The Justice Department recommended Friday that the proposed Google book settlement "not be approved by the court without modifications," the New York Times reported, adding that the department encouraged all parties involved to "continue talks to modify the agreement and overcome its objections." The Times also noted that the Justice Department "is not a party to the case but legal experts say the court is likely to seriously consider its views."

"As presently drafted the proposed settlement does not meet the legal standards this court must apply," the department concluded. "This court should reject the proposed settlement and encourage the parties to continue negotiations to comply with Rule 23 and the copyright and antitrust laws."

"Clearly the Justice Department sees the tremendous value that this settlement would bring to readers, students and scholars," said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. "We don’t want this opportunity to be lost."

A joint statement from the guild, the Association of American Publishers and Google said: "We are considering the points raised by the department and look forward to addressing them as the court proceedings continue." The Times reported that Federal District Court Judge Denny Chin has scheduled a hearing on the case for October 7.

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"Can Amazon be Wal-Mart of the Web?" asked the New York Times in reporting that the company is "shaking up retailers, both big rivals and small independent stores, as it speeds its way beyond books toward its goal of becoming a Web-sized general store."

"Amazon has gone from 'that bookstore' in people's mind to a general online retailer, and that is a great place to be," said ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo, who predicts that e-commerce will grow to 15% of overall retail in the next decade. "If Amazon grows their market share throughout that period, and honestly I don't see anything stopping it, that is pretty scary."

The Times also reported that, with "a flash of humility, a trait that Amazon executives try to cultivate in public, Jeff Wilke, the vice president, concedes that 'there are going to be niches that no matter how hard we try, we will never be great at.'"

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Congratulations to Moe's Books, Berkeley, Calif., which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. The legendary bookstore was founded by Moe and Barb Moskowitz in 1959 and has been a Bay Area cultural and literary epicenter for a wide range of customers ever since.

"Yes, we have a $5,000 copy of Gone With the Wind, and we also have one for $2.50. Our customers value their freedom of choice," said Doris Moskowitz, Moe's daughter.

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The Louisville Courier-Journal offered Kentucky readers tips on visiting "Obama's Chicago," including "57th Street Books [one of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores]--This bookstore has seen lots of interest since the election of its 'most famous member,' a manager says. It prominently features a section of books by and about the president, including children's books and a Barack Obama paper doll."

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In November, Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, Wash., is adding an Espresso Book Machine, making it one of only a handful of general bookstores in the U.S. with the POD machine made by On Demand Books.

Among the other general stores that either have an Espresso Book Machine or will soon set one up: Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., the Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, Mass., Village Books, Bellingham, Wash., Boxcar & Caboose Bookshop and Cafe, St. Johnsbury, Vt., and Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids, Mich.

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This coming Friday, September 25, is E. Lynn Harris Day, celebrating the life and work of the author who died in July. His final novel, Mama Dearest, will be launched by Outwrite Books, Atlanta, Ga. (where Harris lived), on Tuesday with readings by Eric Jerome Dickey, R.M. Johnson, Tina McElroy Ansa, Clarence Nero, Tracie Howard, Laura Gilmore and Harris's mother, Etta Harris. On Friday, authors and bookstores across the U.S. will join together for the E. Lynn Harris Tribute Tour.

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Sales of abridged audiobooks have declined in popularity with the advent of downloadable, unabridged versions. But the New York Times reported that Hachette will attempt to breathe some life into the format starting tomorrow when the publisher begins "releasing on iTunes a serialized version of Transition by Iain M. Banks, a British author, a day before the hardcover release. The abridgment will be divided into 23 episodes, uploaded Tuesdays and Fridays for 12 weeks."

Each episode will start with an announcement: "This is a free podcast of the abridged edition of Transition, with a total run time of six and a half hours. Get more Banks for your buck with the full 13-hour unabridged edition, and don't miss a word."

