruminates on why people write (my favorite response: “to keep from dying”) and Mark Lawson looooooves Charles McCarry’s just-out-in-the-UK spy novel OLD BOYS.

Observer: Frances Tillson looks at the enduring cult appeal of Modesty Blaise; a new biography of William Pitt the Younger meets with favorable results; and Robert McCrum reflects on the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Scotsman etc.: Oh, crapdoodle–like the book version wasn’t bad enough, now VERNON GOD LITTLE will grace the Edinburgh stage. The Alexander McCall Smith juggernaut rolls along with the impending launch of THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB (which was v. good though not quite up to the #1 Ladies books) and Nicholas Blincoe is the latest writer to do the “Shelf Life” interview.

All the rest:

Richard Marinick’s debut novel BOYOS is racking up a lot of buzz, in no small part because of the writer’s past as a former prison inmate. The Boston University Bridge meets up with the BU Prison writing program graduate.

James Ellroy–still as much of a showman as ever, as evident by this new interview in the New York Post.

After reading this piece at Publishing News about how customers are getting all mixed up over seeing airport editions in landside shops, the theme song of SOAP is running in our minds (“Confused? You won’t be…”) Although to be fair, It took me ages to figure out that those big trade paperback editions I see in the Canadian bookshops are export/airport editions only…

Although any feature article on a “model-turned-crime writer” raises our hackles up considerably, the curiosity factor sets in–is she really Australia’s number one crime author? How’d that happen?

The new Henning Mankell mystery, BEFORE THE FROST–featuring Linda instead of Kurt Wallander–gets a nice write-up in the Independent.

Martha Liebrum of the Houston Chronicle really explains what makes Liza Ward’s OUTSIDE VALENTINE so compelling a first novel by shedding further light on the tragic family backstory that inspired the author to revisit the Starkweather/Fugate murders.

The Japan Times looks at two Asian-themed novels: COUNTRY OF ORIGIN by Don Lee and THE PEARL DIVER by Sujata Massey.

John Orr of the San Jose Mercury News is mightily impressed with Frank Devlin (aka Tim Farrington) and his new novel LOVE IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES. Yet another reason to get this book ASAP…

After Hurricane Isabel scuttled things last year, the Baltimore Book Festival is back in all its glory this year, and Mary Gail Hare offers a report of the first day.

Stella Clarke of the Australian looks at the shortlist of the Vogel Literary Award for the best unpublished manuscript by a writer under 35.

And finally, I can so buy into this concept. Like you wouldn’t believe (we also think certain people would dig this as well.)