Casting About for a Weekend Update

NYTBR: This is about as sycophantic a review I've read in ages, so of course it has to grace the cover; Terrence Rafferty makes a welcome return by looking at female horror writers like Sarah Langan, Sara Gran, Alex Sokoloff and Elizabeth Hand; and David Hajdu has his say on the new memoir by composer John Adams.

WaPo Book World: Amanda Vaill delves underneath the veneer of Emily Post's good manners; Ron Charles views Jose Saramago's latest as "a novel to die for"; and Bill Sheehan looks at Peter Straub's collection of the New Horror.

LA Times: James Sallis analyzes the anti-appeal of Tom Ripley; David Ulin is sick of publisher hype; and Susan Salter Reynolds is impressed with the dark beauty of Per Petterson.

G&M: Donna Bailey Nurse finds Booker Prize winner THE WHITE TIGER living up to the hype; Charles Foran on the world 20 years after the publication of THE SATANIC VERSES; Norman Snider explains why Morley Callaghan still matters; and Kathryn Kuitenbrower is charmed by the elegance of Muriel Barbery's new novel.

Guardian Review: Adam Phillips assesses the psychiatric verisimilitude of Alastair Campbell's debut novel; Nick Laird speculates on speculation's history; and Patrick Ness is enthralled with Neil Gaiman's tales of ghostly doings.

Observer: Peter Conrad memorializes Pat Kavanagh; Viv Groskop tries to keep up with all the different biographies contained in Cosmo Landesman's single book; and Conrad also talks with John Updike, who evidently does a great impression of John McCain and recommends one of his books to each of the presidential and VP candidates. 

The Times: Henning Mankell ponders Kenneth Branagh's celluloid portrayal of Inspector Wallander; making a case for Calcutta as the next city of literature; and Peter Millar reviews new thrillers by Michael Dobbs and Stella Rimington.

The Scotsman: Lee Randall tries to keep pace with Jackie Collins; Steve Cramer sheds light on a lesser known work by JM Barrie; and Ray Mears explains his survival instincts.

The Rest:

Magna Cum Murder took place over the weekend and the Ball State Daily News had a preview of attractions.

Also kicking off recently is Toronto's fabulous International Festival of Authors, and the National Post has been running Q&As with a whole host of author types like John Connolly, Andrew Pyper and Ross Raisin.

TIME's Peter Ritter catches up with Colin Cotterill and the Dr. Siri crime novels.

Declan Burke rounds up recent crime fiction by Andrew Klavan, Cody McFadyen, Linda Fairstein and Nick Brownlee in the Irish Independent.

Oline Cogdill has nothing but good things to say about Mark Billingham's standalone IN THE DARK.

Hallie Ephron has her say on mysteries and thrillers by Alex Kava, William Tapply and Carolyn Hart in the Boston Globe.

Les Roberts rounds up crime novels by Michael Connelly, Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

In the Chicago Sun Times, Randy Michael Signor enjoys THE BRASS VERDICT while Thomas Frisbee is less taken with Stuart Kaminsky's new novel.

Speaking of Kaminsky, he's reviewing THE GIVEN DAY in the Philly Inquirer.

The Financial Times discovers the agenting wizardry of Bob Barnett - and why Esther Newberg has no love lost for the guy.

In the WSJ, Lionel Shriver argues that losing quotation marks is bad for literature.

Also in the same paper, Tom Nolan reviews new crime fiction by Michael Connelly and Linwood Barclay.

At the SF Chronicle, Heidi Benson chats and runs with Haruki Murakami and Ed Guthmann Q&As with Marilynne Robinson.

I've got a feeling there's going to be a serious bidding war to be Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga's new agent.

And finally, get ready for CUBE!!! (via)

Comments

[Michael]

Wonder where Declan Burke got the idea that Cody McFadyen was a woman?

[Cornelia Read]

I admit to kind of loving Emily Post. I have a WWII-era edition of her ETIQUETTE, a garage-sale Xmas gift some years ago from my mom. There's of course relatively arcane stuff about finger bowls and what have you, but I can think of a lot of people in the news over these last few years, and now, whose impact on the world might have been a lot more positive had they taken some of her actual wisdom to heart. And there's a *great* deal more wisdom in these books than I once presumed (before I actually read one). Then again, "the older I get, the more 'nice' matters."

[Brandon]

"Even as Updike vivifies these inventive debauches, he makes us see the pathos that underlies them."

God, that sentence is atrocious, as is the entire review. Both remind me of why I stopped reading the NYTBR in the first place. They need to go back to basics over there--starting with Comp 101 and Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language."