The judge in the Google Book Settlement will hold a hearing February 18 to decide whether to approve the settlement, according to the Wall Street Journal. This follows the submission 10 days ago of a revised settlement from Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers.

Other groups have until January 28 to filed objections to the revised settlement. Already Amazon has weighed in, asking the judge to reconsider his preliminary approval of the revised settlement, according to the Bookseller. In its filing, Amazon called the latest version "doomed" and said that the settlement released "Google, its library partners, and others from liability for future copyright infringement, including claims based on activities in which Google has not engaged, and would not engage, because doing so would have subjected it to criminal liability."

---

New Moon set a new record for opening-day box office, taking in $72.7 million on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal. With a box office of $140.7 million over the weekend in North America, the second film in the Twilight series came in third all time, not far behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3.

---

Empty Nook? Sony and Barnes & Noble are having e-reader delivery problems. Sony has said it cannot guarantee that its new Daily Edition Reader will be delivered before Christmas, and B&N has sold out of its initial run of e-readers and said that customers ordering the Nook now won't receive theirs until January.

Sarah Rotman Epps, a Forrester Research analyst, told the New York Times that Sony and B&N "wanted to show the market they could compete with Amazon for the holiday season. Consumers responded enthusiastically, but unfortunately, these companies are struggling to deliver on their promise. Now they have to face disappointed consumers with empty packages under the tree."

---

Borders U.K., which was bought four months ago in a management buyout, is up for sale and having severe problems, according the Bookseller. Reportedly W.H. Smith and HMV last week considered buying the company, which was spun off by Borders Group in 2007, but declined. The retailer has been having trouble obtaining titles from at least one major distributor, which has ceased shipping because of "an unpaid bill." In addition, the Borders website in the U.K. has suddenly stopped taking orders.

---

David Sedaris, who has a loyal following among book readers, of course, also has a loyal following of listeners--in fact, many readers first encountered him while listening to NPR or him "in concert." So we wanted to note a new CD called Live: For Your Listening Pleasure (Hachette Audio), which consists of pieces recorded live during his recent tour; it goes on sale tomorrow. There is no corresponding book.

In a bit of retro fun, the CD is also being released as a vinyl record--or LP--that contains two of the five essays on the CD. Speaking with the New York Times, Maja Thomas, senior v-p for digital and audio publishing at Hachette, said that Sedaris's "audience is very attuned to irony and is going to find this funny." Buyers of the record--a format whose sales more than doubled last year to $57 million, its first increase since 1990--will receive a code that allows them to download digitally the entire CD. The 33 will appear January 5.

---

Oxfam, which earns about $32 million from selling used books, is trying to work with used booksellers in the U.K. who had said in August that the charity was driving them out of business, according to the New York Times and the Guardian. After a meeting between Oxfam and members of the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association, Oxfam said that it will work with booksellers to evaluate rare books and agreed that, the Guardian said, "when a collection of books is donated which is clearly of a higher value, the shop's staff would contact either the PBFA or the Antiquarian Booksellers Association and request that a bookseller come in to make an offer for the titles. That sum of money would then go to Oxfam."

---

Congratulations to the winners of the Emerging Leaders Council scholarships, which are sponsored by Ingram and allow the recipients to attend the ABA's Winter Institute in February in San Jose, Calif.:

From the GLIBA region: Shelly Koteskey, McLean & Eakin, Petoskey, Mich.
MBA: Taylor Rick, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis.
MPIBA: Laura Kuechenmeister, Bookworks, Albuquerque, N.M.
NAIBA: Nathan Halter, the Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, Pa.
NEIBA: Katherine Fergason, Bunch of Grapes, Vineyard Haven, Mass.
PNBA: Casey Stryer, Elliott Bay, Seattle, Wash.
SCIBA: Patrick Nelson, Mrs. Nelson's, Pomona, Calif.
SIBA: Janet Geddis, Avid Bookshop, Athens, Ga.

---

The New York Times offered gift book suggestions. 

---

Booksellers at Distant Lands, Pasadena, Calif., Globe Corner Bookstore, Cambridge, Mass., and Idlewild Books, New York, N.Y., offered holiday gift suggestions for the traveling reader in USA Today. The paper noted that "Idlewild specializes in putting together customized gift packs for individual itineraries, and like other travel bookstores, it's a place where you'll find niche brands of travel guidebooks that may not be available in chain stores or that you may not know enough about to buy from online-only booksellers."

