A Midsummer’s Weekend Update

And where has the summer gone, anyway? I suppose because each blisteringly hot day melts into another and another that I’m kind of surprised it’s almost August.

Anyway, the latest column’s up, and I look at new books by Denise Mina, James Lee Burke, Karin Fossum, Jeff Lindsay and Kate White.

NYTBR: Richard Posner writes a humungous essay about media bias, political leanings, and other
things that I’m not totally sure belongs in a book review; Joe Queenan offers another take-that review, this time of Ed Klein’s Hillary hatchet job; and Polly Morrice wonders if Sherlock Holmes and Pippi Longstocking were undiagnosed…autistics? Okay…..

WaPo Book World: Paula Woods rounds up the latest in mystery by Marcia Muller, Rick Riordan, Jeff Shelby and Charlotte Carter; Brigette Weeks offers up a rave review for Chris Cleave’s controversial INCENDIARY; and Rachel Howard’s memoir of growing up the shadow of her father’s murder shows that such bonds are unbreakable, even by death.

G&M: Darryl Whetter wishes William Vollman hadn’t gone on so damn long in his newest novel; Emma Donoghue rounds up books about abortion; and Blair Tindall’s memoir goes beyond sex into serious questions about the future of classical music within American culture.

Guardian Review: Everyone knows Dorothy Parker as a satirist, but as Christian Spurrier reveals, few remember her short stories and political activism; with an Orange Prize-shortlisted novel and a forthcoming short story collection, Jane Gardam is in the prime of her writing life — at 77; Caryl Phillips pays tribute to the dulcet tones of Luther Vandross; and Colin Greenland is ultimately disappointed with THE ITALIAN SECRETARY.

Observer: Kate Mosse delivers on the promise with her first venture into adventure thrillers; Viv Groskop discovers the delights of Bookcrossing;  Peter Guttridge rounds up new mysteries by Joseph Kanon, James Lee Burke and Reginald Hill; and Robert McCrum offers his guide to the dos and don’ts of summer reading.

The Times: Alexander McCall Smith offers up a brand new short story for your perusal; Jeannette Winterson wonders how fairy tales fit into the modern world of convenience; Geordie Greig suggests some summer reads you might actually finish; Ben MacIntyre wishes political pundits would stop writing novels already, dammit; Giles Coren writes in from the Port Eliot Lit Fest; John Dugdale wishes Reginald Hill would venture into standalone territory more often; Marcel Berlins looks at the latest in crime by Stella Duffy, Karin Slaughter & Natasha Cooper; and not only is Christopher Brookmyre branching out into screenplays, his next book won’t even be satirical!

The Scotsman: Allan Massie is delighted by the demands placed upon him by David Grossman’s new novel; Sam Baker reveals how a battered little book changed her entire life; and Elizabeth Kostova may owe lots to Dan Brown, but she pays more homage to AS Byatt with her debut novel.
 

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill looks at three somewhat off-the-radar mysteries by Caroline Cousins, Dana Cameron and Mayra Santos-Febres.

Hallie Ephron’s mystery column at the Boston Globe focuses on new novels by J.A. Jance, Denise Mina and Judy Clemens. Also in the same paper is Caroline Leavitt’s retrospective look at two groundbreaking novels by Rona Jaffe and Sue Kaufman, both recently reissued in trade paperback.

Penelope Lively talks to the Independent’s Clare Colvin about her lengthy career and the roads fictions take her towards.

The Associated Press catches up with Beth Gutcheon, whose new novel probes Denmark’s resistance against the Nazis and their efforts to save their Jewish population.

The Ottawa Sun’s Don Ermen raves about Blake Crouch’s LOCKED DOORS and conducts a short Q&A with the author.

Helen Oyeyemi is getting lots of deserved attention for her debut novel THE ICARUS GIRL, and she spoke to uberfreelancer John Freeman for Newsday about the impetus for the book and why the London attacks made her especially nervous.

The Baltimore Sun’s Victoria Brownworth wonders why horror authors don’t get the credit they deserve. Does their desire to scare the reader trump good writing in the eyes of the critics?

Henry Kisor writes what is essentially a love letter to Chicago’s most prominent book blogger, Jessa Crispin, for the Chicago Sun-Times.

And finally, Bridget Jones is coming back to where she first started — in the pages of the Independent as a weekly column.