This Week in Calendar

Tod Goldberg reviews “Beautiful Children,” a novel by Charles Bock, and “The Delivery Man,” a novel by Joe McGinniss Jr.

Joe Conason reviews “The Bush Tragedy” by Jacob Weisberg.

Tim Rutten reviews “The Expeditions,” a novel by Karl Iagnemma.

The following reviews are scheduled:

Fred Schruers reviews “My First Movie, Take Two: Ten Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film” edited by Stephen Lowenstein.

Laurel Maury reviews “Democracy and Torture” by Darius Rejali.

Elisabeth Vincentelli reviews “Diablerie,” a novel by Walter Mosley.

On the Web

This week at latimes.com/books:

In Word Play, Sonja Bolle looks at Joanne Harris’ novel “Runemarks,” which, although it involves a marked child with a prophetic destiny, comes hyped with blessedly few comparisons to “Harry Potter.” That’s as it should be, Bolle suggests, for “Runemarks” has more in common with Rick Riordan’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series, mining the territory of mythology (Norse, in this case) to create a story in which nothing less than the soul of the world is at stake.

Lists and blog: Look for our expanded bestseller lists, excerpts, our guide to local literary events as well as Jacket Copy, our book and publishing information blog, at latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy.