Two days in advance, we all wish our amazing publisher, Jenn Risko, a most happy birthday. (Jenn, please step away from the computer and enjoy a well-deserved break and celebration!)

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For unfathomable reasons, yesterday's issue did not go to our subscribers who have AOL accounts, possibly because of a questionable link. We hope today's issue reaches all AOL subscribers. If you want to catch up on yesterday's issue, please go to the archives on our Web site. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

Nelnet, one of the largest student loan companies in the U.S. and a provider of products and services to students and schools, has bought Peterson's--which offers, in print and online, educational and career guidance material, including school guides, test prep, admissions and financial aid information--from the Thomson Corp.

Peterson's, which has headquarters in Lawrenceville, N.J., will become part of Nelnet's education services division. It will continue to use the Peterson's brand and retain current management. Founded in 1966, Peterson's has about 220 employees.

Steve Butterfield, vice chairman and co-CEO of Nelnet, which has headquarters in Lincoln, Neb., called Peterson's "a great resource to help students select the right educational experience, prepare for admission tests, explore ways to pay for their education, and advance their careers. In addition, Peterson's has earned a reputation for helping schools find and recruit students."

The purchase of Peterson's, he continued, "expands the products and services that the two companies can offer to students, families, schools, lenders, guarantors and military partners."

For her part, Peterson's president Mary Gatsch said that becoming part of "a leading college planning and financing company means that we can add value to our customers and advance our vision of helping education-seeking families."

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The Ventura County Star profiles Jeanne Johnson and Melissa Cook, who in 2004 founded the Book Bag, a used bookstore in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The nonprofit store aims to promote literacy and will soon donate $1,000 to the Conejo Valley Adult Literacy Program.

In the store, books are priced at $1-$5. The store sells some valuable books online; it donates "shabby" books to jails and other organizations.

This morning on the Today Show:

• Laura Lippman, author of No Good Deeds (Morrow, $24.95, 0060570725)
• Lee Child, author of The Hard Way (Delacorte, $25, 0385336691)
• Jackie Keller, author of Body After Baby (Penguin, $24.95, 1583332510).

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Today on WAMU's Diane Rehm Show: Thomas Ricks, the Washington Post's Pentagon correspondent and author of Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (Penguin Press, $27.95, 159420103X).

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The Spoken Word, which will be aired on many public radio stations on Sunday evening at 8 p.m. (as well as some other times next week), features:

Douglas Brinkley, who will talk about his new book, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Morrow, $29.95, 0061124230); food critic Mimi Sheraton, who discusses her years reviewing restaurants for the New York Times and her book Eating My Words: An Appetite for Life (HarperCollins, $13.95, 0060501103); Tom Bell, who discusses this week's Book Sense picks; and Robin Fischer, who talks about Handselling on the Radio.

For a listing of the radio stations playing the Spoken Word, click here.

Carly Phillips is the bestselling author of The Bachelor, which was the first romance selected by Kelly Ripa for her Reading with Ripa Book Club. Her latest books are Cross My Heart (HQN Books, $19.95, 0373771266), an August hardcover, and the mass market paperback of her 2005 hardcover, Summer Lovin' (HQN Books, $7.99, 037377110X), appropriately an August title, too. Here she answers questions that we put to people in the book industry occasionally:


On nightstand now:

Captive of My Desires by Johanna Lindsey

Favorite book when you were a child:

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, but now that I'm a mother, my favorite books for my children are Guess How Much I Love You by Sam Mcbratney and Anita Jeram and the Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type series by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin. Maybe you were looking for more advanced books, but these jump out at me! I do notice an animal theme. That is typical of me.

Top five authors:

Howard Fast, Cynthia Freeman, Robert Ludlum, LaVyrle Spencer, Susan Elizabeth Phillips--although my current reading is usually romance authors. I'm a stickler for my kind of ending.

