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Penguin Group (USA) Scores Four #1 New York Times Bestsellers Simultaneously for the Week of December 23rd

Penguin Group (USA) achieves an outstanding four #1 slots simultaneously on The New York Times bestseller lists for the week of December 23rd. T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (G. P. Putnam's Sons) debuts at #1 on the hardcover fiction list; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) holds at #1 on the trade fiction paperback list in its fourth week; Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) stays at #1 on the mass market fiction list in its third week; and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) returns to the #1 slot, in its 46th week on the paperback nonfiction list. Congratulations to everyone involved with the terrific success of these books.

This represents the second time in 2007 that the house has had four titles simultaneously at #1 on The New York Times bestseller lists. Back in June, Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns (Riverhead Books), Al Gore's The Assault on Reason (The Penguin Press), Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) and The Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (Perigee) were all at #1. A Thousand Splendid Suns topped the hardcover fiction list; The Assault on Reason was atop the nonfiction list; Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was #1 on the paperback nonfiction list; and The Book of Useless Information topped the Advice, How-To and Miscellaneous paperback list, representing the Perigee imprint's first #1 New York Times bestseller — all for the week of June 17th.

Walter Mosley, Internationally Acclaimed New York Times Bestselling Author, Signs Three Book Deal with Riverhead and Announcement Sparks Instant Major Media Coverage

Walter Mosley, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning New York Times-bestselling author, has agreed to a three-book deal with Riverhead Books. This announcement sparked instant high-profile media coverage this week, with pieces appearing in The New York Times, USA Today and other major publications as well as Publishers Weekly and the other publishing trades.

Sean McDonald, VP and Executive Editor, acquired world hardcover, paperback and audio rights to the books, which he will be editing. Two of the titles will be part of a new mystery series Mr. Mosley is launching that will feature Leonid McGill, an African-American private investigator based in contemporary New York City. This character was first introduced by Mr. Mosley in one of his short stories, "Karma," which was included in the Best American Mystery Stories of 2006 anthology. The first book in Mr. Mosley's new mystery series will be published in hardcover by Riverhead in 2009, with NAL publishing the title in paperback the following year. Mr. Mosley will also be writing a literary novel for Riverhead.

One of the most prolific, highly regarded and widely read writers of our time, Walter Mosley is the author of twenty-seven critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into twenty-three languages. His popular mysteries featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990. Others in the series include Black Betty, A Little Yellow Dog and the current New York Times bestseller, Blonde Faith.

Riverhead's Dinaw Mengestu Wins Guardian First Book Award

Dinaw Mengestu's The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (Riverhead) has been selected as the winner of this year's Guardian First Book award. This award, worth £10,000 to the winning author, is unique among literary prizes in that it is open to all debut writers regardless of genre. Previous winners have included Zadie Smith and Jonathan Safran Foer.

Speaking after the award was presented at a ceremony in central London last week, the Guardian's literary editor and chair of the judging panel Claire Armitstead said that while each of the shortlisted books had their champions, the economy and power with which Mengestu depicted the dead-end lives of his characters saw him emerge as the winner. "Unusually for a first novel, there is no slack in his writing, no authorial vanity to interfere with his evocation of immigrant life in 21st-century America," Ms. Armitstead commented.

Time Magazine Selects Junot Díaz and Khaled Hosseini Titles for their Top 10 Fiction Books List for 2007

Riverhead Books snags two positions on the Time Top 10 Fiction Book List for 2007: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz was selected as the #1 novel, while A Thousand Splendid Suns was the publication's #3 choice.

Time calls The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao "a massive, heaving, sparking tragicomedy starring Oscar, a dorky Dominican-American 'social introvert who trembled with fear during gym class,'" and has high praise for A Thousand Splendid Suns, proclaiming: "The bestselling literary novel of the year is also — funny thing — one of the best...dense, rich, pressure-packed guide to enduring the unendurable."

Time's "50 Top Ten Lists" edition is on-stands tomorrow, December 14th.

Gotham Author Diablo Cody Receives National Acclaim as the Screenwriter of 'Juno'

Decreed by David Letterman (tongue-in-cheek) on CBS's "The Late Show" to be the pick of "Dave's Book Club 2006," Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source — amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. This is Cody's captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the industry through a writer's keen eye.

Now Diablo Cody "is being heralded as Hollywood's 'it girl' of young scribes." (USA Today) She was named one of the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood by Entertainment Weekly who claimed, "Not since John Hughes has anyone minded the adolescent soul with such clarity and compassion."

Juno received rave reviews at the 2007 Telluride Film Festival and is being called one the top movies of the Toronto International Film Festival. The New York Times says, "Juno is on almost every short list for an Oscar for original screenplay." The film opened in limited release in early December and will be in theaters everywhere on January 4th. Be sure to support Gotham author in her new adventure as a Hollywood icon and catch Juno at a theater near you.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of December 23rd

As mentioned in the lead item of today's Spotlight, Penguin Group (USA) scores four #1 slots on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of December 23rd. T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (G. P. Putnam's Sons) debuts at #1 on the hardcover fiction list; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) holds at #1 on the trade fiction paperback list in its fourth week, Blood Brothers by Nora Roberts (Jove) stays at #1 on the mass market fiction list in its third week; and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) returns to the #1 slot on the nonfiction paperback list, in its 46th week.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of December 23rd:

On the hardcover fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #5 in its 29th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) is at #6 in its ninth week; Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (Viking) is at #10 in its sixth week; The Chase by Clive Cussler (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #11 in its fifth week; and Book of the Dead by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) follows at #12 in its seventh week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (The Penguin Press) is at #10 in its twelfth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #4 in its 144th week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is at #9 in its 77th week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) moves up to #6 in its seventh week; Treasure of Khan by Clive and Dirk Cussler (Berkley) rises to #9 in its sixth week; The Mist by Stephen King (Signet) is at #11 in its eighth week; Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Fallout by David Michaels (Berkley) moves up to #14 in its fifth week; and Dust by Martha Grimes (Signet) debuts at #17.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) holds at #3 in its 45th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) stays at #7 in its fifteenth week; and This is Your Brain On Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at #14 in its fourteenth week.

On the advice, how-to and miscellaneous paperback list, The Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham and the Useless Information Society (Perigee) is at #10 in its eighth week.

In the young readers sector, on the children's picture book list, Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) moves up to #2 in its twelfth week, and The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore is at #5 in its third week. On the children's paperback list, The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (Speak) is at #5 in its twelfth week; and Heat by Mike Lupica (Puffin) returns to the list at #9 in its ninth 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 40th week, while Skippyjon Jones, written and illustrated by Judy Schachner (Dutton/Puffin, hardcover and paperback) returns to the list at #10 in its ninth week.

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