Weekend Update in a Pinch
Oddly enough, my latest Baltimore Sun is available not on the Sun’s website, but at Newsday’s, where it runs today a week or so later. In it I review new crime fiction by Don Winslow, Meg Gardiner, Jonathan Santlofer, Francie Lin and Nathan Singer.
NYTBR: Charles McGrath goes out to Long Island to talk with Alan Furst; Will Agee wonders about a new edition of James Agee’s A DEATH IN THE FAMILY; Elizabeth Royte’s expose on bottled water strikes a chord for Lisa Margonelli; and Lauren Mechling assesses the prolific nature and appeal of Meg Cabot.
WaPo Book World: Jay Dixit examines the psychology of personal consumption; John Berendt ponders death and the cemetery plot business; Philip Longman is horrified at how Americans have put themselves into debt; and Michael Dirda thinks Adam Thirlwell has written the most “dazzlingly tedious book of the summer.”
LA TImes: Michael Sims enjoys Ruth Rendell’s latest Inspector Wexford novel; Seth Greenland is bemused at what an author has to do to self-promote these days; and Tara Ison is ensorcelled by Kathryn Harrison’s dark storytelling skills.
G&M: Laura Penny makes the case for LOLITA; Douglas Arthur Brown’s novel inspires raves and bewilderment at what makes it work so well; and Val Ross’s oral biography of Robertson Davies captures the essence of this great Canadian writer.
Guardian Review: Mark Lawson adores the latest, and final, Frost novel by R.D. Wingfield; J.G. Ballard chats at length with James Campbell;the broadsheet asks a number of writers about their travel reading plans; and Matthew Lewin reviews new thrillers by Steve Mosby, Sally Hinchcliffe, Joseph Wambaugh and Robert B. Parker.
Observer: Eight writers, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Lionel Shriver, talk about how their fathers influenced their life and work; Adam Mars-Jones is a bit put off by David Rieff’s memoir of his mother; and Peter Conrad waxes eloquent over Andrew O’Hagan’s latest novel.
The Times: Elizabeth George talks of expat crime writing with Jane Wheatley; Lucy Hawking looks for storytelling gold among the best science books; and Peter Millar raves about Charles Cumming’s new China-set spy novel TYPHOON.
The Scotsman: Nury Vittachi talks about his “wotcha” moments while writing; Chandrahas Choudhury declares Vaclav Havel’s new work a potential classic; and Nicola Beauman discusses her role as publisher of Persephone Books.
The Rest:
The SF Chronicle’s Michael Lukas admires the exotic setting and milieu in Zoe Ferraris’s debut mystery FINDING NOUF.
The Telegraph’s Susanna Yager reviews recent offerings by Jesse Kellerman and Andrea Camilleri.
The San Jose Mercury News’s John Orr reviews new crime fiction by Jeffery Deaver, Barbara Fister, Craig Johnson and Dean Koontz.
Paul Fiander at the Nova Scotia Chronicle-Herald looks at recent and not-so-recent thrillers and mysteries by Martin Cruz Smith, David Park, Elizabeth George and Ross McDonald.
Add the Seattle P-I’s John Marshall to the list of admirers for Ed Park’s PERSONAL DAYS.
NPR’s Lynn Neary reports on the practice of returns, and why many are calling for that practice’s end.
And finally, Happy Father’s Day!