Something in the Way of a Weekend Update

NYTBR: George Packer on the V.S. Naipaul biography;  Charles Taylor digs the new short story collection from Stephen King; Kevin Kelly examines the way screens are changing the printed word; and Matt Weiland remembers the long-forgotten THE CHICAGOAN (although, this being a New York publication, why not fond memories of, say, CUE?)

WaPo Book World: Yehudah Mirsky looks at books on the revival of Modern Hebrew; Michael Dirda reads a newly discovered WWII diary; Steven Moore jumps on the “2666 is a masterpiece” bandwagon; and Ron Charles is bowled over by Stewart O’Nan’s latest tome.  

LA Times: Heller McAlpin ponders death as a hot literary topic; Nick Owchar returns with a new, Merlin-themed Siren’s Call column; and Carolyn Kellogg has some give and take with Salvatore Scibona’s THE END.

G&M: Mary Roach is fascinated by the memoir of a gravedigger; Cynthia McDonald has her say on THE GIVEN DAY; and yup, another Bolano rave.

Guardian Review: Maya Jaggi meets Nobel winner Jose Saramago; David Lodge pays tribute to his friend Simon Gray;  and Laura Wilson reviews new crime fiction by Inger Ash Wolfe, David Roberts, Nick Brownlee and Jean-Francois Parot.

Observer: Robert McCrum wonders how Obama will change the literary landscape; Robert Collins enjoys the George Pelecanos-edited BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES; and Ian Rankin describes his fantasy life as a rock star.

The Times: Tom Gatti meets up with Art Spiegelman; Ian Stewart plays the numbers game; Lucy Atkins is unsettled by Ruth Rendell’s latest; and Patrick Heren is gobsmacked by the extraordinary life of Wanda Jablonski.

The Scotsman: Gerald Martin on a new biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Susan Mansfield gets in the trenches with Kate Adie; and Marion Sauvebois is frustrated with the last MORIARTY book by John Gardner.

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill has the details on Margaret Maron’s recent award by the state of North Carolina and also reviews Bob Morris’s new crime novel.

The Columbus Dispatch talks with P.F. Kluge about his academia-set mystery GONE TOMORROW.

Jeff Johnson at the Chicago Sun-Times has his say on Michael Black and Julie Hyzy’s mystery collaboration DEAD RINGER.

Leonard Cassuto sings the praises of STRANGERS ON THE TRAIN in the Wall Street Journal.

Joanne McNeil reviews Malcolm Gladwell’s OUTLIERS in the Washington Times.

Everything that touches Charles Sohbraj ends up being really strange and weird.

And finally, well, WTF.