Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 1/23:

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Penguin Audio Wins Five PW Listen Up Awards for 2007

Penguin Audio won five Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, recognizing the best audio books of 2007: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz, read by Jonathan Davis with Staci Snell, and Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl, read by Emily Janice Card, in the Fiction category; Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler, read by Olagh Cassidy, in the Fun Fiction category; Dark of the Moon by John Sandford, read by Eric Conger, in the Mystery category; and The Assault on Reason by Al Gore, read by Will Patton in the History/Politics category.

Lewis Black to Headline BEA 2008's Saturday Night Benefit

Celebrated comedian and Riverhead Books author Lewis Black, who is one of the most prolific and popular performers working today, will take the stage at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles in a performance exclusively for BEA's audience on Saturday, May 31 at 9:00 p.m. Proceeds from Lewis Black's performance at BEA will go to help support the Book Industry Foundation which is comprised of the American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression (ABFFE) and the Association of American Publishers' Get Caught Reading Campaign.

Lewis Black will appear at BEA's Saturday night benefit on behalf of his new book, Me of Little Faith, which is being published by Riverhead Books, on June 3, 2008. Me of Little Faith is a ferociously funny exploration of religion and faith in which Black examines how the rules and constraints of religion have affected his life and the lives of us all.

BEA's annual Saturday night fundraiser is a signature event for BEA Cares, the arm of BEA that funds not for profit ventures within the bookselling and publishing world whose primary or secondary missions include the protection of free speech, the promotion of literacy for all ages and the development of new readers.

Twelve Penguin Group (USA) Titles on USA Today's "Top 100 Books of 2007" List

Twelve Penguin Group (USA) titles are included on USA Today's "Top 100 Books of 2007" list, including four within the Top Ten. The books are as follows:

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) at #3
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) at #4
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) at #5
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) at #6
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) at #21
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) at #35
The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press) at #44
Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) at #48
World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) at #65
Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) at #74
Angels Fall by Nora Roberts (Jove) at #78
Love Walked In by Maria de los Santos (Plume) at #80

In 2007, five Penguin Group (USA) titles were #1 on USA Today's bestseller list: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) topped the list for five weeks; Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns was #1 for four weeks straight; as well as The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press); Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) and Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove), which each hit for one week.

Three Portfolio Books are 2007 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Winners

Three Portfolio books were selected to win the 2007 Business Book Awards, given by 800-CEO-Read, a leading direct supplier to corporations and organizations around the country (sister company to Harry W. Schwartz). Bill & Dave by Michael S. Malone won in the Biographies/Memoirs Category; No Man's Land by Doug Tatum was chosen in the Entrepreneurship/Small Business category; and The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes took home the award in the Sales category.

The company received nearly 300 award submissions, which were then reviewed and critiqued by the company's editorial staff. Portfolio dominated the list, with three out of just 13 winners, more than any other imprint.

Gotham and Riverhead Authors Are NAACP Image Award Finalists

Six Penguin Group (USA) authors are NAACP Image Award Finalists: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and Knots by Nuruddin Farah, both Riverhead, have been selected in the Fiction category; The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears by Dinaw Mengestu (Riverhead), in the Debut Author category; Do You! by Russell Simmons (Gotham), in the Instructional category; and Body Drama by Nancy Redd (Gotham) in the Youth/Teens category. In addition, Hill Harper, author of Gotham's Letters to a Young Brother (for which he won an Image Award previously) is up for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, within the television category. Hill's next book, Letters to a Young Sister, is being published in hardcover in June.

The NAACP Image Awards honor projects and individuals that promote diversity in the arts in television, recording, literature and motion pictures. The awards ceremony will air nationally on Fox on Thursday, February 14th.

