Howard Junker is asking for your help. It seems that, as is the practice with any nationally established support group, Mr. Junker has finally accepted “the higher power of Web 2.0.” Please send a few prayers his way, as Mr. Junker lives up to his promise and otherwise mangles four-letter words and grammatical mood in the process.

The revamped Los Angeles Times Book Review has gone live, with editor David Ulin announcing, “[W]e will also offer links to book-related stories from around the paper, as well as an array of Web-only material in the weeks to come,” and revealing new monthly columns from the following: Sarah Weinman on mystery (her first column can be found here, although the cheesy name “Dark Passages” has got to go), Ed Park on science fiction (a natural choice and one that should thoroughly combat Dave Itzkoff’s uninformed nonsense on the other coast), Richard Rayner on paperbacks, and Sonja Bolle on children’s books. Also in this week’s section: an essay from Jonathan Safran Foer.

I don’t know if Newsweek‘s Malcolm Jones felt guilty about failing to finish Against the Day, but getting John Banville and Donald Westlake together for a conversation is enough to momentarily recuse him from acute scrutinty.

You’re off the hook, Mr. Jones.

For now.

(via Sarah)