Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 3/4:

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Oprah's First-Ever Live Interactive Webcast Class Enrollment for the #1 Bestselling A New Earth Surpasses Half a Million in Four Weeks

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle holds the record for the most copies ever shipped by Penguin Group (USA) in a four-week period, 3.45 million

Since A New Earth was named the 61st Oprah's Book Club selection on January 30, 2008 and Winfrey announced that she will join author and renowned spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle for the first time ever to teach a free, live interactive webinar exclusively on Oprah.com, more than 500,000 people - representing 125 countries from around the world - already have registered. This book holds the record for the most copies ever shipped by Penguin Group (USA) in a four-week period, 3.45 million.

Each weekly class will correspond to a chapter from A New Earth, with the 90-minute discussion focusing on each chapter's theme. During the week prior to the live Web event, students can access their personal interactive workbook - a guided online journal that complements each webinar session - that provides introspective questions as well as related exercises for awakening. The 10 weekly sessions will be webcast every Monday night from March 3 through May 5, at 9:00pm ET/6:00pm PT. To register for the class, log onto www.oprah.com/anewearth.

A New Earth is the #1 bestselling nonfiction trade paperback book in the nation, retaining the #1 spot on The New York Times bestseller list for four straight weeks. It currently also tops the USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Book Sense bestseller lists, among others. Plume, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), initially shipped 776,000 copies and - after only four weeks on sale - has more than 4.7 million copies in print and has shipped 3.45 million copies to date.

G. P. Putnam's Sons Dominates The New York Times Hardcover Fiction List Occupying 30% of the Slots for the Week of March 9th

For the week of March 9th, G. P. Putnam's Sons holds an impressive five slots on The New York Times hardcover fiction list - 30% of the list for a single imprint! This week, Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb debuts at #2; The Killing Ground by Jack Higgins is at #8 in its second week; Stranger in Paradise by Robert Parker is at #9 in its third week; The Ghost War by Alex Berenson is at #15 in its second week; and Sizzle and Burn by Jayne Ann Krentz is at #16 in its fourth week. Putnam has had an extremely strong start in 2008, with 11 bestsellers already, which have stayed on the list for a combined 34 weeks.

Overall, the house continues to dominate this list, occupying 30% or more of it for over four months straight. This week, Penguin Group (USA) owns 50% of the hardcover fiction list, with eight out of 16 slots. In addition to the Putnam titles mentioned above, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #6 in its 40th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is #7 in its 20th week; and People of the Book is #11 in its eighth week.

Penguin Group (USA) Launches New Hispanic Imprint, Celebra

Penguin Group (USA) has launched Celebra, the first imprint to exclusively publish mainstream Hispanic personalities. Showcasing the appeal of today's most fascinating Hispanic personalities, Celebra will publish books by well-known leaders in a number of fields, including entertainment, politics, health, and business. The goal of the new imprint is to publish books for mainstream readers that will also resonate with the vast population of Hispanics in the United States. Celebra will be run by Publisher Raymond Garcia, who comes to Penguin Group (USA) from HarperCollins, where he served as Associate Publisher of Rayo.

On February 26th, Celebra Books published its first title, His Panic: Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S. by Geraldo Rivera, to a rush of media attention. Born out of an on-air argument that Geraldo had with Bill O'Reilly on the topic, His Panic investigates the origins of anti-immigrant hysteria and places it in historical and political context. This week, Geraldo is the cover story of the New York Post's Sunday commentary section, and visits "The O'Reilly Factor," "Good Morning America," "Morning Show with Mike & Juliet," Wisconsin Public Radio and Laura Ingraham's nationally syndicated radio show. Still to come are appearances on NPR's "Morning Edition," "The View," "The Montel Williams Show," "The Colbert Report," and much more.

In addition to Rivera, Celebra's lineup of authors includes international superstars Gloria and Emilio Estefan; internet gossip and self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media" Perez Hilton; Jorge Perez, the largest private real estate developer in the country; Markos Moulitsas, founder of the most popular political blog on the web, DailyKos.com; Eduardo "Piolin" Sotelo, the host of the top-rated Spanish-language radio show in the country; and People en Espanol, the number-one Spanish-language magazine in the U.S.