---

An all-star cast of readers--including authors Kazuo Ishiguro, Peter Carey, Curtis Sittenfeld, Nick Hornby, Geoff Dyer, Julie Myerson and Colum McCann; filmmaker Sam Mendes, broadcaster Jeremy Paxman, chef Fergus Henderson and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood--were invited by the Sunday Observer to name their favorite reads of the year.

---

"Making dreams come true" during "just another day" at the Bookworm of Edwards, Colo. 

---

Unnatural selection. A rare first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, which was discovered "in the guest lavatory" of a family's home in the Oxford area, will be offered at auction this week by Christie's. The AFP reported that the "book, about 1,250 copies of which were first printed, is expected to fetch £60,000 pounds (US$99,021)."

 

Jim Sutton, owner of Specialist Marketing International, died after suffering a heart attack at the Frankfurt Book Fair. He never regained consciousness and passed away in a German hospice a few weeks later.

Sutton was sales and marketing director at Naval Institute Press from 1978 to 1993 and helped launch The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, the tiny press's first work of fiction, which went on to become a blockbuster and launch the techno-thriller genre. From 1993 to 1998, Sutton was publisher at Brassey and was responsible for the expansion of the British company in the U.S. Earlier he had worked at Williams and Wilkins, the medical publisher.

He was the co-author of Ballparks: A Panoramic History (Chartwell Books) and was a long-time marketing instructor in the publishing procedures course at George Washington University.

Sutton was an accessible mentor to a generation of marketing professionals, many of whom launched their careers in the Washington area before moving to New York. He was also known for his generous support of many small presses.

Mike Shatzkin, owner of the IdeaLogical Co., said that the "most outstanding about [Jim] was what a nice person he was, always taking everybody seriously and always willing to offer any help or suggestions he could in response to anybody's publishing challenge."

Julian Mannering, publisher of Seaforth Publishing in the U.K., said Sutton "was always such good company and so well read. When Canetti won the Nobel Prize in the early '80s, Jim was about the only person at Frankfurt who'd heard of him, let alone read him."

His wife is Ellen Loerke, director of business development at Books International, Dulles, Va.

A memorial service will held Saturday, December 5, at 2 p.m. at the Christ Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Md. For further information, contact Chris Kerr at 914-329-4961 or chriskerr@parsonweems.net.

Ad in. On Saturday, Andre Agassi, author of Open: An Autobiography (Knopf), met with enthusiastic fans at Kepler's Books & Magazines, Menlo Park, Calif.

Photo: Derk Dreeszen

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Chuck Klosterman, author of Eating the Dinosaur (Scribner, $25, 9781416544203/1416544208).

---

Today on the Diane Rehm Show: Robert Darnton, author of The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future (PublicAffairs, $23.95, 9781586488260/1586488260).

---

Today on Tavis Smiley, in a repeat: Serena Williams, author of On the Line (Grand Central, $26.99, 9780446553667/0446553662).

---

Tonight on Jimmy Kimmel Live: Andre Agassi, author of Open: An Autobiography (Knopf, $28.95, 9780307268198/0307268195).

---

Tomorrow morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe: Len Berman, author of The Greatest Moments in Sports (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, $16.99, 9781402220999/1402220995).

---

Tomorrow on Oprah: Chesley Sullenberger, author of Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (Harper, $25.99, 9780061927584/0061927589).

---

Tomorrow on the Diane Rehm Show: Orhan Pamuk, author of The Museum of Innocence (Knopf, $28.95, 9780307266767/0307266761).

---

Tomorrow on Ellen: Jon Bon Jovi, author of Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful (Collins Design, $30, 9780061864155/0061864153).

---

Tomorrow night on the Late Show with David Letterman: Carrie Fisher, author of Wishful Drinking (Simon & Schuster, $13.99, 9781439153710/143915371X).

 

Opening on Friday in New York and Los Angeles: The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, directed by Rebecca Miller and based on her novel of the same name (Picador, $14, 9780312428334/0312428332).

The movie stars Robin Wright, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Blake Lively, Maria Bello, Julianne Moore, Monica Belluci and others. Miller is the daughter of Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis.

