Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 11/5:

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Penguin Group (USA) Owns The New York Times Hardcover Fiction Bestseller List for the Week of November 11th

Penguin Group (USA) holds an impressive six out of 16 slots on this week's New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list — nearly 40% of the titles are ours — including the #1 position, where Patricia Cornwell has debuted with her newest Kay Scarpetta novel, Book of the Dead.

The other Penguin Group (USA) titles on The New York Times hardcover fiction list include World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) at #4 in its third week; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) at #7 in its 23rd week; Dark of the Moon by John Sandford (G. P. Putnam's Sons) at #9 in its fourth week; and Shoot Him If He Runs by Stuart Woods (G. P. Putnam's Sons) at #16 in its fifth week.

Junot Díaz Wins 2007 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize

Riverhead author Junot Díaz, with his acclaimed novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was named the winner of the 2007 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize by the Mercantile Library Center for Fiction. The award was presented on Monday, October 29th at The Mercantile Library Center for Fiction's Annual Benefit and Awards Dinner in New York City.

This is the second year in a row that a Penguin Group (USA) author has won this award. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl (Viking Penguin) won the 2006 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize in its inaugural year. The Sargent Prize, which includes a $10,000 cash award, was created by the Mercantile Library Center as part of its mission to promote the art of fiction in the United States, in recognition of John Sargent Sr.'s lifetime of reading and distinguished work as President and CEO of Doubleday and Company for many years.

Four Penguin Group (USA) Books Selected for The 2007 Book Sense Picks Highlights List

Four titles from Penguin Group (USA) have made the annual year-end Book Sense Picks Highlights List for 2007: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead); Astrid & Veronika by Linda Olsson (Penguin); Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler (Riverhead); and Interred with their Bones by Jennifer Lee Carrell (Dutton). In addition, two more Penguin titles will be featured in the new "Looking Ahead" section that highlights a short list of Book Sense Picks in 2007 that are now scheduled to be issued in paperback during the first weeks of 2008: Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (Berkley, January '08) and American Shaolin by Matthew Polly (Gotham, January '08).

All of these titles will be featured in a flyer which will be distributed in November to all Book Sense stores. An official announcement regarding the 2007 list will appear in the November 8th edition of Bookselling this Week.

Royal Shakespeare Company Pays a Visit to Viking/Penguin's Rafe Esquith's Famed Classroom, Room 56

Rafe Esquith, author of Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, which Viking published last January and which Penguin will reprint as a paperback on December 18th, recently hosted the Royal Shakespeare Company cast of King Lear in his classroom, Room 56. Sir Ian McKellan, who plays Lear, makes a point of visiting the class every time he's in Los Angeles. For this visit, the students performed bits of Hamlet and Macbeth, with musical interludes by The Doors ("Riders on the Storm") and The Rolling Stones ("Paint It Black"). Said McKellan to the students, "You know, your friends outside this place might think it very odd that you do Shakespeare. People outside this place might think it's odd, but we don't. You have joined our family." Other RSC actors concurred. Peter Hinton remarked that "'Inspiring' is not a strong enough adjective" and asked that Rafe thank his students "for some of the best and most honest-hearted Shakespeare acting any of us have ever seen before." Fellow teacher Clayton Stromberger, visiting from Texas, wrote to Rafe the day after his visit, "As for the performance for Sir Ian and RSC, I have my own two-word review: Time stopped. It was that good."

Gotham's Children of the Jihad Featured in This Week's New Yorker

Condi's Party Starter Jared Cohen's new book, Children of the Jihad (on sale now), is featured in "Talk of the Town" in the November 5th issue of The New Yorker. Children of the Jihad is Jared Cohen's eye-opening, firsthand account of a thriving and progressive Muslim Youth Culture. Cohen joined the U.S. Department of State in September 2006 as a member of the Secretary of State's policy planning staff. A Stanford graduate (2004), Oxford graduate (2006), and Rhodes Scholar, he has conducted extensive research in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Through risky, on-the-scene investigations, Cohen has discovered a thriving, forward-thinking younger generation. Not so different from their Western counterparts, the majority of the Middle Eastern youth avoid their anti-American governments in favor of an opportunity through education and technology.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of November 11th

Two debuts on The New York Times bestseller list for Penguin Group (USA) the week of November 11th: Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) appears at #1 on the hardcover fiction list; while Now and Then by Robert B. Parker (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #8 on that same list.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of November 4th:

On the hardcover fiction list, as mentioned above, World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is at #4 in its third week; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #7 in its 23rd week; Dark of the Moon by John Sandford (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #9 in its fourth week; and Shoot Him If He Runs by Stuart Woods (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #16 in its fifth week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press is at #5 in its sixth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) holds at #3 in its 138th week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #5 in its 71st week. On the mass-market paperback fiction list, The Mist by Stephen King (Signet) moves up to #11 in its third week; The Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) is at #15 in its third week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) extends its run at #1 to 23 weeks in a row in its 40th overall week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) holds at #4 in its 39th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is at #9 in its ninth week; and This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at #16 in its seventh week; and A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead) returns to the list at #18 in its fourth week.

In the young readers sector, on the children's picture book list, Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) is at #5 in its sixth week; Llama Llama Mad at Mama written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney (Viking) is at #10 in its sixth week. On the children's paperback list, We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Mr. Kreib, illustrated by R.W. Alley (Puffin) moves up to #5 in its sixth week; while The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (Speak) is at #6, in its sixth week. Slam by Nick Hornby (Putnam) is at #5 in its second week on the children's chapter book list. And on the children's series list, Redwall by Brian Jacques (Philomel, hardcover and paperback) is at #6 in the children's series list in its 45th week, while Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (Dutton/Puffin) holds at #7 in its fourth week.

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