Book you've "faked" reading:

James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. I read, but I did not comprehend. I'm sure I had the Cliffs Notes. I hope my high school English teacher, Mr. Longobardi, will forgive me! I know I learned what misogyny meant from his teaching. I respect the classics, I just cannot comprehend them in the way I know I am supposed to.

Book you are an "evangelist" for:

Exodus by Leon Uris. This book connected me to Israel and my roots in a way nothing ever has. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves history.

Book you've bought for the cover:

I admit to being completely stumped. A good cover won't convince me to buy if I'm not drawn by the subject described on the back or inside flap.

Book that changed your life:

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough. Asked this way, I realize this book showed me the pain of unattainable love and how unacceptable that is. Perhaps it helped that Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward played the leads in the TV movie, but it was the book that I read first. It comes as no surprise then that I ended up as a romance writer who can guarantee what I think is the correct ending of any story!

Favorite line from a book:

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." Perhaps Margaret Mitchell's famous line from Gone with the Wind is a cliche now, but it stuck with me. Not because Scarlett followed with her eternally optimistic, "After all, tomorrow is another day . . . " but because again, the romantic in me was frustrated that the two people who belonged together didn't end up together.

Book you most want to read again for the first time:

Separate Beds by LaVyrle Spencer, the book that led me to write romance. I want to see if I am as affected by it the fiftieth time around. Actually it's been a long time since I've picked up this story, so I think I'm due.

Bonus Question:

I'll take a demerit for lack of originality on this one and copy Jason Roberts: What song do you wish was a book?

Dan Fogelberg, Another Auld Lang Syne. I wrote my first book to this tune, replaying it over and over for inspiration. A tale of old love revisited. The opening lyrics are:

Met my old lover in the grocery store,
The snow was falling Christmas Eve.
I stole behind her in the frozen foods,
And I touched her on the sleeve.
She didn't recognize the face at first,
But then her eyes flew open wide.
She went to hug me and she spilled her purse,
And we laughed until we cried.

The song left you with the sense that you can't go back again.

The ending lyrics:

She gave a kiss to me as I got out,
And I watched her drive away.
Just for a moment I was back at school,
And felt that old familiar pain . . .
And as I turned to make my way back home,
The snow turned into rain . . .

I, of course, determined that these lovers COULD somehow find their way. As I said, a true romantic at heart. That's me.

The following are the bestselling titles at member stores of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance during the week ended Sunday, July 23, as reported to Book Sense:

Hardcover Fiction

1. Pegasus Descending by James Lee Burke (S&S, $26, 0743277724)
2. Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg (Random House, $25.95, 1400061261)
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Algonquin, $23.95, 1565124995)
4. The Ruins by Scott Smith (Knopf, $24.95, 1400043875)
5. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson (Warner, $22.99, 0446524425)
6. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (Knopf, $25, 1400044731)
7. The King of Lies by John Hart (St. Martin's, $22.95, 031234161X)
8. Phantom by Terry Goodkind (Tor, $29.95, 0765305240)
9. One Mississippi by Mark Childress (Little, Brown, $24.99, 0316012114)
10. Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs (Scribner, $25.95, 0743233492)
11. Beach Road by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Little, Brown, $27.95, 0316159786)
12. Terrorist by John Updike (Knopf, $24.95, 0307264653)
13. Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's, $26.95, 0312349483)
14. Digging to America by Anne Tyler (Knopf, $24.95, 0307263940)
15. Angels Fall by Nora Roberts (Putnam, $25.95, 0399153721)

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. Marley & Me by John Grogan (Morrow, $21.95, 0060817089)
2. The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (FSG, $30, 0374292795)
3. Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields (Holt, $25, 080507919X)
4. Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan and Melissa Jo Peltier (Harmony, $24.95, 0307337332)
5. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick (Viking, $29.95, 0670037605)
6. The One Percent Doctrine by Ron Suskind (S&S, $27, 0743271092)
7. Being Dead Is No Excuse by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays (Hyperion, $19.95, 1401359345)
8. Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean (Viking, $25.95, 0670037745)
9. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Morrow, $25.95, 006073132X)
10. Miss American Pie by Margaret Sartor (Bloomsbury, $19.95, 1596912006)
11. Dispatches From the Edge by Anderson Cooper (HarperCollins, $24.95, 0061132381)
12. My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'homme (Knopf, $25.95, 1400043468)
13. Heat by Bill Buford (Knopf, $25.95, 1400041201)
14. The Mighty and the Almighty by Madeleine Albright (HarperCollins, $25.95, 0060892579)
15. Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert (Random House, $22.95, 1400064805)