On December 4, the movie opens in San Francisco, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Kansas City and Seattle.

 

From last week's Indie bestseller lists, available at IndieBound.org, here are the recommended titles, which are also Indie Next Great Reads:
 
Hardcover
 
Hummingbirds: A Novel by Joshua Gaylord (Harper, $25.99, 9780061769016/0061769010). "Joshua Gaylord has written a smart and edgy debut about life in a New York City all-girls prep school, a brilliant upstairs/downstairs take on the school that gives every character his or her introspective spotlight without losing the story's momentum. Astounding."--David Mallmann, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, Wis.

 
The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America by Alan Philps and John Lahutsky (St. Martin's, $24.99, 9780312576974/0312576978). "The Boy from Baby House 10--the horrifying story of a young boy in a Russian orphanage--is one of the most touching books I have ever read, and it will leave you wanting to make a difference in the world. This book is a wonderful choice for anyone looking to read a true story of life, love and the struggle to find a place in the world."--Nikki Bernard, the Book Bin, Onley, Va.

 
Paperback
 
The Evolution of Shadows: A Novel by Jason Quinn Malott (Unbridled, $14.95, 9781932961843/1932961844). "Five years after Gray Banick, a news photographer, disappeared from war-torn Sarajevo, three friends meet to try and discover what happened to him. This is a story of love strong enough to endure the ravages of war and time. Malott writes with sensitivity and compassion."--Sue Richardson, Maine Coast Book Shop, Damariscotta, Maine

 
For Ages 4 to 8
 
The Jungle Grapevine by Alex Beard (Abrams Books for Young Readers, $16.95, 9780810980013/0810980010). "In a deceptively simple story, The Jungle Grapevine shows us how hyperbole and gossip harm relationships between individuals, groups, and countries. A great springboard for conversation."--Claire Teel, Hicklebee's, San Jose, Calif.
 
[Many thanks to IndieBound and the ABA!]
 
 

 
"Between 1938 and 1945, some 50 million people died violent deaths," Giles MacDonough reminds us in this concise analysis of events that allowed Adolf Hitler--a man whom many international politicians and diplomats as well as members of his own military elite considered clinically insane in 1938--to maintain control of the Third Reich and start World War II.

In January 1938, Germany, ostensibly a representative government, was led by a right-wing coalition with Hitler as Chancellor. By January 1, 1939, the picture was radically different: all non-Nazis were purged from the government; Austria and Czechoslovakia were under the control of the Third Reich; Jews had been disenfranchised, robbed, beaten, imprisoned and told to go into exile; and, on October 22, Hitler essentially ended the rule of law in Germany, declaring, "Every means adopted for carrying out the will of the Leader is considered legal, even though it may conflict with existing statutes and precedents."

MacDonogh argues that Hitler did not have a coherent plan for his extraordinary consolidation of power during 1938; day by day, he exploited each favorable opportunity and doggedly pushed on despite setbacks. Dedicating a chapter to each month, MacDonogh focuses on significant developments that contributed to the total control Hitler would achieve by year's end. In January, Hitler eliminated key non-Nazi leaders from the military; in February, he goaded Austrian leaders to do something that would serve as a pretext for an invasion; in March, he finessed the surprisingly resistance-free take-over and annexation of Austria. After those successes, his bold aggression escalated, marching Europe and the world straight to war; nations that had pledged to honor the terms of the Versailles Treaty and guarantee the sovereignty of Austria and Czechoslovakia simply capitulated to him.

Although MacDonogh admits that hindsight allows us to see certain events more clearly as turning points, it is no less painful to read about the missed opportunities that could have derailed Hitler's plans. The Evian Conference in July was an embarrassing failure that demonstrated that countries around the world were not going to help Jews dispossessed by the Third Reich's Nuremberg Laws. Neville Chamberlain's September visit to Hitler, which signaled total appeasement, pulled the rug out from under the feet of those planning a military putsch to oust Hitler and bring him to trial. MacDonogh lets nobody off the hook for the end result of their blindness and inaction: Hitler entered 1939 as a virtual dictator and prepared his infamous January 30 Reichstag speech. There would be a Holocaust and a World War coming all too soon. --John McFarland

Shelf Talker: A powerful, disturbing and invaluable analysis of the events in 1938 that enabled Hitler to unleash the full force of his insanity and destruction on the world.