The much belated massive weekend update

NYTBR:  In what’s either a ripoff of an earlier feature of of Granta’s “Under 40” list, the Book Review turns to several big names in young writing to ask about their influences. Otherwise, David Brooks gets an eyeful of Malcolm Gladwell’s much hyped-about new book BLINK;  Elissa Schappell tries to understand what Curtis Sittenfeld’s PREP is really about; and Virginia Postrel looks at how the jobhunt has changed through the eyes of that damned Parachute book (which, I admit, helped a lot back in the day.)

WaPo Book World: OK, the world must be approaching an apocalyptic end — Yardley reviewing Grisham? WTF? But he has a lot of interesting things to say, espec about Grisham perhaps taking a rest to write a really good book instead of a bestselling one. Otherwise, Bookslut co-blogger Michael Schaub looks at a new book by Robert Anderson, James McGrath Morris finds that Michael Blaine’s THE MIDNIGHT BAND OF MERCY (which, uh, was reviewed by me in–wait for it–September. Holy late review, Batman) is a rather flawed book with good storytelling; and Michael Dirda brings some due attention to the works of Tom Holt.

G&M: Elizabeth Renzetti meets Jeanette Winterson, author and gourmand; Great American lyricist Johnny Mercer merits a biography of his own–and a good one, too; and Charles Foran wishes Murakami’s latest would just make some sense already.

Guardian Review: Ian McEwan’s new novel (which I hope to get any day now) SATURDAY is excerpted in the Review; Ian Sansom is compelled by the darkness within Eugene McCabe’s stories; Jenny Diski wonders why writers are obligated to keep the lines between fiction and truth wholly separate; and Lucasta Miller remembers Susan Sontag.

Observer: Jonathan Coe is amused about seeing his new novel, THE ROTTERS CLUB, adapted for television;  Stephanie Merritt is just the latest to question the wisdom of publishing Belle de Jour’s blog as novel; Peter Guttridge is decidedly unimpressed with Michael Crichton’s latest; and Robert McCrum wishes the circus of publicity wasn’t so damn important in the world of books.

The Times: Peter Millar gives kind of a thumbs-down to David Wolstencroft’s debut espionage effort, GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS; I know I should stop linking to Belle de Jour pans but I simply cannot; and this review of a new biography of Walter Sickert amused me greatly for reasons that will become obvious as you read through it.

Scotsman & co.: Hermoine Lee talks about the challenges of writing biographies; Alan Massie discourses on the nuances of the word “criticism;“A rave review is given to a murder mystery involving the bones of…Ernest Hemingway? and a curious new biography of one of WWI’s Living Unknown Soldier is examined in detail.

All the rest:

Oh my, when Oline Cogdill doesn’t like a book, she doesn’t hesitate to say so even if it’s going against the grain, as her review of Michael Gruber’s VALLEY OF BONES demonstrates rather ably.

The Denver Post’s Tom Walker chats with Nelson DeMille, whose new novel is based on TWA Flight 800’s doomed flight and potential conspiracy theories that resulted.

Patricia Smiley, author of the recent debut mystery FALSE PROFITS, got her start as a member of Elizabeth George’s writing group for nine years. She speaks to the Long Beach Press-Telegram about her origins and her path to publication.

So Ed McBain’s new novel is supposed to be a series linked by alphabet? Will he be able to get to XENA, WARRIOR PRINCESS IN JEOPARDY in time? I kid, but Robert Croan of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette digs the first in this series.

Nancy Grape of the Maine Press-Herald was enthralled by Sabina Murray’s A CARNIVORE’s INQUIRY but can’t quite bring herself to like the book.

Natalie Danford, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, wants to like Mary Gordon’s eighth novel PEARL a lot, but can’t quite do so.

David Hinckley, writing for the NY Daily News, advises readers to be careful which characters they attach themselves to when reading James Hall’s new standalone FORESTS OF THE NIGHT.

Paul Feole wrote a compendium of the complete works of Cornwell–and as he tells the South Carolina State, he got through it with his brains intact.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review chats with Jennifer Haigh, whose BAKER TOWERS is getting a ton of press (and whose Ettlinger photo is getting many comments, too.)

And finally, this story makes me quite, quite skeptical. But maybe because the last time this type of thing was reported, it turned out to be a hoax, too.