Critical Notes

Anne Morris reviews Vaddey Ratner’s novel In the Shadow of the Banyan for the Dallas Morning News. Gregg Barrios recalls the life and work of pioneering film critic Judith Crist,

At Slate, Jacob Silverman argues that online book culture risks making critics too nice; Ron Charles responds at the Washington Post’s Style Blog. Morris Dickstein discusses Gore Vidal, who died

Kick off the week with two Olympic-themed reviews: Craig Seligman on Chris Cleave’s novel Gold for Bloomberg, and Carolyn Kellogg on Leanne Shapton’s memoir, Swimming Studies, for the Los Angeles

“A literary prize is, at best, one way of drawing readers to a book that deserves more serious attention than it might have gotten without a prize.” In a two-part

Planning your fall reading and reviewing? The Millions has a comprehensive list of books coming out in the second half of 2012 and early in 2013. David Haglund reviews Sheila

Gregg Barrios remembers the life and work of the late Nora Ephron at the San Antonio Current. Britt Peterson surveys the landscape of cat mysteries in Slate. Stephen Burt profiles

Garth Risk Hallberg profiles Sergio De La Pava, author of the novel A Naked Singularity, for the Millions. Ron Charles reviews Mark Haddon’s novel The Red House for The Washington

Heller McAlpin reviews Mark Haddon’s novel The Red House for NPR.org. Craig Seligman reviews David Maraniss’ Barack Obama: The Story for Bloomberg. Steve Weinberg reviews William J. Cobb’s novel The

Steve Wasserman considers Amazon’s influence on bookselling and the publishing industry in the Nation. Heller McAlpin reconsiders Donald Hall’s Life Work, “an inspiring paean to absorbing, fulfilling work,” for the

At BEA this week? At Library Journal, Barbara Hoffert gathers up which publishers are giving away what galleys where, along with details n authors’ signing schedules. Laura Miller, as part