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Eight Titles from Penguin Group (USA) are 2007 New York Times Notable Books

Eight Penguin Group (USA) titles are among The New York Times' Top 100 Notable books of 2007, selected by The New York Times Book Review, based on all of the reviews printed in the NYTBR since last year's selection in December. The list of all 100 books will be printed in the December 2nd issue of The New York Times Book Review. To view the list of Penguin books, plus their corresponding reviews in The New York Times, see below:

In Fiction & Poetry:

The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, by Dinaw Mengestu. (Riverhead) A first novel about an Ethiopian exile in Washington, D.C., evokes loss, hope, memory and the solace of friendship. Read the review here.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz. (Riverhead) A nerdy Dominican-American yearns to write and fall in love. Read the review here.
Cheating at Canasta, by William Trevor. (Viking) Trevor's dark, worldly short stories linger in the mind long after they're finished. Read the review here.
Knots, by Nuruddin Farah. (Riverhead) After 20 years, a Somali woman returns home to Mogadishu from Canada, intent on reclaiming a family house from a warlord. Read the review here.

In Nonfiction:

Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, From White House Princess to Washington Power Broker, by Stacy A. Cordery. (Viking) A biography of Theodore Roosevelt's shrewd, tart-tongued older daughter. Read the review here.
The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, by Matt Bai. (Penguin Press) An exhaustive account of the Democrats' transformative efforts, by a political reporter for The New York Times Magazine. Read the review here.
Foreskin's Lament: A Memoir, by Shalom Auslander. (Riverhead) With scathing humor and bitter irony, Auslander wrestles with his Jewish Orthodox roots. Read the review here.
Thomas Hardy, by Claire Tomalin. (Penguin Press) Tomalin presents Hardy as a fascinating case study in mid-Victorian literary sociology. Read the review here.

Eat, Pray, Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert to Appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for a Second Time on Tuesday, December 4th

Be sure to tune in on Tuesday, December 4th, when Viking/Penguin author Elizabeth Gilbert will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" for the second time this fall. That day, the entire hour will be devoted to Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, which continues its reign at #1 on The New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list. In addition to more one-on-one interview time with Elizabeth and Oprah, several women from the audience will describe how they were inspired to change their lives after reading Eat, Pray, Love. Her mother and "Richard from Texas" will also be interviewed on this show.

Viking/Penguin's William T. Vollmann Wins Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters

Viking/Penguin author William T. Vollmann has been selected by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to receive the prestigious Strauss Living award for literary excellence. Worth $250,000, Livings grant $50,000 to winners each year for five years, the intent being to provide them with the freedom to devote time exclusively to writing. "Vollmann, and his co-winner, Madison Smartt Bell, were selected by a panel of judges composed of Russell Banks, Ann Beattie, Francine du Plessix Gray, and Robert Stone, all members of the Academy. Stone commented on behalf of the jurors, "All the nominees were strong and deserving, which made the final selection difficult. Both writers are fabulous story-tellers who wrap their fictions in history and, in so doing, expand our understanding of the larger world in significant ways."

Vollmann also received the National Book Award in 2005 for his novel, Europe Central.

Authors Junot Diaz and Ira Glass Are on Salon.com's "Sexiest Living Men of 2007" List

Two Riverhead authors, Junot Diaz and Ira Glass, were selected by Salon.com as "Sexiest Living Men of 2007" — two of only three authors on the list of 26 men that Salon describe as "easy on the eyes, but who also unleash complicated emotions in us that we just have never been able to articulate. Until now."

Of Junot Diaz, Mary Elizabeth Williams says: "It isn't just that he writes with such a pitch-perfect ear for the idiosyncratic rhythms of his characters' voices and their limitless mash-up of pop culture obsessions. Or that he doesn't even italicize his Spanish — that's how much of a linguistic badass he is. It's all that, combined with his wiry, close-cropped good looks, the distinctive Dominican lilt in his voice. It's the courtly way he thanks his audience at readings, the soft-spokenness in media appearances, the way a guy who can write so astutely, and with such romantic bravado, can appear so humbly oblivious to his own supreme attractiveness."

And about Ira Glass, Williams comments: "But Ira Glass' disembodied persona brims with infectious curiosity and inviting wonder...he coaxes out candid revelations with a refreshing lack of smirk and sarcasm. He could be all nerdy self-deprecation and we'd still be hot for him, but what's sexy about Glass is that he seems to know damn well how sexy he is: He's relaxed, he's genial, and he gazes at the camera with a directness that could bore a hole right into you."

Penguin Young Readers Group Author Frank Beddor Featured in The Los Angeles Times

Frank Beddor, author of The Looking Glass Wars and Seeing Redd (both Dial Books for Young Readers), among other books, appeared in a huge feature in The Los Angeles Times on Sunday, November 18th. The article and spread covered his fantasy-fiction empire, The Looking Glass Wars, complete with photos. Currently, The Looking Glass Wars is #6 on The New York Times children's paperback list. To read the full feature story, click here.

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

Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) debuts at #20 on the mass market fiction list for the week of December 2nd. In addition, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) rises to the #1 slot on the trade fiction paperback list, in its second week.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of December 2nd:

On the hardcover fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) moves up to #6 in its 26th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) rises to #7 in its sixth week; Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (Viking) is at #8 in its third week; The Chase by Clive Cussler (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #9 in its third week; Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #10 in its fourth week; and Creation in Death by J.D. Robb (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #14 in its third week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press) is at #8 in its tenth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #4 in its 142nd week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #7 in its 75th week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Treasure of Khan by Clive and Dirk Cussler (Berkley) is at #7 in its 4th week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) is at #8 in its 5th week; The Mist by Stephen King (Signet) moves up to #9 in its sixth week; Dead of Night by J.D. Robb (Jove) is at #12 in its fourth week; and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Fallout by David Michaels (Berkley) is at #16 in its third week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) extends its run at #1 to 27 weeks in a row in its 44th overall week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is at #4 in its 43rd week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is at #8 in its thirteenth week; and This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at #15 in its twelfth week.

On the advice, how-to and miscellaneous list, The Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (Perigee) is at #9 in its sixth week.

In the young readers sector, on the children's picture book list, Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) is at #2 in its tenth week. On the children's paperback list, Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland, illustrated by Sonja Lamut (Grosset & Dunlap) is at #4 in its fourth week; The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (Speak) is at #6 in its tenth week; and Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica (Puffin) is at #8 in its second week. And on the children's series list, The Alex Rider Adventures by Anthony Horowitz (Philomel/Speak, hardcover and paperback) is at #3 in its 38th week, while Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner (Dutton/Puffin) is at #10 in its eighth week.

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