Hanna And Her Weekend Update

Boy, was that some nutty rainstorm yesterday!

NYTBR: Well, before we get to the Book Review proper, it behooves me to point out two separate items: Ian Urbina’s piece on the Poe Wars between Philadelphia (Ed Pettit) and Baltimore (Jeff Jerome), and the first installment of Laura Lippman’s serial “The Girl in the Long Green Raincoat”, featuring a bedridden, pregnant Tess Monaghan.

As for the Review, Maud Newton raves about Claire Keegan’s debut story collection; Jess Row writes about William Styron and THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER; and Helene Cooper, the latest Starbucks pick and a NYT writer, gets the cover review.

WaPo Book World: Jonathan Yardley on Strunk & White; Michael Dirda is disappointed with the new Neal Stephenson; and Ron Charles considers HOME, the conjoined twin to Marilynne Robinson’s GILEAD (and just as good, I might add.)

LA Times: Susan Salter Reynolds applauds Curtis Sittenfeld for AMERICAN WIFE; Ed Park rocks out with SUZY, LED ZEPPELIN AND ME; Laura Miller is bowled over by ANATHEM; and Amy Tan’s THE BONESETTER’S DAUGHTER takes the operatic stage.

G&M: Catherine Bush looks at why fiction matters; Gale Zoe Garnett approves of Miriam Toews’ risk-taking with THE FLYING TROUTMANS; and Margaret Cannon reviews recent crime fiction by Robert Crais, Gail Bowen, David Ebershoff (I guess), Asa Larsson and Louis Bayard.

Guardian Review: 40 years of the Booker Prize means 40 years’ worth of judges’ reminisces; Carmen Callil welcomes the translation of Agnes Humbert’s wartime journal; and Maya Jaggi talks all things theatrical with Tom Stoppard.

Observer: Robin McKie looks at David Simon’s HOMICIDE now that it has finally been published in the UK; Louise France is underwhelmed by the new PD James; and Adam Mars-Jones dissects the “fitfully brilliant” new novel by Zoe Heller.

The Times: Jonathan Coe examines a Hitchcockian world of pain; Paul Theroux talks about his greatest railway journeys; Andrew Holgate is shocked John Berger’s new novel made the Booker longlist; and Bel Mooney is unnerved by Howard Jacobson’s new novel, which I totally need to read now.

The Scotsman: Aidan Smith conducts an odd interview with Howard Jacobson; Peggy Hughes is scorched by Janice Galloway’s memoir of the women in her life; and meet the man who made it his mission to compile a list of Edinburgh’s pubs.

The Telegraph: Toby Clements meets children’s wordsmith Shirley Hughes; point and counterpoint on Howard Jacobson’s THE ACT OF LOVE; and Susanna Yager has her say on crime titles by Arnaldur Indridason and Dick & Felix Francis.
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The Rest**:

Oline Cogdill has her say on upcoming crime novels by John Harvey, Justin Peacock and James Swain.

Eddie Muller takes a non-fiction detour, looking at recent work by David Hajdu, Marilee Strong and Paul Meehan.

Dick Adler waxes ecstatic about THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO in the Chicago Tribune, while Carlo Rotella offers a mixed take of THE GIVEN DAY for the same paper.

The Denver Post’s Tom & Enid Schantz review new mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, Ann Cleeves and Barbara Cleverly.

The Sydney Morning Herald investigates a possible plagiarism case involving Lynda LaPlante and a Holocaust memoir. More in the Independent.

Robert Giroux, who joined Farrar, Straus and ended up a partner in the publishing firm, has died at the age of 94.

Regis Behe has a short profile of Carol Goodman at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The WSJ’s Robert Hughes talks to Dennis Lehane about THE GIVEN DAY.

And finally, oh man, talk about dead-on.