The Hotter than Hell Weekend Update

New York’s 90 degree-plus summers are back in full force, oh yeah…****

NYTBR: More buzz about Charlotte Roche’s WETLANDS, which will hit US shores next year; Robert Pinsky finds the poetry amidst the darkness in Kathryn Harrison’s WHILE THEY SLEPT; Hari Kunzru looks forward to what Nam Le does next after reading THE BOAT; and Marilyn Stasio reviews recent mystery fare from Magdalen Nabb, Grace Brophy, Boris Akunin and Thomas Perry.

WaPo Book World: Ron Charles deems THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE to be “grand and unforgettable”; Carrie Brown appreciates Lief Enger writing about a vanished world; Amanda Vaill wishes AMERICAN EVE had relied less on Evelyn Nesbit’s memoirs; and Dennis Drabelle reviews new mysteries by Thomas H. Cook, Donna Leon, Joseph Wambaugh and Fred Vargas.

LA Times: The LATBR crew present their summer reading list; Jane Smiley is moved by Catherine O’Flynn’s gobsmackingly good novel WHAT WAS LOST; Joe Henry probes the literary side of music; Susan Salter Reynolds sits down to chat with David Sedaris; and Jonathan Shapiro has his say on Alan Furst’s latest spy tome.

G&M: Elizabeth Renzetti gets an earful from Germaine Greer; Peter Shawn Taylor wishes Jack Todd had divided his first novel into two; and Margaret Cannon reviews new crime fiction by Stephen Miller, David Rotenberg, Phyllis Smallman, C.J. Sansom, Mary Jane Maffini, Michelle Wan and Morley Torgov.

Guardian Review: Julian Barnes sings the praises of Ford Madox Ford’s THE GOOD SOLDIER; Emma Brockes discusses Lorrie Moore’s collected stories with the author; and Mohsin Hamid reveals what spurs him to write.

Observer: Adam Mars-Jones enjoys the parables to English Colonialism in Amitav Ghosh’s new novel; Francesca Segal salutes a cultural history of the hamburger; and Isabel Fonseca’s examination of adultery gets a thumbs-up from Kate Kellaway.

The Times: David Aaronovitch and Nicholson Baker agree to disagree about HUMAN SMOKE; Sarah Vine gets caught up in the GONE AWAY WORLD of Nick Harkaway; and to answer David Baddiel’s question: how about THE DAMNED UTD?

The Scotsman: Lee Randall takes a peek inside Isabel Fonseca’s subconscious; Jack Ross reveals the long, arduous road to thriller publication; and Edward Docx expounds on his cultural life.

The Rest:

I wish I’d been able to attend CrimeFest in Bristol this weekend, since it’s run by the same folks who put on a fabulous Left Coast Crime a couple of years back. Rhian Davies reports back, and no doubt other people will be blogging about the conference in the days to come.

Coming up this week and running through June 22 is the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro, KY, and the Louisville Courier-Journal has a ton of pre-event coverage already. There’s a festival guide and Q&As with Ray Bradbury, Stuart Kaminsky, Mary Higgins Clark, Anthony Zuiker, and Judith Walcutt & David Ossman.The Evansville Courier-Press also has some pre-event coverage.

The Hammett Prize, awarded by the International Association of Crime writers, goes to OUTLANDER by Gil Adamson.

Issue #2 of the reincarnated Plots with Guns is now up for your perusal.

The Telegraph’s Susanna Yager reviews new crime offerings from Reginald Hill and Charles Cumming.

Also at the Telegraph, specifically their new-ish book blog Paper Tiger, Jake Kerridge comments on the CWA Dagger shortlists and picks his favorites for each category. While I agree wholeheartedly with his non-fiction choices, I have to question Kerridge’s “fear” about Stieg Larsson’s novel winning the International Dagger category but hey, YMMV…

The Seattle Times’ Adam Woog rounds up crime fiction by the likes of Fred Vargas, Lawrence Block, Mike Lawson, Ruth Rendell, Philip Margolin, Steve Martini and Alan Furst.

The Sunday Paper in Peachtree, ME has a quick Q&A with John Connolly about THE REAPERS.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Karen Long profiles Les Roberts on the occasion of a new Milan Jacovich novel.

The Independent reveals the newest winners of the Richard & Judy Book Club literary lottery.

Will Self, Jeanette Winterson and Alain de Botton discuss the idea of and ideal home.

Irene Wanner delivers a positive judgment upon Francie Lin’s endearing debut mystery for the SF Chronicle. Also in the Chron, Michael Berry reviews SF-tinged offerings from Ann & Jeff Vandermeer, Jack O’Connell and Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece, the brains behind the excellent and darkly funny graphic novel LIFE SUCKS.

David Wroblewski is all over the newspapers. Interviewed by the Pittsburgh Tribune-review and New West, reviewed at the Rocky Mountain News and the Capital Times.

And finally, boy, this would be a nice world to live in.