By BOB HOOVER, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Summer has barely started and it's now time to think about the fall and beyond. Despite a flat economy and a spate of studies claiming reading is in trouble, the autumn-winter releases this year appear to be both substantial and plentiful.A few to look for:Debut novelists

After years of pointing out mistakes to publishers and getting the brush, I can now report partial vindication in my quixotic, annoying campaign to set the record straight about the lives of Evelyn Nesbit and Harry Thaw.

It was hard to avoid stumbling over Salman Rushdie at BookExpoAmerica, the national book show held earlier this month in Los Angeles. The Indian-born novelist seemed to turn up everywhere, from the autograph sessions to the chi-chi parties. He must revel in the freedom after years of hiding from the fatwa pronounced against him by Iran for his 1988 novel, "The Satanic Verses."

What I've been reading:"Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History"By Ted SorensenHarper, $27.95Looking back on his 80 years of a life marked by responsibility, loyalty and circumspection, the former aide to President John F. Kennedy has written a memoir reflecting those traits.

Remember the Great Book Review Panic of 2007?On May 3, a clutch of protesters -- estimates ranged from 22 to 50 -- picketed the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the paper eliminated its book-page editor along with other writers in its arts section. Julia Wallace, the newspaper's editor, later met with two representatives of the protest. She didn't change her mind.

HBO's "John Adams," inspired by David McCullough's biography of the Founding Father, is built from the significant events in the life of the new nation. But, it's not really history in the truest sense.

"A Summer of Hummingbirds" is a curious work of creative detection by a Mount Holyoke College professor who has spent many hours digging in the once-fertile soils of 19th-century New England.Much of America's cultural heritage -- literature, art, belles lettres, religious expression and journalism -- is buried there, where it flourished in mid-century.

John Adams was called a lot of names in his day. One of them definitely was not "dramatic action hero."Yet, working closely with the indelible portrait of the patriot painted by David McCullough, the creators of HBO's eponymous miniseries have managed to add that title to Adams' considerable resume.

For the first time, all 435 paintings in John James Audubon's masterwork, "Birds of America," can be seen in their delicately painted glory on the Internet.It's another innovation in Web access to major scholarly and historical material by the Digital Research Library of the University of Pittsburgh.

In literature, those picture-book New England college towns always hide unhappiness and disappointment. Among the autumn colors, the quaint buildings and the town square lurk the demons of adultery, drink, scandal and failure.Just ask Edward Albee's George and Martha or Philip Roth's Coleman Silk, among many others.