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Although the rare book business is expanding in Kathmandu, Nepal, rare book dealers "are quite rare," according to the Kathmandu Post, which reported that "the sellers do not want to divulge much information, because they don't want their competitors to know their trade secrets. So it's a difficult task finding out what really goes on in this sector. It is difficult to find out who is engaged in the business."

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Award-winning science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson "hit out at the literary establishment, accusing the Man Booker judges of 'ignorance' in neglecting science fiction, which he called 'the best British literature of our time,'" the Guardian reported. Robinson's choice for this year's prize would be Yellow Blue Tibia by Adam Roberts.

"Speaking as an outsider from California and as a science fiction writer I see these very brilliant writers doing excellent work who are never in the running at all," he said, "for no reason except their genre and who their publishers are--the so-called club members. It just needs to be said. The Booker prize is so big, the way it shapes public consciousness of what is going on in British literature, but the avant garde, the leading edge, is being ignored or shut out of the process entirely."

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A new specialist Australia-New Zealand bookstore in Paris may be an "indication of social trends," according to Agence France-Presse.

"There is a growing attraction for Oceania," said New Zealander Mark Oremland, owner of the Antipodes Bookshop, "the fourth boutique in the same Paris street dedicated to the region, following a travel agency, a 'Kiwi' restaurant, and a store selling regional food, wine and crafts," AFP reported.

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In the Escape section of last Friday's New York Times, an account of spending three days on vacation on a barge on the Erie Canal included a stop in Brockport, N.Y., where "we strolled along Main Street and browsed in the friendly Lift Bridge Book Shop."
 
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The Hispanic Society of America Museum and Library in Manhattan "boasts one of the world's best libraries of material relating to Spain, Portugal and the Americas," the New York Times reported. "Beginning this Wednesday, an exhibition, 'chronotopes & dioramas,' by French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, will present a meticulously fashioned fantasy of a library in which shelves have become obsolete, and books, like examples of living creatures, are displayed in illusionistic dioramas that evoke those of the American Museum of Natural History."

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For those of you who have been wondering what players in the Australian Football League are reading these days, the Age reported on what "ranks highest on their literary ladders." While Joel Bowden of Richmond is a Noam Chomsky fan, West Coast's Ashley Hansen said "Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code was the first book that made me realize the enjoyment of reading and how a story can take you to another place and captivate you. At the moment my favorite author is Ken Follett."

Melbourne's Matthew Bates, who is currently reading three books, called himself a "bit of a book hopper" and noted that "a lot of my teammates do not read, however, there are clearly ones that do. We are a football club, not a book club, after all."

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Effective December 1, Waterford Press will be distributed to the trade by Independent Publishers Group. It had been distributed by Globe Pequot Press for more than nine years.

Waterford, Phoenix, Ariz., publishes nature reference materials, including the Pocket Naturalist Guides, by state and does custom publishing for various corporations, nonprofits and other groups.

 

Jordan Weisman, CEO of Smith & Tinker ("a company reinventing play for a connected generation"), has long been interested in "telling a story in a transmedia way"--that is, by "combining all the different media available to an audience and taking it beyond the pages of the book." The publishing world first took note of his efforts with Cathy's Book, co-authored with Sean Stewart, aimed at teens and published by Running Press in 2006. The seeds of that project were planted during a collaboration with Steven Spielberg for A.I. (Artificial Intelligence), for which Weisman and Stewart created an ambitious storytelling project they called "the Beast."
 
Weisman described it as a "hivemind," where a community of people gathered together online and reconstructed the story from both physical and online evidence, "like CSI investigators." Weisman then suggested to Stewart that they take that concept and apply it to the individual experience, and the result was Cathy's Book; they included all the evidence in a pouch in the book, and then incorporated Web sites and phone numbers.
 
The Nanovor (pronounced like "carnivore") project, scheduled for release this December, is aimed at a middle-grade audience and is primarily an online game. Lucas Nelson, the hero, is a freshman at Hanover High, which resembles a typical high school--until visitors start to find hidden "evidence," and uncover a violent ancient life form within their computers.
 
