Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 1/8:

Five Penguin Group (USA) Books Simultaneously at #1 on The New York Times Bestseller Lists for the Week of January 13th

Penguin Group (USA)'s outstanding New York Times bestseller performance in 2007 has continued into the New Year — with five #1 slots simultaneously on The New York Times bestseller lists for the week of January 13th. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) returns to #1 on the hardcover fiction list in its 32nd overall week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #1 on the trade fiction paperback list for the fifth straight week and its seventh overall week on that list; Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) is #1 on the mass market fiction list for a fourth straight week and its sixth overall week on that list; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #1 in its 49th week on the paperback nonfiction list (34 of those weeks at #1!); and The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (various Penguin Young Readers Group imprints) is at #1 in its fourteenth week on the children's picture book list. Congratulations to everyone involved with the terrific success of these books!

Penguin Group (USA) achieved four #1 slots simultaneously on The New York Times bestseller lists three times in 2007 — including the last two weeks of the year!

Thomas DeFrank's Write It When I'm Gone Named One of the Library of Michigan's Notable Books for 2008

Thomas DeFrank's Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford (G. P. Putnam's Sons) has been selected for inclusion as one of the Library of Michigan's 2008 Michigan Notable Books. This exclusive and prestigious list is compiled annually and is limited to only 20 of the most notable Michigan titles published in the previous year. The program honors and promotes quality publications about the State of Michigan or the Great Lakes, written by a Michigan author, or set in Michigan. The committee spent the last six months discussing well over 300 different titles in order to select the books most reflective of Michigan's diverse ethnic, historical, literary, and cultural experience.

J.M. Coetzee's New Viking Book Landed Cover Review of The New York Times Book Review

J.M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year was the cover review of the December 30th issue of The New York Times Book Review. Published by Viking in hardcover on December 27, 2007, Diary of a Bad Year also received rave reviews in The New York Times (daily edition), the New York Review of Books, and the Washington Post Book World, to name a few.

Diary of a Bad Year takes on the world of politics — a new topic for Coetzee — and explores the role of the writer in our times with an extraordinary moral compass. Bold, funny, and sad, as well as intellectually clever and satisfying, this book is a journey into the mind and heart of one of the world's most acclaimed and accomplished writers.

Portfolio Author Seth Godin Action Figure His the Market

We already knew Portfolio author Seth Godin was larger than life. Now he has his very own action figure! The Seth Godin was created by Archie McPhee, who makes a lot of literary action figures, but only one previous one — the Nancy Pearl-modeled librarian — was for a living author. The Godin action figure comes with a free booklet of marketing advice and promises of an additional "Free Prize Inside" (the title of his 2005 Portfolio book). Godin's latest book, Meatball Sundae, has just landed in bookstores. The author said of his action figure on his blog: "They only did me because David Sedaris turned them down and Steve Jobs, who occasionally has better judgment than me, wouldn't even consider the idea." Godin's proceeds from licensing his image for the $9 toy will be donated to the Acumen Fund, a group that develops "entrepreneurial solutions to global poverty."

Film Rights to Riverhead's To Air Is Human Optioned by DreamWorks

DreamWorks optioned the film rights to Dan Crane's hilarious memoir, To Air Is Human: One Man's Quest to Become the World's Greatest Air Guitarist (Riverhead Trade Paperback Original, published August 1, 2006). Steve Brill, who has directed such Adam Sandler comedies as 'Little Nicky' and 'Mr. Deeds', is slated to direct. Crane was previously the subject of a documentary film, 'Air Guitar Nation'. The Los Angeles Times covered the deal in a feature story on December 13th.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of January 13th

As mentioned in the lead item of today's Spotlight, Penguin Group (USA) scores five #1 slots simultaneously on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of January 13th. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) returns to #1 on the hardcover fiction list; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #1 on the trade fiction paperback list in its seventh overall week; Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) is #1 on the mass market in its sixth overall week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #1 in its 49th week on the paperback nonfiction list; The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore (various Penguin Young Readers Group imprints) is at #1 in its fourteenth week on the children's picture book list.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of January 13th:

How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill (Gotham) debuts at #14 on the hardcover nonfiction list, which also includes The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press) at #10 in its fifteenth week.

On the hardcover fiction list: T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (A Marian Wood Book/Putnam) is at #3 in its fourth week; Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #13 in its tenth week. The Chase by Clive Cussler (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #16 in its eighth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #2 in its 147th week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #8 in its 80th week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (Ace) debuts at #10; The Hunters by W.E.B. Griffin (Jove) is #6 in its second week; and The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun (Jove) is #11 in its second week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) holds at #3 in its 48th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #8 in its eighteenth week; and This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at #16 in its seventeenth week.

In the young readers sector, on the children's picture book list, The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) is #4 in its fifteenth week. And on the children's series list, The Alex Rider Adventures by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel/Speak, hardcover and paperback) is at #6 in its 43rd week.

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