Author magazine interviews bestselling crime writer Michael Connelly:

Ben Myers remembers Gordon Burn—”without a doubt one of the greatest – and arguably underrated – British writers of his age.”

After a dismal year, publishers are banking on a strong slate of Fall releases.

Bruce Nichols named publisher of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

The 18th Forward Prize for Poetry shortlist has been announced. The prize will be awarded on October 7th.

Maud Newton looks back at Aldous Huxley’s 1924 essay on travel reading—specifically his preference for books that “one can open it anywhere and be sure of finding something interesting, complete in itself and susceptible of being read in a short time”—and wonders what he’d make of the Internet.

After a $800,000 renovation, the London house where John Keats wrote “Ode to a Grecian Urn” will reopen this week.

Guardian Book Blog’s Kavitha Rao examines how outdated ideas and biases in children’s classics offer an opportunity for growth.

Eric Konigsberg explores the intricacies of the battle over Hungarian playwright and novelist Ferenc Molnar’s legacy.

The San Francisco International Poetry Festival kicks off tonight.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1846, Henry David Thoreau, halfway through his stay at Walden, was jailed for failure to pay his poll tax

If your answer is Dan Brown, you’re wrong.

This has to be one of the most audaciously deceptive and insulting marketing campaigns ever. And that’s saying something…

(Thanks to the lovely and talented Lisa Spangenberg for the link.)

“Every great writer is a writer of history, let him treat on almost any subject he may.”

-Walter Savage Landor

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Another great debut, this one a find in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE, puts a story to a now-infamous email scam.

The Economist takes a looks at Justin Fox’s position that it’s futile to try to understand in THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL MARKET: A HISTORY OF RISK, REWARD, AND DELUSION ON WALL STREET.

The New Republic posts an in depth feature on C.P. CAVAFY, both his COLLECTED POEMS and UNFINISHED POEMS.

THE VEIL, a new horror comic series, has impressed The New Yorker.

From A&E:

85-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt publishes an erotic novel. Hot.

The Wall Street Journal presents an op-ed from an author who sees great value in the Google Book Project’s ability to revive out of print books. Did I mention he works for Google?

TIME Magazine’s Claire Suddath chats it up with Dave Eggers.

Gawker looks back at a little known, but pretty funny, literary hoax.

Charges against author and professor Henry Louis Gates dropped.

Guardian Book Blog’s Jean Hannah Edelstein recounts her experience at a Literary Death Match.

Harry Potter star Emma Watson to study literature at Brown University.

Voice of America profiles the United States’ 16th poet laureate, Kay Ryan.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1941, Eugene O’Neill dedicated his just-finished manuscript of Long Day’s Journey Into Night to his wife Carlotta on the occasion of their twelfth wedding anniversary.

“When you are describing,
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don’t state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things,
With a sort of mental squint.”

-Lewis Carroll

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Terribly (and terribly) timely, Hooman Madj gives us THE AYATOLLAH BEGS TO DIFFER: THE PARADOX OF MODERN IRAN.

It is intriguing to me that a book can be called at once hilarious, annoying and enchanting, but it’s a review I wouldn’t mind.  Lawrence Sutin gets just such a back-handed compliment from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for WHEN TO GO INTO THE WATER.

USA Today launches a preview of some new releases.

Not exactly a review, but a list to be reviewed of books relevant to New England, complete with a handy tally feature to see if you need to know more about America’s Northeast.

The Atlantic’s Scott Stossel interviews Curtis Sittenfeld, author of American Wife:

The Bay Area will pay tribute to the late poet and community activist Al Robles this Saturday, with “an afternoon of poetry, music, and dance” at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.

Slate’s Farhod Manjoo casts a disturbing vision as he explores “how Amazon’s deletion of e-books from the Kindle paves the way for book-banning’s digital future”.

The Guardian Book Blog’s Peter Robins on the magic of the books you don’t buy.

Faber and Faber remembers Gordon Burn with a touching piece by Lee Brackstone.

Breaking news! Harry Potter are not evil.

European regulators are seeking the opinions of authors and publishers on the Google book scanning and search project.

Bookslut’s “Indie Heartthrob Interview Series” features a chat with The Convalescent author Jessica Anthony.

Former Miss California Carrie Prejean gets a book deal.

Barnes and Noble gets a leg up in the e-book market by launching titles that can be read on a variety of devices, including the iPhone, iTouch, BlackBerry and PC.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1796, Robert Burns died in Dumfries, Scotland at the age of thirty-seven.

Gawker, the snarkiest bunch of snarkers to ever snark, has launched a book club. No real details yet, other than to say they’re kicking it off with Scott Rosenberg, author of Say Everything. And Scott is brave enough to be hanging out in the comments section.

