Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 10/2

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Penguin Group (USA) Has Top Three Bestsellers Across the United States

The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press), Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin), and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) have been topping the Amazon bestseller rankings, and are also been dominating bestseller lists across the nation. The Age of Turbulence debuts at #1 on The New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list; Eat, Pray, Love is #1 for the 21st straight week on The New York Times nonfiction paperback bestseller list; and A Thousand Splendid Suns is holding strong at #2, in its 18th week on the list, for the week of October 7th.

 

 

Garrison Keillor Wins 2007 John Steinbeck Award

Viking Penguin author Garrison Keillor received the 2007 John Steinbeck Award this week in Northern California. In presenting the award to Keillor, Thomas Steinbeck said, quoting his father: "The basic responsibility of all committed artists must be to remind people of their own inherent and unwavering humanity, and to do so without critical bias. The artist must learn to rely upon and nurture empathy and compassion, and do so with a joyful heart." Then he added: "Garrison Keillor is our choice for the Steinbeck Award because he more than fulfills these criteria. What John Steinbeck once observed of Samuel Clemens is also true of this year's recipient, 'He is one of America's greatest treasures because he is first and foremost a man of the people, by the people, and for the people.'"

Created by The Center for Steinbeck Studies in 1996, the annual Steinbeck Award recognizes writers and artists whose work captures the spirit of Steinbeck's empathy, commitment to democratic values, and belief in the dignity of the common man. Past Steinbeck Award winners include Penguin author Arthur Miller, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Studs Terkel, Joan Baez, Sean Penn and John Sayles.

Penguin Group (USA) has Two of the Six Finalists for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award

Two books from Penguin Group (USA) are among the six finalists for the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award: The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press), which debuted at #1 on The New York Times bestseller list this week and Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams (Portfolio), currently with 131,000 copies in print after 13 printings. This is the third consecutive year that Portfolio has a finalist, following The Search (2005) and Small Giants (2006).

The seven judges will convene again on October 25th in London to decide which of the six titles will win the coveted prize. The award will be presented at a gala dinner that evening at the British Library, where Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of ArcelorMittal, will make the keynote speech.

Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and one of the judges, praised the "excellent and diverse" shortlist and said he was expecting the debate to select a winner to be "particularly lively". The award aims to select the book that provides "the most compelling and enjoyable insight" into modern business issues, including management, finance and economics.

Signet Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

October 10, 2007 is the 50th anniversary of Ayn Rand's classic of literature and philosophy, Atlas Shrugged, and to commemorate this milestone, Signet is releasing a special 50th Anniversary edition. Rand has received renewed media attention recently for her influence on Alan Greenspan, which he discusses in his new memoir, The Age of Turbulence. This led to a front page Business section piece in The New York Times on September 15th. More copies of Rand's books are sold now than at any time since her death in 1982, and her lasting influence was the focus of a recent story on the Los Angeles Times website. An article on the enduring popularity of Atlas Shrugged is still to come in USA Today.

 

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of September 30th

Six new debuts for Penguin Group (USA) on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of September October 7th: The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press) is #1 on the hardcover nonfiction list; Dead Heat by Dick Francis and Felix Francis (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #3 on the hardcover fiction list; Louder than Words by Jenny McCarthy (Dutton) is #4 on the hardcover nonfiction list; Under Orders by Dick Francis (Berkley); Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett (Putnam) is #9 on the children's picture book list; and We're Off to Find the Witch's House by Mr. Kreib, illustrated by R.W. Alley (Puffin) is at #9 on the children's paperback lsit.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of October 7th:

On the hardcover fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #2 in its eighteenth week; Pontoon by Garrison Keillor (Viking) is at #5 in its second week; and Dark Possession by Christine Feehan (Berkley) is at #16 in its fourth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is at #3 in its 133rd week; while The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) follows right behind at #4 in its 66th week; and Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (Plume) moves up to #16 in its third week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Innocent in Death by J. D. Robb (Berkley) moves up to #5 in its fourth week; Fresh Disasters by Stuart Woods (Signet) rises to #7 in its third week; and Hundred-Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker (Berkley) is at #17 in its second week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) extends its run at #1 to 21 weeks in a row in its 35th overall week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is at #5 in its 34th week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #7 in its fourth week; A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink (Riverhead) is at #16 in its second week; This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin (Plume) is at # 18 in its fourth week and Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin) is at #19 in its fifth week.


In the young readers sector, Cowboy and Octopus by Jon Scieszka (Viking) shoots to #2 on the children's picture book list in its third week; Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor (Dial Books for Young Readers) is at #5 on the children's chapter book list in its fourth week; and The Looking Glass Wars also by Frank Beddor (Speak) is at #10 in its ninth week.

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