Smatterings for Labor Day Weekend

It’s been a bit fallow this week, hasn’t it? The transition from summer to fall will do that, as will the usual excuses (deadlines, cleaning the house, going outside, stress, spending too much time on Twitter) but if there’s one way to shrug off malaise, it’s a three-day weekend of links and sundry. Forthwith:

Marilyn Stasio looks at recent crime fiction by Charles Todd, James R. Benn, Linwood Barclay and Kathy Reichs in the NYTBR.

Oline Cogdill reviews Sharon Potts’ debut mystery IN THEIR BLOOD for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The G&M’s Margaret Cannon has her say on new crime novels by John McFetridge, Michael Koryta, Rick Mofina, Declan Hughes and Peter Lovesey.

Ed Park examines the final Joe Pitt novel by Charlie Huston, MY DEAD BODY, for the LA Times.

Robin Vidimos loves how Dexter grows and changes in Jeff Lindsay’s newest outing for the character, DEXTER BY DESIGN, in the Denver Post.

Val McDermid talks with the Sunday Times about her new Tony Hill & Carol Jordan thriller (at a new UK publisher, Little, Brown), why she doesn’t get Twitter, and the differences in how men and women approach violence. McDermid also engages in a shorrter Q&A with the Independent, and still another with the Financial Times. 

Lee Child – in Atlanta for the Decatur Books Festival this weekend – picks his 40 top books of all time for Waterstone’s. 

James Ellroy is a big, big classical music fan, as he reveals in this extremely awesome piece in the Orange County Register. The adjective is deliberate since he’s especially partial to Beethoven and Bruckner – the former I get, the latter I never, ever will.

Marcia Muller talked with PW last week about the narrative risk she takes with her signature character, Sharon McCone, in her upcoming novel LOCKED IN.

What is it about crime fiction that German readers can’t get enough of it? Deutsche Welle investigates.

Philip Kerr took home the RBA Crime Writing Prize (and a cool 125,000 euros) for his new Bernie Gunther novel IF THE DEAD RISE NOT.

Anthony Zuiker continues his media blitz for LEVEL 26, this time talking to Forbes about the multimedia project.

Tyrus Books is on something of a roll of late, what with a positive review of Peter Gadol’s SILVER LAKE in the Los Angeles Times and plans to donate $1 of each copy sold of its upcoming anthology DELTA BLUES to the Rock River Foundation to help with literacy efforts in the Delta.

The LAT’S Susan Salter Reynolds traveled to Maine to talk with Nicholson Baker about his delightful new novel THE ANTHOLOGIST, which David Orr also reviewed in this week’s NYTBR.

Paul Auster dscusses Beckett, Newark and his writing career with the Irish Times.

The Louisville Courier-Journal meets up with short story writer Holly Goddard Jones to talk about her debut collection GIRL TROUBLE.

Are mobile phones a game-changer for film and book plots? Mark Lawson thinks so, but considering how spotty AT&T reception is, I’m not so sure…

And finally, Cushing Academy has seen fit to remove books from their library shelves. Because printed books are soooo outdated, don’t you know. It’s like they never heard of the Rocketbook or Cybook or Readius before! Oh, wait, you haven’t either? Right, because those e-readers don’t exist anymore. Or many of these particular formats. Or the Apple IIe or the Commodore Vic-20…