The out of the way weekend update

NYTBR: Aside from the fact that I suspect Sam Tanenhaus ain’t gettin’ a brownie this week, the TBR’s kind of…I dunno…not so newsworthy? Or maybe it’s just me finally recovering from Passover. Yeah, that’s probably it. Anyway, Marcie Walsh may be a fictional soap character, but she still wrote a book regardless; Budd Schulberg (he’s still alive??) reviews a new book about Orson Welles’ battles with Hollywood;  Laura Miller really isn’t so keen on Nicole Krauss and THE HISTORY OF LOVE; and with Kevin Young, noir gets a decidedly poetic spin.

WaPo Book World: Richard Bausch is in awe of Sue Miller’s mastery of the novel form; Meg Wolitzer feels rather similarly inclined towards Hilary Mantel’s latest effort; Laurel Leff reveals the ugly truth about the NYT’s coverage of the Holocaust;  and Gregg Easterbrook wishes that FREAKONOMICS was less academically minded and more narratively inclined.

G&M: Lionel Shriver has much to say about Sarah Vowell’s presidential aspirations; Christopher Dornan wonders if perhaps a new book about what Canadians think really borders on TMI; and Margaret Cannon’s crime column features new releases by Joseph Kanon, Donald Westlake, David Hewson, Barbara Nadel, Quintin Jardine and Martin O’Brien.

Guardian Review: John Brockman is a literary agent to the stars — scientifically speaking, that is;  Helen Falconer argues in favor of “intelligent women’s fiction” (don’t you mean Gray Lady Lit?); and this just strikes me as weird — who cares what Charles Dickens’ wife prepared for dinner every evening? I mean, WTF?

Observer: The knives are already out for Nick Hornby’s latest novel; Louise Dean explains how she wrote her newest novel and why it already feels “distant” to her; Christopher Brookmyre gets more ambitious with his latest comic thriller; and Charles Chadwick’s hotly anticipate debut novel turns out to be more of an anti-novel.

The Times: Marcel Berlins rounds up the latest and greatest in crime by John Harvey, Denise Mina, Christopher Brookmyre and Robert Goddard; Louise Dean illuminates a dark period in the history of Belfast with her latest novel; and Mr. Zadie Smith shows he has the chops to write a novel of his own.

The Scotsman: The latest installment in the Nick Hornby publicity machine; Amy Mathieson gets positively rhapsodic about Diana Evans’ Baby Orange Prize shortlisted debut; and I think I only linked to this particular “Shelf Life” installment b/c of the author photo. Yes, I too can be shallow.

The Rest:

Aw man, I do love it when Oline Cogdill decides to let it rip with a really negative review, and does she ever with her take on Jilliane Hoffman’s second novel, THE LAST WITNESS. Which seems to be almost an exact replica of her previous novel, and most of us know how well that went over.

David Montgomery’s Chicago Sun Times column this time around features new books by Joseph Finder, Denise Hamilton, Charlotte Carter, Naomi Hirahara, Theresa Monsour and James O. Born.

Meanwhile, at the Philly Inquirer, Montgomery has great things to say about David Hiltbrand’s second novel, DEADER THAN DISCO.

While at the other major city paper, Dick Adler returns with his crime fiction roundup for the Tribune, looking at the latest by Mitch Cullin, Caleb Carr, Donna Leon, John Daniel, Kathryn Wall, Marcos M. Villatoro, Dorothy Bowers & Val McDermid.

And yet more roundups, this one from Tom & Enid Schantz at the Denver Post as they look at new stuff by Will Thomas, David Skibbins and Olive Etchells.

Marx Swanholm takes a decidedly Twin Cities approach in his mystery roundup for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, reviewing the latest by Jodi Compton, Theresa Monsour, John Sandford, P.J. Tracy and David Housewright.

The Mystery Lovers Bookshop in Oakmont is launching yet another edition of their festival of Mystery Books, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has the lowdown on who’s there and what’s on.

M is for Mystery, one of the Bay area’s most prominent mystery bookshops, has won the Mayor’s Award given by the city of San Mateo.

Hallie Ephron, mystery writer and book reviewer, tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette what it was like growing up the daughter of screenwriters — as well as the sister of several notable writers, too.

Is there anything Boris Akunin can’t do? After wowing millions with his bestselling Erast Fandorin novels, he’s turned his hand to playwrighting with equal success, according to the Moscow Times.

Meanwhile, George Wright at the Lincoln Journal Star gives a great review to Akunin’s latest novel translated in English, TURKISH GAMBIT.   

And yet another installment in Hornbyland, this courtesy of the Sunday Telegraph.

Eoin Colfer brings Artemis Fowl back for another go-round, and as he tells the Chicago Sun-Times, it wasn’t even supposed to be written, what with the Fowl books intended as a trilogy and all.