The Google settlement has another opponent. The New York Times reported that Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at a prominent Washington law firm, "plans to file a sweeping opposition to the settlement on Wednesday urging the court to reject it."

"This is a predominantly commercial transaction and one that should be undertaken through the normal commercial process, which is negotiation and informed consent," Gant said.

The Times noted that, "unlike most previous objections to the project, which focused on policy issues and recommended modifications to the settlement, Mr. Gant argues that the agreement, which gives Google commercial rights to millions of books without having to negotiate for them individually, amounts to an abuse of the class-action process. He also contends that it does not sufficiently compensate authors and does not adequately notify and represent all the authors affected."

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Introducing a new IndieBound feature, Ask Indies: "Ask Indie Booksellers on Twitter anything you want to know! The #AskIndies hashtag and a link to your book will be added for you automatically."

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Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting, owners of Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, N.Y., were featured in the first installment of AOL's new "online reality series," the Startup. Greenlight is one of four startup small businesses showcased in the series. 

"You have to constantly update your store and innovate and connect with your actual neighbors and just counter the trends and make sure that bookstores are the forefront of your potential customers' consciousness," said Bagnulo. "Really, it's an exciting time to be the owner of an independent bookstore."

Check the store's latest blog entry for an update on the bookshop's imminent and much-anticipated opening.

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Stand clear of the closing chapters, please. The Huffington Post showcased Choose What You Read NY, "an organization that collects old books and distributes them--free--in subway stations on the first Tuesday of every month. . . . With nothing more than a folding table and a sign reading, 'Free Books for your Commute,' [Buku Sarkar] has led a project that is part recycling effort, part recession relief, part literacy campaign, and all heart."

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Reader's Digest Association, the 87-year old magazine publishing company, plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection "to carry out a restructuring that would give lenders control of the company," the New York Times reported. The company "is seeking to reduce its debt load, which swelled after it was taken private in 2007 by an investor group led by Ripplewood Holdings." The Times noted that Reader's Digest has now "reached an agreement in principle with the majority of its senior lenders to convert a 'substantial portion' of its $1.6 billion in senior secured debt into equity."

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The release date for Senator Edward Kennedy's memoir, True Compass, originally set for October, has been moved up to September 14, USA Today reported.

"We'd always hoped to publish earlier," said Cary Goldstein, speaking for the book's publisher, Twelve. "The production process moved faster than expected, so we were able to shave off some time."

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The San Francisco Chronicle reported that next month, William Stout Books, "one of the Bay Area's cultural treasures, an expansive storehouse of design volumes . . . will add a branch on Mission Street in the Yerba Buena arts district."

"It's a phenomenal location," said Stout. "We see this functioning as a specialty shop."

According to the Chronicle, "Stout will occupy a 437-square-foot space in the California Historical Society . . . As with any change, there's a bittersweet side: The society's long-established bookstore will close."

"This is a great compatible use, and we're thrilled to have him," added David Crosson, the historical society's executive director. A September 24 opening, which would coincide with the premiere of the society's new exhibition, "Think California," is anticipated.

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Book trailer of the day: Silent on the Moor by Deanna Raybourn.

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GalleyCat solicited reader opinions on a "Book Marketing Campaign Flush With Success?"

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For frugal romantics, Match.com picked the "Top 10 Most Affordable Cities for Dating," and offered five tips for recession proof dating, including #4: "Read between the lines--go to a bookstore: Bookstores are often hosts to authors from around the world, celebrities and sports heroes, making your local bookstore the most interesting free venue in town."

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From the DIY Department: The Inverted Bookshelf, which "turns a bit of your living room upside down as it hangs all of the books from the bottom instead of supporting them from below. It's a satisfying optical trick and doesn't damage any of the books. In fact, you can take books in and out of it whenever you want." (via @andevers on Twitter)

Tomorrow morning on Good Morning America: Frank Bruni, author of Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-time Eater (Penguin Press, $25.95, 9781594202315/1594202311).

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Tomorrow morning on the Today Show: Mark Bittman, author of Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express (Simon & Schuster, $26, 9781416575665/1416575669).

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Tomorrow on KCRW's Bookworm: Eduardo Galeano, author of Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (Nation Books, $26.95, 9781568584232/1568584237). As the show put it: "Eduardo Galeano has written a history of the world in brief chapters, each one devoted to an iconic incident. Myths about the creation of the universe give way to the nitty-gritty. We watch as a galaxy of wonders gives way to a museum of shame, as greed, plunder, victimization and deceit overwhelm our overloaded planet."

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Tomorrow on the View, in a repeat: Helen Fisher, author of Why Him? Why Her?: Finding Real Love by Understanding Your Personality Type (Holt, $25, 9780805082920/0805082921).

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Tomorrow night on the Colbert Report: Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God (Little, Brown, $25.95, 9780316734912/0316734918).

