Critical Notes

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

Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, whose work pioneered the “Boom” in Latin American literature in the mid-20th Century, died last week at 83. Marcela Valdes delivers an extended obituary and appreciation;

The death of celebrated children’s author Maurice Sendak inspired a flood of appreciations from the Los Angeles Times, NPR, Christian Science Monitor, Publishers Weekly, the Guardian, the Barnes & Noble

What distinguishes a book review in a newspaper or magazine from a user review on Amazon? Researchers at the Harvard Business School are studying the matter. Among the findings: “Expert

Last weekend marked the 17th annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which attracted plenty of big names, including NBCC nonfiction winner Steve Lopez, fiction finalist Dana Spiotta, National Book