"It's like Pokemon in that you have monsters that you battle against each other and create a team of monsters and a strategy to win," Weisman said. It's free to download and is available online now. But if a player wants to acquire more characters, there's a microtransaction system--an adult buys tokens that a child can then use. The game can also operate on a handheld device (which will be available next month and retails for $49.99) that connects to the computer by USBD, and the player can download his or her online collection of monsters. The handheld device allows a player to play the game in person with friends while introducing fresh content--a gaming innovation that's not been available before, according to Weisman.
 
"The online component gives them a wide circle of people to play with, but kids can play together like an old-fashioned card game," Weisman said. "We wanted to bring back together two different parts of kids' lives." When players place their devices on a table, they magnetically connect together, allowing the monsters to jump from screen to screen until the combat round is resolved. At night, the players can download to their computers everything that happened during the day. For parents wary of allowing their children access to the Internet, they can purchase software for Nanovor for $10. The starter set retails for $10 and includes a DVD of the game, a figurine and a $10 gift card (so that it's comparable to a free download).
 
In December, to accompany the Nanovor game, Running Press will publish middle grade novels and a Welcome to the Nanosphere field guide, which Weisman describes as akin to a guide for bird-watchers, with "beautiful pictures," strategies and information about all the Nanovor creatures. That month, IDW will also publish graphic novels aimed at ages 8-12. Weekly animated episodes will "air" online, as well as Transmedia treasure hunts, with novels tied in to those. Weisman said the game strategy is not complicated, but it goes deep. "It's like chess in that you learn how each [piece] moves, and thinking 12-15 moves in advance gives it sophistication. The more strategically you think about how to combine your characters together, the better results you have," he explained. "We see parent and child playing together, too."
 
Next up is the Lost Souls series, which revolves around an ancient Mayan board game (both a physical game, which will come with the book, and also an online game) and a hero named Nathan, who turns 13 in the opening chapter. Nathan encounters elements of Mayan mythology in a contemporary setting, including a race to Doomsday--December 21, 2012. The first Lost Souls title, Burning Sky, is expected to launch in spring 2010. Weisman says Lost Souls is a "classic abstract strategy game" as opposed to Nanovor, which is "very combination based . . . like a volleyball game."
 
When asked which comes first, the book or the game, Weisman answered neither. "Typically, I try to conceive of a central character connected to an ongoing organic situation that has a premise that continues to generate interesting plot lines for a long period of time," he explained. "Once you've got the character-plot engine, you think, 'What's the best way to introduce this character? A game, a book, a combination?' Once you have a solid universe for the character, it's easy to generate additional story lines."--Jennifer M. Brown

 

This morning on Fox & Friends: A.J. Jacobs, author of The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (Simon & Schuster, $25, 9781416599067/1416599061).

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Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Harvey Cox, author of The Future of Faith (HarperOne, $24.99, 9780061755521/0061755524).

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Today on the View: LeBron James, author with Buzz Bissinger of Shooting Stars (Penguin Press, $26.95, 9781594202322/159420232X). James is also on the Late Show with David Letterman tomorrow.

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Tonight on the Charlie Rose Show: Vali Nasr, author of Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World (Free Press, $26, 9781416589686/1416589686). He is also on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart tomorrow night.

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Tomorrow morning on the Early Show: Christopher Anderson, author of Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage (Morrow, $25.99 9780061771965/0061771961).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Paula Deen, author of Paula Deen's Cookbook for the Lunch-Box Set (Simon & Schuster, $21.99, 9781416982685/141698268X). She is also on the View tomorrow.

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Tomorrow morning on Maury: NeNe Leakes, author of Never Make the Same Mistake Twice: Lessons on Love and Life Learned the Hard Way (Touchstone, $24.99, 9781439167304/1439167303).

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Tomorrow on the View: Craig Ferguson, author of American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot (Harper, $25.99 9780061719547/0061719544).

