I'd hoped to review Colson Whitehead's new zombie novel Zone One in the paper this week, but the unexpected combination of a delayed review copy and a personal catastrophe got in the way. You've got plenty of other reviews of Whitehead's book to choose from, though; a Pulitzer finalist trying his hand at the zombie genre makes for pretty irresistible review copy. Try Patrick Ness' review in The Guardian: Ness is author of the great YA series Chaos Walking, so it's not surprising that his review of Whitehead's book delves into the "endless and in no way tedious debate between lovers of genre and lovers of whatever 'literary' fiction is."

And since we're talking about zombies: Check out Simon Pegg on the the Sound of Young America, and then once that interview has warmed you to a general sympathy toward the zombie trend, email me for a chance to win two very respectable recent entries in the zombie genre: Max Brooks' World War Z, a smart, well-written "oral history" of the zombie apocalypse; and local radio personality/geek celebrity Rick Emerson's Zombie Economics, a practical personal finance guide that uses zombies as a metaphorical framework, arguing that "every skill needed to survive a financial downturn mirrors a skill needed to survive the zombie apocalypse." (It really is a practical guide—it's hard to argue with Emerson's "5 Unequivocal Laws of Zombie Economics.") I'll also throw in my (slightly bedraggled) copy of Whitehead's book, while we're at it. So if you want to win 'em, and you're able to drop by the Mercury offices downtown during business hours to pick 'em up, email me with "BRAINS" in the title by 2 pm tomorrow.

Whitehead, meanwhile, is reading at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, tonight at 7:30 pm