Baby Got Books

If you’ve been in a book store lately, you know that the shelves are over-flowing with potentially great books by big name writers. Trying to make sense of it all, I’ve compiled some info that may be useful in making purchasing decisions.

• A.O. Scott takes a break from movies and reviews Richard Ford’s Lay of the Land in the Sunday Book Review. The New Yorker has an excerpt if you’d like to take the book for a test drive.
• The NYT also reviewed Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier this weekend. The first chapter is also available on-line. Thirteen Moons is currently the worst rated novel on review aggregating site MetaCritic.
• Jessa Crispin from Bookslut says she had to spend the day at Cute Overload after finishing Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The Road is tied for the highest rated novel on MetaCritic. I can’t find an excerpt. Pass one along if you find one.
• The Road is tied with The Night Gardener by George Pelacanos for highest rated novel on MetaCritic. Pelecanos also occasionally writes for the the HBO crime show, The Wire. Janet Maslin gives it a thumbs up in the NYT.
• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon is reviewed here and here. Read the first chapter here.
• And out of left field, The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas has just popped up on my radar out of nowhere. It was reviewed this weekend by the NYT. Jessa Crispin at Bookslut gives it a rave review. First chapter is available here.
• That Devil in the White City guy has a new book out called Thunderstruck.

That’s just the first table into the store…