Trade Paperback Fiction

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin, $14, 0143037145)
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead, $14, 1594480001)
3. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Random House, $13.95, 0812968069)
4. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Broadway, $13.95, 0767925955)
5. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, $14, 0143036696)
6. March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, $14, 0143036661)
7. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, $14, 0142001740)
8. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (Washington Square, $14, 0743454537)
9. Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson (Warner, $12.95, 0446694533)
10. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Picador, $14, 031242440X)
11. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Penguin, $15, 0143034901)
12. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (Harvest, $14, 015602943X)
13. Saturday by Ian McEwan (Anchor, $14.95, 1400076196)
14. Wicked by Gregory Maguire (Regan Books, $16, 0060987103)
15. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Vintage, $14, 1400078776)

Trade Paperback Nonfiction

1. An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (Rodale, $21.95, 1594865671)
2. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner, $14, 074324754X)
3. Night by Elie Wiesel (FSG, $9, 0374500010)
4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (Vintage, $14, 0679745580)
5. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Vintage, $14.95, 0375725601)
6. 1776 by David McCullough (S&S, $18, 0743226720)
7. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs (Picador, $14, 031242227X)
8. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (Harvest, $14, 0156031566)
9. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay, $14.95, 0316346624)
10. What to Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi E. Murkoff et al. (Workman, $13.95, 0761121323)
11. 1,000 Places to See Before You Die by Patricia Schultz (Workman, $18.95, 0761104844)
12. Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom (Broadway, $12.95, 076790592X)
13. The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion, $14.95, 0786888768)
14. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (Norton, $16.95, 0393317552)
15. Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Pantheon, $9.95, 0679732411)

Mass Market

1. The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (Anchor, $7.99, 0307275558)
2. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (Warner, $7.99, 0446616451)
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Warner, $6.99, 0446310786)
4. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown (Pocket, $9.99, 1416524797)
5. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Warner, $6.99, 0316769487)
6. Pawleys Island by Dorothea Benton Frank (Berkley, $7.99, 0425204316)
7. 1984 by George Orwell (Signet, $7.95, 0451524934)
8. Lord of the Flies by William Golding (Berkley, $7.95, 0399501487)
9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Anchor, $7.99, 1400079179)
10. Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's, $7.99, 0312985347)

Children's Titles

1. Pirateology by William Captain Lubber (Candlewick, $19.99, 0763631434)
2. Junie B., First Grader: Aloha-ha-ha! by Barbara Park, illustrated by Denise Brunkus (Random House, $11.95, 0375834036)
3. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd (HarperCollins, $7.99, 0694003611)
4. Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (Yearling, $6.50, 0440421705)
5. Peter and the Shadow Thieves by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Disney, $18.99, 078683787X)
6. Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (Disney, $7.99, 078684907X)
7. Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer (Atheneum, $17.95, 141692454X)
8. Pirates by John Matthews (Atheneum, $19.95, 1416927344)
9. Flush by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf, $16.95, 0375821821)
10. Carnival at Candlelight (Magic Tree House #33) by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Salvatore Murdocca (Random House, $4.99, 0375830340)
11. Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth (Scholastic, $16.95, 0439339111)
12. The Third Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares (Delacorte, $8.95, 0553375938)
13. The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick, $7.99, 0763625299)
14. Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz (Puffin, $7.99, 0142406112)
15. Eragon by Christopher Paolini (Knopf, $9.95, 0375826696)

[Many thanks to Book Sense and SIBA!]