Michael Douglas and his production company, Further Films, are developing Shirley Jackson's 1962 novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle. According to the Hollywood Reporter "Mark Kruger has penned a draft of the screenplay. . . . Further will produce the project with Literal Media, the firm that reps Jackson's work and a company in which Further has a stake. Laurence Hyman, Jackson's son and literary executor, also will have a producer role."

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James McAvoy has been added to the cast of "Mandate Pictures' comedic adaptation of the Will Reiser novel I'm With Cancer," Variety reported. Nicole Holofcener will direct the movie, which co-stars Seth Rogen. Filming is scheduled to begin in January.

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Alfie Allen, younger brother of singer Lily Allen, has joined Liam Boyle "in the big screen adaptation of Kevin Sampson's rock 'n' roll 'n' drugs novel Powder," according to the Hollywood Reporter. "Billed as funny and filled with coke-addled sex and paranoia, the £3.5 million (US$5.7 million) budgeted movie tells the story of a band breaking into the big time and the music industry machine behind it."

Finalists were named for the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, "celebrating the power of literature to promote peace and nonviolence." A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced September 22, and honored at a ceremony in Dayton, Ohio, November 8. The shortlist includes:

Fiction

• Say You’re One of Them by Uwen Akpan
• Peace by Richard Bausch
• The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
• Beijing Coma by Ma Jian
• Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
• Song Yet Sung by James McBride

Nonfiction

• Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker
• Dust from our Eyes: An Unblinkered Look at Africa by Joan Baxter
• Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman
• Writing in the Dark by David Grossman
• My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for his Father’s Past by Ariel Sabar
• A Crime So Monstrous: Face to Face with Modern Day Slavery by Benjamin Skinner
• The Great Experiment by Strobe Talbott

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn will receive the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row by Jarvis Jay Masters (HarperOne, $24.99, 9780061730450/0061730459, September 22, 2009)

Opening lines of books we want to read:

Over the years, I have been asked when it was that I "saw the light," had a dream, or heard a voice. What experience created a reverberation that transformed me from the person I was then to the person I am today? The truth of the matter is that I have never changed. Rather, I have simply discovered who I've always been: the young child who knew that his life mattered, that he could make a difference in the world, and that he was born to fly.

In spite of the pain and hurt, and however much I engaged in crazed violence and lashed out at the world for thinking it owed me something, in the center, in my heart, there was always something of a natural goodness. This may have been the place from which my tears poured when I was a young child. In that same place, the violence later grew so much larger than life that I stopped believing in myself. But I finally came into a situation where I dared myself to reclaim that natural goodness. That I reclaimed it on San Quentin's death row doesn't change who I am. I have experienced an inner journey that brought me to the life-affirming realization that my violent actions were never a reflection of who I really am.

If I had known how painful it would be to sit and write this book about my life, I doubt that I would have ever picked up my pen filler, the only writing instrument allowed to an inmate in solitary confinement on death row. It was only from not knowing what layers of memories--particularly from childhood--would slowly unfold that I innocently began to write.

--Selected by Marilyn Dahl

Laura Moriarty was a social worker before she started writing fiction. After completing her M.A. in creative writing at the University of Kansas, she was the recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship for Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire; during this fellowship, she wrote her first novel, The Center of Everything, which was published in 2003. Her second novel, The Rest of Her Life, was published in 2007. She recently joined the creative writing faculty at the University of Kansas. Her third novel, While I'm Falling, is being published this month by Hyperion.

On your nightstand now:

The Women by T. C. Boyle. It's about some of the women--both wives and mistresses--who were involved with Frank Lloyd Wright. I'm teaching Nancy Horan's Loving Frank in the fall, so I thought it would be good to get another perspective on Wright's personal life. But it's not really on my nightstand; I have it on my phone. Almost every morning, I take a long walk in the woods and listen to an audiobook. I was so caught up in The Women the other day that I didn't see a deer nearby, and when it ran across my path, I about fell over.

Favorite book when you were a child:

Little Women. I still think it's a good story. I like that Laurie marries Amy and not Jo.

Your top five authors:

Sue Miller, David Sedaris, Tobias Wolff, Sandra Cisneros and Louise Erdrich.

Book you've faked reading:

Chimera by John Barth. Graduate school. I felt bad about it.

Book you're an evangelist for:

Baby Jesus Pawn Shop by Lucia Orth. An American woman goes with her diplomat husband to the Philippines during the Marcos regime. As she learns more about the country and herself, she grows disillusioned with her husband and his tacit support of Marcos's strongmen. I don't want to give too much away, but it's also a love story, and it's beautifully written. I also like books that teach me about other countries and history. In this one, Marcos and his wife Imelda (!) have cameo roles.

I also loved The All-true Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley. That book mesmerized me. 

Book you've bought for the cover:

My own. My publisher sends me hardback copies before they come out, but for my first book, the paperbacks were in the stores before I had a copy. I was really excited to see the new cover, so I went downtown and bought a copy. Of course, I bumped into someone I knew when I was in line at the register. She said, "Oh, hey Laura, you're getting . . . your own book?" She said it pretty loud. I felt dumb. 