Three Penguin Group (USA) Titles are Books for a Better Life Awards Finalists

Three Books from Penguin Group (USA) are finalists for the 12th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards, given by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which honor the group of authors who have impacted the last half of the 20th century more than any other genre of writers: Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp (Riverhead) in the Relationships category; Grace (Eventually) by Anne Lamott (Riverhead) in the Spiritual category and Self Magazine's 15 Minutes To Your Best Self by Lucy Danziger and the editors of Self (Gotham) in the Wellness category. The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony on February 25th, at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in Manhattan.

Viking Penguin Author Rafe Esquith Hits the Road with His Band of Hobart Shakespeareans

Rafe Esquith, author of Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire (Penguin), and his band of Hobart Shakespeareans are at it again — touring the country with their variety show of sign language, Shakespeare, and even rock & roll. Last week they traveled to Denver, Milwaukee, Omaha, and St. Louis, where they drew crowds of 600 and brought the house down. With stops this week in Atlanta, Miami (where the event sparked a full-blown National Teachers Day at Books & Books), Austin, and Chicago, their star will only grow brighter. Rafe will also make his third appearance on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" — this time with two of his students.

Penguin Titles are Book Sense Picks for March

Three Penguin titles have been selected as Book Sense Picks for March 2008: The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness and the Creation of Roget's Thesaurus by Joshua Kendall (G. P. Putnam's Sons); Dog Man: An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain by Martha Sherrill (The Penguin Press); and A Person of Interest by Susan Choi (Viking). The books will appear in the March 2008 flyer with jacket images and full bookseller quotes.

In addition, four other titles have been designated as Book Sense Notables for March: The Book of Other People edited by Zadie Smith (Penguin); Aunt Dimity: Vampire Hunter by Nancy Atherton (Viking); The Kept Man by Jami Attenberg (Riverhead); and The Ungarnished Truth by Ellie Matthews (Berkley).

New on the Penguin Website

PBS brings you film adaptations to all six classic Jane Austen classic novels in Masterpiece Theatre's Complete Jane Austen film festival. View the video trailer for this special winter event, find the television air-dates as well as companion books, and take the Penguin Classics Jane Austen Quiz on the Austenmania page.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of January 27th

Penguin Group (USA) has two #1 slots on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of January 27th. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) is at #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list for the second week in a row; and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #1 in its 51st week on the paperback nonfiction list.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of January 27th:

On the hardcover fiction list, Penguin Group (USA) once again occupies 40% of the list, for the 12th consecutive week: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #2 in its 34th week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) moves up to the #3 position in its second week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is #5 in its fourteenth week; The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #6 in its second week; and T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (A Marian Wood Book/Putnam) is at #8 in its sixth week; and Bleeding Kansas by Sara Paretsky (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #16 in its second week.

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston (Portfolio) moves up to #7 in its second week on the hardcover nonfiction list.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) holds at #2 in its 149th week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is at #3 in its ninth week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) moves up to #7 in its second week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #9 in its 82nd week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs (Ace) is at #3 in its third week; Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) is #4 in its eighth week; The Suspect by John Lescroart (Signet) moves up to #8 in its second week; Morning Light by Catherine Anderson (Signet) is at #10 in its second week; Wizard's Daughter by Catherine Coulter moves up to #12 in its third week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) rises to #15 in its twelfth week; The Hunters by W.E.B. Griffin (Jove) is #18 in its fourth week; and The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun (Jove) is #20, also in its fourth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) rises to #2 in its 50th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #9 in its 20th week; and This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at #20 in its nineteenth week.

On the advice, how-to, and miscellaneous list, Living Well by Montel Williams (NAL) moves up to #8 in its second week on the hardcover side, while Getting Things Done by David Allen (Penguin) is at #9 in its ninth week on the paperback side.

In the young readers sector, The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) moves up to #6 in its seventeenth week on the children's picture book list; and on the children's series list, The Alex Rider Adventures by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel/Speak, hardcover and paperback) holds at #7 in its 45th week, while Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (Dutton/Puffin, hardcover and paperback) returns to the list at #10 in its eleventh week.

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