This could be interesting. Whether that means “intellectually stimulating” or “watching a slow-motion train wreck” remains to be seen.

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“I never feel that I have comprehended an emotion, or fully lived even the smallest events, until I have reflected upon it in my journal; my pen is my truest confidant, holding in check the passions and disappointments that I dare not share even with my beloved.”

-Stephanie Barron

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BookList has high praise and a grim comparison for Hannah Moscowitz’s Young Adult drama, BREAK.

Prepare to be stunned by Mia Kirshner’s collected accounts of displacement in I LIVE HERE.

Style by colorwheel, and still a good time, says January Magazine about Jesse Garza and Joe Lupo’s LIFE IN COLOR: VISUAL THERAPY’S GUIDE TO THE PERFECT PALETTE.

THE FLYING CARPET OF SMALL MIRACLES: A WOMAN’S FIGHT TO SAVE TWO ORPHANS, is a wrenching account of the horrors of war by journalist Hala Jaber.

via MediaPost:

A law firm known for bringing class-action suits on behalf of consumers against Internet companies says it’s readying a case against Amazon for deleting George Orwell books on users’ Kindles.

“This is an incredible situation,” says Jay Edelson of the law firm KamberEdelson. “What Amazon did was plainly illegal.”

Last week, Amazon stunned consumers by deleting copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Big Brother* from users’ Kindles after learning of a copyright problem. The company, which sold the books for 99 cents each, discovered last week that the books had been added to its catalog by a company that didn’t have the rights to them.

Amazon gave customers refunds, but Edelson says that’s not a sufficient remedy. “Imagine Amazon had shipped a book to someone’s house that it wasn’t supposed to ship. It can’t climb into the person’s window, take it back, and leave a $1.57.”

* Alas, Orwell never wrote a book called “Big Brother” (though he seems to permeate this particular situation).

Groundbreaking author Gordon Burn dies aged 61 (Guardian)

(Thanks to the ever-diligent Maud Newton for the find)

In memory of Frank McCourt: the late author discusses his experiences in writing about poverty:

As we reported last month, a new edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast has been released. But while Christopher Hitchins was intrigued by what was being added back in, Hemingway biographer A.E. Hotchner is warning readers away over what has been taken out:

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The grandson has removed several sections of the book’s final chapter and replaced them with other writing of Hemingway’s that the grandson feels paints his grandma in a more sympathetic light. Ten other chapters that roused the grandson’s displeasure have been relegated to an appendix, thereby, according to the grandson, creating “a truer representation of the book my grandfather intended to publish.”

Ultimately, Hotchner extends his concern to the broader issue of opening the door to revisionist history, by omission, in literary works:

All publishers, Scribner included, are guardians of the books that authors entrust to them. Someone who inherits an author’s copyright is not entitled to amend his work. There is always the possibility that the inheritor could write his own book offering his own corrections.

Ernest was very protective of the words he wrote, words that gave the literary world a new style of writing. Surely he has the right to have these words protected against frivolous incursion, like this reworked volume that should be called “A Moveable Book.” I hope the Authors Guild is paying attention.

Read the entire op-ed here.

Glyn Maxwell

Carol Rumens introduces readers to the Guardian’s latest Poem of the Week: Martial Diptych by Glyn Maxwell.

Stephen Bergman (better known to readers as Samuel Shem), presents “Five laws of the novelist”.

Having apparently run out of living people to scandalize, the Post highlights a fun fact from a new Sartre biography: he was packing the right equipment, but couldn’t keep up with Simone de Beauvoir’s animal appetites.

Yet another “publishing revolution”: Printcasting offers custom magazines featuring the customers’ own blog posts or other content licensed by the site. Gawker calls it “gross” (not to mention that it’s already been done).

The Rumpus goes after Amazon for its deletion of books from customers’ Kindles, comparing the raid to the Sony rootkit scandal in 2005.

How young is too young for Harry Potter?

Sparks fly over a “nasty tell-all book” being shopped by Walter Cronkite’s former chef. Fortunately, renowned historian Douglas Brinkley will publish his Cronkite biography next May, the deal for which was struck with William Morrow in 2007.

David Waller discovers a treasure trove of love letters between Gertrude Tennant and Gustave Flaubert.

Barnes and Noble consolidates its publishing operations; lays off a “handful” of employees.

Today in Literature: On this day in 1869, Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad was published.

Frank McCourt, late-blooming author of ‘Angela’s Ashes,’ dies at 78 (LAT)
‘Angela’s Ashes’ author McCourt dies in NYC at 78 (AP)
Best-selling author McCourt dies (BBC)
Frank McCourt  (Telegraph)