About Time for Some Sunday Smatterings

Still sporadic, expect to be so for the foreseeable future. But links, they do pile up…

At DailyFinance this weekend, I wrote about Rick Riordan and his extremely successful Percy Jackson novels for children, and what it might take to transform him from the publishing phenomenon he is now to a wider, more cultural phenomenon.

Otto Penzler owns 58,000 first editions, splendidly on display in his Connecticut home, but he emphasizes to the NYT that he’s “not a rich guy.” Okay, I’m surprised that was part of the story’s headline, because the whole point of the Edgar-award winning THE LINEUP was to raise extra capital to keep the Mysterious Bookshop afloat, and I was glad to see the recent British thrillers auction at Swann brought in some good money, especially for the Ian Fleming first editions.

Peter Temple was a surprise winner of the Miles Franklin Prize for his newest crime novel TRUTH, which has the Guardian wondering if a crime novel can win the Booker. Sure, if one is submitted, but with publishers restricted to only two titles per year, the likelihood is pretty slim – and is also why CHILD 44, when it was longlisted a couple of years ago, raised proverbial eyebrows.

On the review front: Oline Cogdill enjoys Craig Johnson’s new mystery, while Margaret Cannon has her Globe & Mail roundup, Adam Woog did his for the Seattle Times earlier in the month, as did the Times’ Marcel Berlins, while Randy Michael Signor does the same this weekend for the Chicago Sun-Times, as does Jake Kerridge for the Telegraph and John O’Connell for the Guardian. Maureen Corrigan picked thrilling summer reads for NPR, and Patrick Anderson is crazy for Alan Furst. 

That said, I can absolutely see Adam Ross’s crime-ish debut MR. PEANUT racking up or being nominated for a slew of awards. He talked with the Nashville Scene and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about the making of this inventive, Escher-like book.

Nick Bantock, whose GRIFFIN AND SABINE novels were all over the bestseller lists in the early 1990s, is exhibiting his body of work in the Denver area.

Let the David Mitchell media circus begin in earnest in the United States! His wonderful new novel THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET is out on Tuesday, and the NYT Magazine features a lengthy piece on Mitchell and his life & work by Wyatt Mason.

In 2007, literary agent Harriet Wasserman closed up her shop and disappeared. As the Daily Beast reports, it has a lot to do with stealing royalty money from some awfully prestigious clients.

John Updike’s literary archive is full of treasure troves, as Sam Tanenhaus discovers and reports back on.

Someone had to write a hit piece on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, so why not Allen Barra? Meanwhile, a Daily Mail reporter meets the 84-year-old Harper Lee, on the condition that there is to be no talk of the book – ever.

And finally, the new mayor of Reykjavik is kind of awesome.