Weekend Update with Snow and Ice

NYTBR: Marilyn Stasio reviews new crime offerings from Charlie Huston, Andrew Martin, Jack Fredrickson and Michael McGarrity; the Wednesday night book talk at the Tribeca B&N’ is immortalized, more or less, in podcast format; and wow, this piece on websites and book trailers is positively 2005.

WaPo Book World: Balakian winner Ron Charles expresses his admiration for Jayne Anne Phillips’ LARK AND TERMITE; Jeff Vandermeer has his say on the new Victorian horror offering from Jonathan Barnes; and Joseph Kennedy’s Hollywood days get their due in a new book by Cari Beauchamp.

LA Times: Joe Mathews on California’s current state of crisis; Richard Rayner gets carried along by the pace of THE ASSOCIATE; Ed Park re-examines Joan Aiken’s THE SERIAL GARDEN; and a new book re-evaluates Mary Austin and her contributions to the American West.

G&M: Susan Catto looks at Jane Austen’s literary contemporaries; Nigel Beale ponders the relationship between music and prose; and Paul Quarrington highlights a Thomas McGuane novel as a buried treasure to read.

Guardian Review: Emma Brockes meets Dennis Lehane at his current home in St. Petersburg, FL; the first three chapters of John Mortimer’s final, unfinished RUMPOLE novel; and Nicholas Blincoe finds current resonance in Matt Rees’ Palestinian-set mystery novels, even if the tone of his review is weirdly off-base – I mean, “casual racism”? WTF??

Observer: Tobias Jones is bowled over by THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE; Philip Ball ponders Darwin’s evolution; and Joshua Rozenberg gets deja vu reading the new John Grisham.

The Times: Douglas Kennedy rings positive about THE GIVEN DAY; Peter Kemp does the same for Yiyun Li’s debut novel; I must get my hand on Chloe Hooper’s true crime account of a wrongful death; and Lynne Truss approves of a tome showing you how NOT to write a novel.

The Scotsman: Norah Vincent on the impetus for her new book VOLUNTARY MADNESS; Stuart Kelly looks at bad ways to celebrate the Bard; and David Robinson remembers John Mortimer.

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill has her say on David Fulmer’s new New Orleans-set historical mystery, LOST RIVER and T. Jefferson Parker’s new thriller THE RENEGADES. 

Tom & Enid Schantz review new offerings from Louise Penny, Joe Gores and C.J. Sansom in the Denver Post.

Rege Behe talks with Charlie Huston about the “happy accident” that is his new novel, THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH.

Nancy Pickard’s THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAINS is the 2009 “Kansas Reads” choice by the Kansas Center of the Book. 

Crain’s on the early adopters to e-book readers like Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader.

Your 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award finalists.

Finally, words fail me.