This Week in CalendarThe following reviews are...

This Week in Calendar

The following reviews are scheduled:

Matt Welch reviews “Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them” by John McCain with Mark Salter.

Sarah Weinman reviews “Ghosttown,” a novel by Mercedes Lambert.

Tim Rutten reviews “The Politics of Heaven: America in Fearful Times” by Earl Shorris.

Joshua Henkin reviews “Dead Boys,” stories by Richard Lange.

Charles Solomon reviews “One Red Paper Clip: Or How an Ordinary Man Achieved His Dream With the Help of a Simple Office Supply” by Kyle MacDonald.

On the Web

This week at latimes.com/books, Ed Park’s Astral Weeks focuses on steampunk, a science fiction subgenre in which mechanical, not digital, technology has transformed the world. Park writes about Jay Lake’s novel “Mainspring” and the alternate universe it details, in which the Earth itself is wound, like a clock, upon a giant spring. The idea is to physicalize the philosophical, to take time -- in all its abstraction -- and render it concrete. In the process, Park suggests, God becomes a clockmaker of the most literal sort.

Also on the Web, look for our expanded bestseller lists and guide to literary events, as well as Jacket Copy, latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy, our books and publishing information blog.