Memorial Day's Weekend Update

NYTBR: Adam Begley runs off in search of Graham Greene's Capri; Frank Rich is thrown for a loop by Don DeLillo's FALLING MAN; Azadeh Moaveni looks for literary life in Iran; and Gershom Gorenberg uncovers the history of Jews and Arabs in Jaffa.

WaPo Book World: Alan Wolfe agrees with Vincent Bugliosi that the JFK case should be closed already; Janice Namura applauds the searing voice of Natsuo Kirino's latest novel; and Michael Dirda enjoys a new biography of the Waughs by one of their own. And in Style, Khaled Hosseini talks about today's Afghanistan and Patrick Anderson succumbs to the pleasures of Donna Leon's novels.

LA Times: Shelley Jackson is the latest to admire Lydia Davis's short story abilities; Carolyn Kellogg lingers over Mary Otis' debut collection; Karen Bender is charmed by Miranda July's voice in prose; and Richard Rayner focuses his paperbacks column on the O Henry Prize story collection.

G&M: Sarah Hampson catches up with Canada's dean of poems, Leonard Cohen; Carmine Starnino tries to embrace email as an art form; and Jim Bartley is impressed with Joanne Proulx's debut novel.

Guardian Review: Dave Eggers reveals why WHAT IS THE WHAT could only have worked as a novel; an original short story by David Mitchell is available; and Edna O'Brien opens the door to her writing room.

Observer: Simon Garfield wishes Andrew Marr had only stuck to politics in his new history of Britain; Anna Scott is roundly impressed with Joseph O'Connor's new novel; and Peter Guttridge reviews new crime efforts by Natasha Mostert, William Horwood & Helen Rappaport, Sophie Hannah and John Rickards.

The Times: Hugo Barnacle takes issue with Anne Enright's POV styling; Sophie Harrison plunges into the world of two so-called "citzen novels" by Alan Judd and Rupert Thomson; David Baddiel comes to terms with a career of bad reviews; and a team of Times reviews picks summer reads.

The Scotsman: Stuart Kelly worries about judging books by covers; Jackie McGlone meets Jonathan Lethem as YOU DON'T LOVE ME YET hits the UK; Gerald Kaufman reviews new mystery novels by M.C. Beaton and Saskia Noort; Andrew Eaton thinks the internet could rescue libraries instead of killing them off; and Maggie O'Farrell's new novel strikes a chord with many readers, Judy Vickers discovers.

The Rest:

Oline Cogdill reviews new releases from Vicki Hendricks, Mel Taylor and Simon Wood.

Hallie Ephron's column looks at the latest in crime novels by Susanna Moore, Elizabeth Hand and Donald Westlake.

Charles Taylor compares Elmore Leonard's recent dips into semi-historical fiction to Howard Hawks' movies.

At the Telegraph, Susanna Yager reviews two by Peter Temple and one by Harlan Coben.

Mark Timlin reviews new crime novels by Alex Gray, Harlan Coben and John Connolly for the Independent on Sunday.

Another day, another piece about the so-called "next literary generation." Although I'm not sure how Richard Powers and Jonathan Safran Foer fall into the same generation camp when the former's first novel was published when the latter was eight years old.

A new seminar attempts to restore Australian author Patrick White to literary consciousness.

Waleed Aly argues in favor of surprise and spontaneity in literature, a tack I agree with wholeheartedly.

If you haven't caught up with the Rap Sheet's marvelous collection of overlooked and unappreciated crime novels, here's your one-stop link.
 

A series of dismemberment murders has Japan reeling, and the LA Times' Mark Schreiber is on the case. (thanks, NH.)

To show how America is moving away from reading, a Missouri bookstore owner will burn books on a monthly basis. Um, okay...

And finally, RIP Charles Nelson Reilly.

Comments

[Imani]

"I think given the fact it is a protest of people not reading books, it's the best way to do it," Bechtel said. "(Wayne has) made the point that not reading a book is as good as burning it."

That doesn't make a lick of sense to me. All the tv and internet waves must have killed my brain.

[Anne]

The book burning makes no sense to me. Its only merit is that it gets people's attention. Other than that, it's violent, cruel, misguided and a ghastly way to make a point that isn't even entirely valid.