Cue up the massive weekend update

NYTBR: With only weeks until the revamp, change is already well afoot this week, with Jonathan Mahler’s in-depth essay about how some writers never quite manage the whole deadline business and Amy Sohn’s roundup of sex-related books. Otherwise, Elisa Schappell didn’t like OUTSIDE VALENTINE nearly as much as I did and Walter Olson finds Emma Donoghue’s LIFE MASK to be an enjoyable, sprawling historical novel.

WaPo: Susan Isaacs reveals her past as a political speechwriter, Michael Dirda adds further credence to THE LINE OF BEAUTY being worthy of its Booker shortlisting, James Sallis digs Cynthia Ozick, and Richard Lipez’s mystery roundup is a bit puzzling–Natalee Caple’s MACKEREL SKY is a crime novel? Really? I could have sworn it was about, I dunno, sex and relationships and things like that.

G&M: Adam Sol asks and finds good responses for why literature still matters in this technology-mad age, Martin Levin gets all bugged by his recent reading, and Margot Livesey’s review of Richard Wright’s slim new novel really, really makes me want to read it.

Guardian Review: As Faber & Faber turns 75, John Mullan reflects on how without TS Eliot, there would be no such publisher; otherwise, Andrew Motion doesn’t really get what’s so important about the difficulties of living with a writer, and Sue Arnold, rounding up audio books, offers the first review I’ve yet to see of Rennie Airth’s THE BLOOD-DIMMED TIDE. It lives! It lives! Well, when I saw the ARC peeking out from a shelf at Sleuth of Baker Street a few weeks back, I had proof, but still….

Observer: Lynda LaPlante, the woman responsible for PRIME SUSPECT (and a few novels, too) is interviewed about her work and her new baby, Sean O’Hagan tries to put Philip Roth’s work in some kind of sociopolitical perspective, and the Rumpole prequel is sure to delight his fans, according to Stuart McGurk.

Tartan papers: The Scotsman seems impressed with Ian Rankin’s initiative to get more politically conscious with his Rebus novels; VERNON GOD LITTLE, theatrical style (gag), and Susan Mansfield lavishes well-deserved praise upon Paul Johnston for his new Mavros novel, THE GOLDEN SILENCE, which I finished just yesterday and thought it typically wonderful.

And all the rest of your local lit news:

The boys of Hard Case Crime get more ink at the Houston Chronicle, explaining how their labor of love has led to one of the most talked-about new publishing lines of the year. The Hartford Courant jumps on the same bandwagon as well, concentrating more on the fabulous cover art that graced the cover of many of the pulps, old and new.

Add Newsweek to the legion of admirers of Alexander McCall Smith and his new novel, THE SUNDAY PHILOSOPHY CLUB.

Steve Weinberg, who has been collecting journalism based books and novels for almost 3 decades, is really glad to read Dan Fesperman’s addition to such a genre, and hopes the author continues to do so.

Hallie Ephron returns with her crime column for the Boston Globe, looking at new books by William Tapply, Jim Fusilli, and Elizabeth George’s anthology of stories by women crime writers.

Ricky Gervais, who catapulted to fame after several series of THE OFFICE, had to find something to do after it was done. So…he wrote a children’s book, as he tells the Sunday Herald.

Dick Kreck of the Denver Post rounds up books with one especially appropriate theme: beer. It’s cool to see PointBlanker Duane Swierczynski get some props here, and now we really want to drink more with the guy.

Someone put Jon Stewart’s new BOOK OF AMERICA in the hands of Sun-Times book editor Henry Kisor and well, he seems a wee bit traumatized after perusing the book’s contents. Viva le Stewart.

Alice Munro, queen of the short story, has a new collection out, and the Toronto Star’s Philip Marchand gives it the appropriately reverent treatment.

The Columbian talks to J.A. Jance about her newest book, why her 40s and 50s have been much kinder, and how she never, ever outlines a work in progress.

And finally, think your town is crap? Well, talk to those who live in Luton.