Gotham Author Diablo Cody Receives an OSCAR

America watched Juno screenplay writer/ Gotham author Diablo Cody win an OSCAR in the "Best Original Screenplay" category for Juno. Dubbed "Hollywood's 'it girl' of young scribes" by USA Today, Diablo has taken a front seat in the media. Before she hit the red carpet, Diablo published a memoir about her life as a stripper with Gotham Books, entitled Candy Girl. The captivating fish-out-of-water story of her year-long walk on the wild side is filled with the same witty prose in Juno. Diablo has signed on to publish another book with Gotham in the future.

Ace Celebrates Two Nebula Award Nominations

Two Ace authors have been named finalists in the "Best Novel" category for the 2007 Nebula Awards: Jack McDevitt for his intergalactic space epic, Odyssey; and Joe Haldeman for his provocative time travel novel, The Accidental Time Machine. Both McDevitt and Haldeman are previous winners. The prestigious Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) to celebrate the year's best science fiction/fantasy writing. This year's Award Ceremony will be held in Austin, TX, on April 26th.

I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen Named a Finalist for Kiriyama Prize

I Love Dollars by Zhu Wen (Penguin) has been selected as a finalist for the 12th Annual Kiriyama Prize, in fiction category. The Kiriyama Prize is given by the Pacific Rim Voices organization honoring books that promote a "greater understanding" of South Asia and the Pacific Rim. Two winners, one for fiction and one for nonfiction, will be named on April 1st, and will share a $30,000 cash award. Last year, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson (Penguin) was the nonfiction recipient of the prize.

The Wild Girls Selected for Christopher Award

The Wild Girls by Pat Murphy (Viking Children's Books) has been selected to receive a Christopher Award in the category of Books for Young People. Since 1949, the Christopher Awards have annually saluted media (TV/cable programming, feature films, books for adults and children) that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit." The goal of the awards is to encourage men, women and children to pursue excellence in creative arenas that have the potential to influence a mass audience positively. To learn more, please visit www.christophers.org.

New on the Penguin Website

Celebrate "100 Years of Anne" with the release of Anne of Green Gables, 100th Anniversary Edition. In our special Romance feature, read an excerpt from the newly released, Before Green Gables, and learn how to cook, craft, and entertain like Anne Shirley, with recipes and how-to guides.

This week, Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations, discusses his new book about social networking and the Internet.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of March 9th

Another three #1 New York Times bestsellers for Penguin Group (USA) for the week of March 9th: A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) is #1 on the Paperback Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous List; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #1 on the Paperback Nonfiction List; and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #1 on the Trade Paperback Fiction List.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights for the week of March 9th:

On the hardcover fiction list, Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb (G. P. Putnam's Sons) debuts at #2; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #6 in its 40th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is #7 in its 20th week; The Killing Ground by Jack Higgins (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #8 in its second week; Stranger in Paradise by Robert B. Parker (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #9 in its third week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) is #11 in its eighth week; The Ghost War by Alex Berenson (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #15 in its second week; and Sizzle and Burn is #16 in its fourth week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) is #2 in its eighth week; and The Reason For God by Timothy Keller (Dutton) debuts at #11.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) holds at #5 in its 155th week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #7 in its eighth week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) holds at #9 in its 88th week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Jove) is #3 in its fourth week; Tom Clancy's Endwar by David Michaels (Berkley) rises to #4 in its third week; White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz (Jove) is at #9 in its third week; Three in Death by J.D. Robb (Berkley) moves up to #12 in its fourth week; White Night by Jim Butcher (Roc) is at #14 in its third week; Hard to Handle by Lori Foster (Berkley) is at #15 in its third week; and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) is at #16 in its eighteenth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) holds the #1 position in its 57th week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) follows right behind at #2 in its 56th week; and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) moves up to #10 in its 26th week.

On the advice, how-to, and miscellaneous paperback list, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) holds at #1 in its fourth week; and Getting Things Done by David Allen (Penguin) is at #7 in its fifteenth week.

In the young readers sector, Barack Obama by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is at #10 on the children's paperback list; Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (Philomel, hardcover and paperback) is at #9 on the children's series list; and The Alex Rider Adventures by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel/Speak, hardcover and paperback) returns to the list at #10 in its 50th week.

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