Around here, summer is just an irritating pause until Steelers season. Usually, the publishing business treats the summer with similar disrespect, viewing it as a time to push those less ponderous titles under the striped umbrella marked "Beach Books."

This season isn't typical, however, as a handful of major literary authors are joining those old beach bums such as James Patterson and Mary Higgins Clark under the summer sun.

Maybe it's just the function of numbers; as more and more books are published every year, it makes sense to spread their release dates out over the year rather than lump them all into the fall.

Could that be why John Updike's newest novel, "Terrorist," has just been published this month rather than getting a big fall push? The few reviews already out there, including a not unexpected put-down from Michiko Kakutani, single out Updike's break with his usual suburban settings.

Or why Peter Carey's "Theft," a tale of two bizarre brothers and art thievery by the Booker Prize winner, is now for sale? The Australian author is a clever stylist and devious plotter and is always worth a good look.

Julia Glass, dark-horse winner of the 2002 National Book Award for fiction for "Three Junes," presents her second novel, "The Whole World Over," this month as well. "Junes" created quite a fan base for this long-undiscovered fiction writer, so her sophomore attempt should do well.

Other June releases include "The Poe Shadow" by Matthew Pearl, author of the popular mystery "The Dante Club." This time, he invokes the shadowy world of Baltimore and the curious death of Edgar Allan Poe there in 1849.

Then there's the popular Western writer Ivan Doig, author of "The Whistling Season," recently in stores. He returns to the Montana landscape, site of most of his novels, and the struggles of a family in the hard land.

Another Westerner who won't quit is Larry McMurtry, who is seemingly running a literary sausage factory these days. His June 2006 effort is "Telegraph Days," a conventional shoot-'em-up with one of McMurtry's usual endearing heroines.

Reviews of these six books will appear in the Post-Gazette this month.

There's more coming in the dog days ahead. For example, next month is the arrival of "Talk, Talk" by T.C. Boyle, fast-becoming the male Joyce Carol Oates in the production department. He is back with yet another novel inspired by events, in this case, identity theft.

Also next month is the long-awaited second novel from Scott "A Simple Plan" Smith. It's been 13 years since that first novel spawned a Hollywood film as well as good sales. In "The Ruins," Smith details the fates of friends trapped near Mayan ruins in Mexico.

It's good to see Bobbie Ann Mason writing regularly again. "Nancy Culpepper: Stories" is her second work of fiction in a year, arriving soon after 2005's novel, "An Atomic Romance." These stories follow a Kentucky woman through the years.

The heat of July should suit James Lee Burke who brings back his Louisiana cop, Dave Robicheaux, for another round of beating bad guys in the Bayou. It's called "Pegasus Descending."

August is a bit slim in number, but a new book from Haruki Murakami more than makes up for the dearth. "Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman" is a collection of 25 stories.

Anna Quindlen offers a new novel, a bit of a satire on TV morning shows called "Rise and Shine." The onetime newspaper columnist has carved out a solid career as a novelist, and we'll see if this enhances it.

To shut down the summer, there's "The Keep" by Jennifer Egan. She's the author of "Look at Me," a finalist for fiction in the 2001 National Book Awards. This one is set in Eastern Europe in a crumbling castle.

I hope one or more of those titles will fill your void until it's football season again.