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Tomorrow the Wendy Williams Show honors E. Lynn Harris, whose posthumously published book is Mama Dearest (Karen Hunter, $25.99, 9781439158906/1439158908).

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Tomorrow night on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian: Lisa Lampanelli, author of Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks (It Books, $24.99, 9780061733154/0061733156).

Billy Ray Cyrus is starring in the Hallmark Channel's Christmas in Canaan. The "telefilm, slated to air in December, is based on a novel co-written by another country star/actor, Kenny Rogers, and Donald Davenport," according to the Hollywood Reporter,

CBS is also planning to air a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, A Dog Named Christmas, based on Greg Kincaid's book.

 

The intricately-titled Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter noted that executive producer Oprah Winfrey's "march up the red carpet in Toronto with [director Lee] Daniels and cast members to promote the drama provided the biggest star buzz of the 10-day festival."

"The audience award holds such an important meaning," said Daniels. "I made this film for every person out there who ever looked in the mirror and felt unsure about the person looking back."

 

Jean Valentine has won the $100,000 Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. The prize recognizes "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry."

"There would be many ways to describe Jean Valentine's poems," said Academy chancellor Gerald Stern. "One of them would be as if to see her in a dream-world, with all the immediacy, the panic, the odd journey that dreams give.  But add to that a great moral vision, infinite skill, and beauty."

Harryette Mullen has received an Academy Fellowship, which is awarded to a poet for distinguished poetic achievement and provides a $25,000 stipend.

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Paul Auster has won the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association's Legacy Award, which goes to "individuals whose body of work has contributed significantly to the realm of American arts and letters."

Auster's latest novel, Invisible, will be published November 2 by Frances Coady/Holt. He will receive the Legacy Award at the NAIBA fall conference awards banquet on Sunday, October 4, in Baltimore, Md.

 

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next picks:

Hardcover

Red to Black by Alex Dryden (Ecco, $25.99, 9780061803864/0061803863). "This terse spy thriller will sweep you through the shadowy halls of post-Soviet Russian history right up to today's rejuvenated petrostate under Vladimir Putin's iron rule. It does so through the eyes of Anna, the youngest female colonel in the KGB, who has been ordered to get close to MI6's key man in Moscow and his mole. The gripping pace will pull you along into blacker and blacker depths of intrigue."--Ben Gaunt, Bookshelf at Hooligan Rocks, Truckee, Calif.

Our Boys: A Perfect Season on the Plains With the Smith Center Redmen by Joe Drape (Times Books, $25, 9780805088908/0805088903). "An intimate look at one of high school football's most accomplished legacies, Our Boys is a story of how one small Kansas town comes together to raise a group of boys to the status of legend . . . year after year."--Joe Foster, Maria's Bookshop, Durango, Colo.

Paperback

The Last Day: A Novel by James Landis (Steerforth, $14.99, 9781586421656/1586421654). "The Last Day tells the story of Warren Harlan Pease, a young U.S. Army sniper freshly returned from Iraq. After meeting 'Jesus,' he travels the New Hampshire seacoast, revisiting people and scenes from his life before his service. Landis slays our inner skeptic and gently moves us to a deeply felt empathy for all who cross our paths in daily life, even those we would classify as our 'enemy.' This is one of the most affecting novels we have read in many years."--Elizabethe Plante & Dan Chartrand, Water Street Books, Exeter, N.H.

For Ages 4 to 8

Harry and Horsie by Katie Van Camp, illustrated by Lincoln Agnew (Balzer and Bray, $16.99, 9780061755989/0061755982). "Harry doesn't go anywhere without his stuffed pal Horsie. So when Horsie (along with Harry's toy train and cars) is carried off by a bubble from Harry's Super Duper Bubble Blooper, the little boy has no choice but to head off in hot pursuit in his rocket ship. Adventurers old and young will be captivated by this fantastic tale!"--Megan Graves, Hooray for Books!, Alexandria, Va.

[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]