Weekend Update with Brisk Weather

And of course, it’s the pre-Bouchercon update, seems fitting to note that the Baltimore Sun’s Read Street blog will be on hand for the convention and will provide daily updates. The paper also runs my latest column, looking at new releases from Kate Atkinson, Craig McDonald and Claire Langley-Hawthorne.

NYTBR: Steven Millhauser discusses the ambition of the short story; Sarah Lyall has a chat with John Le Carre; Charles McGrath on the Nobel controversy; and Marilyn Stasio reviews new crime books by John Harvey, Andrew Pyper and Henning Mankell and reissues of works by Patricia Highsmith and Donald Westlake.

WaPo Book World: James Rosen thinks Alice Schroeder’s look at Warren Buffett could be “a Bible for capitalists”; Jonathan Yardley has some trouble with latter-day Le Carre; and Ron Charles wishes there was more nuance in Deborah Copaken Kogan’s debut novel.

LA Times: Donald Harington goes on a cross-border adventure with Miriam Toews; Ed Champion puts Thomas Disch’s WALL OF AMERICA in context of his career and life; Cynthia Haven offers a retrospective on Czeslaw Milosz; and Vivian Gornick creates gender-specific literary criticism, Judith Lewis finds.

G&M: Elizabeth Renzetti sits down with John Le Carre and bemoans the nature of literary prizes; Robyn Sarah on the ruling nature of madness; Nathalie Atkinson surveys the current graphic novel scene; and Margaret Cannon rounds up new crime fiction by Stieg Larsson, Reginald Hill, Linwood Barclay, Allan Levine, Alafair Burke and Stanley Evans, and also tries really hard to shoehorn Nicole Lundrigan’s fantastic new novel THE SEARY LINE in there but…it’s not a crime novel. So why didn’t it merit 800 words as a standalone review? Beats the hell out of me.

Guardian Review: Pankaj Mishra wonders what a new US President will mean for Afghanistan; Lisa Gee describes the stage mother phenomenon in her new book; and a top ten list of…incestuous relationships?!

The Times: Cosmo Landesman charts his constant exposure to fame; Christopher Hart is amused by Sarah Lyall’s depiction of the Brits; Lynne Truss is oddly taken with the autobiography of Tarzan’s favorite ape; and John Dugdale approves of Ian Rankin’s direction change.

The Scotsman: Stuart Kelly enjoys the new short story collection from Ali Smith; Simon Schama talks up the past with David Robinson; and Brian Pendreigh has a jolly good time with Roger Moore’s autobiography.

The Telegraph: Susanna Yager reviews new crime novels by TJ Middleton and Catherine Sampson; Jake Kerridge does the same for books by Ian Rankin, Peter Leonard, Henning Mankell and Vikas Swarup; and Sam Leith condemns that cranky anti-American Nobel Prize judge.

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill goes on a thrill ride with James Swain’s THE NIGHT STALKER.

Eddie Muller offers a virtual toast to James Crumley.

The Tribune’s Paul Goat Allen has his say on recent crime fiction by Michelle Gagnon and Susan Dunlap.

J. Kingston Pierce talks to Max Allan Collins about his work on the new Mike Hammer novel THE GOLIATH BONE, what else is lurking in the Spillane archives, and what it takes to finish someone else’s work.

The Chronicle Herald profiles Canadian mystery writer Gail Bowen.

Archer Mayor talks with the Bennington Banner about his newest Joe Gunther mystery, THE CATCH.

And finally, this is the most amazing library EVER. (via)