Book that changed your life:

I think every good book I've read has changed me in some small way. A recent example: the other day, I walked past a woman who was sitting and smoking beside a baby carriage. I had a fleeting, negative judgment about her as a mother, and then I remembered one of David Sedaris' stories about his funny and wonderful mother, a chain smoker, and it reminded me that I really didn't know anything about the woman by the carriage or what kind of mother she was. 

Favorite line from a book:

" . . . the trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled."--Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."

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

Atonement by Ian McEwan. I love that book. I didn't see the ending coming at all. It was more than a surprise ending. It felt like the floor giving way.

In a Newsweek piece, "My Five Most Important Books," Laura Lippman included the Betsy-Tacy novels by Maud Hart Lovelace--in particular Betsy in Spite of Herself. "There are two kinds of women: those who know these books (including Anna Quindlen and Bette Midler) and those who don't," she stated.

In the former category is Jennifer Hart, v-p and associate publisher of Harper Perennial and Harper Paperbacks, who is a lifelong fan of the children's novels. Her affinity for them--along with the recommendation of another devotee, librarian Nancy Pearl--led her to suggest that several of the later books in the series, which had been out of print, be reissued as Harper Perennial Modern Classics editions. "They deserve a place in Perennial Classics alongside A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird," said Hart, editor of the new editions.

Three volumes--each with two novels--go on sale September 29: Heaven to Betsy/Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy Was a Junior/Betsy and Joe and Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding. They feature cover art that appeared on the original publications and have forewords by well-known scribes: Laura Lippman, Anna Quindlen and Meg Cabot. Supplemental material, excerpted from Sharla Scannell Whalen's The Betsy-Tacy Companion, includes archival photographs and information about the author and the real-life figures who provided inspiration for her characters.

Hart Lovelace's highly autobiographical, 10-book series follows the adventures of Betsy Ray of Deep Valley, Minn., and her friends Tacy and Tib from the age of five through her marriage at the start of World War I. The Harper Perennial Modern Classics editions begin with Betsy's high school years. (The first four novels are available from the HarperCollins children's division.)

Meg Cabot first read the Betsy-Tacy books several years ago on the recommendation of her editor. "The amazing thing is how much the same everything is, despite the fact that they take place 100 years ago," noted Cabot, author of the Princess Diaries series and other works. "While to me the romances are the main appeal, there are strong storylines about friendships (betrayal! cliques!) and family, plus Betsy, through all the books, is always pursuing her dream of becoming a published writer. What, exactly, is there not to love?"

Cabot delivered the keynote address at the Betsy-Tacy Convention last month in Mankato, Minn. (the basis for Deep Valley). "It was great to meet so many dedicated readers," she said. "I met a lot of mothers who were there with their daughters. The great thing about the series is that it starts with books about Betsy when she was five (written at that reading level) and end with her getting married (written for young adult/adult readers) so you really can start reading them with very young children."

For young adults and adults new to the series, Kathleen Baxter, co-founder of the Maud Hart Lovelace Society, a children's librarian and School Library Journal columnist, recommends Heaven to Betsy. Cabot might disagree since her favorite is Betsy and Joe, but they concur on the timeless aspect of the books. "They're sometimes considered dated and old-fashioned by people who haven't read them, but there's nothing better than what Maud Hart Lovelace wrote," said Baxter. In the foreword to Betsy and the Great World/Betsy's Wedding, Quindlen even makes the case for Betsy Ray as "feminist icon."

More than 200 readers from 31 states and as far away as France turned out at the convention. Hart, who spoke on a panel about keeping Maud Hart Lovelace's legacy alive, is working with the regional Betsy-Tacy Society chapters and other organizations across the country to plan events at bookstores and libraries. Gatherings will be "aimed at 9- to 12-year-old girls so that we can grow new fans. There will be games, readings and other fun activities culled from the books," Hart said. Grown-ups are welcome, too.

Hart plans to work closely with booksellers in the Midwest to promote the novels, which are Midwest Connections picks for October, and reach out to readers via the Internet. There are three related Facebook groups (I Want to Be Betsy-Tacy-Tib, the Virtual Crowd and Maud Hart Lovelace) and an active listserv discussion board about the author. The Betsy-Tacy Society is hosting a book release party in Mankato on October 3.

When Hart traveled to Minnesota for the convention, she brought along two companions: her seven-month-old daughter and her sister. (You can read about her adventures here.) Besides attending the convention, they toured Maud Hart Lovelace's childhood home and other sites associated with the Betsy-Tacy books. "It was a literary pilgrimage to a place that means a lot to my sister and me," Hart said. "Even though we don't agree on many things--she's a Red Sox fan, I'm a Yankees fan--this is something we've always had in common."--Shannon McKenna Schmidt