J. D. Robb's Salvation in Death, which debuts at #2 on The New York Times hardcover fiction list for the week of November 23rd, represents G. P. Putnam's Son's record 33rd New York Times hardcover bestseller of 2008 - the most bestsellers the imprint has ever achieved in a single year. This bests Putnam's previous record one-year total of 32, which was achieved in 2004.

This outstanding performance includes titles from such brand-name, repeat New York Times bestselling authors as such as Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts, Clive Cussler, Daniel Silva, John Sandford, W.E.B. Griffin, Stuart Woods, Robin Cook, Catherine Coulter, Dick Francis, Robert B. Parker, Ridley Pearson, Alex Berenson, Sara Paretksy, Jack Higgins, Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick and Nevada Barr as well as nonfiction New York Times bestsellers from Kurt Vonnegut and Steve Lopez.

Ivan Held, President, G. P. Putnam's Sons, said, "It's very gratifying to achieve a new record number of New York Times bestsellers in a year when the competition has been particularly strong every week. A major bow of thanks goes out to the editorial, sales, publicity, marketing, managing editorial, art/design, sub-rights and operations teams. With five more weeks remaining in the year, our 2008 number is poised to rise even higher, with new books still to come from Patricia Cornwell, Clive Cussler and Kate Jacobs."

G. P. Putnam's Sons, which is on track to have approximately 50 percent of its titles hit The New York Times bestseller list for the second consecutive year, has been the industry leader of New York Times adult hardcover bestsellers for more than two decades.

Joseph Boyden won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's most prestigious award for literary excellence for his new novel, Through Black Spruce, which will be published by Viking in 2009. The book was published to critical acclaim by Penguin Canada this September, drawing rave reviews and confirming Boyden's place as "a major voice in Canadian fiction" (Montreal Gazette). Boyden accepted the award on Tuesday evening, at a lavish televised ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. The jury, comprised of award-winning author and previous Giller Prize recipient Margaret Atwood, Liberal MP Bob Rae and internationally celebrated author, journalist and professor Colm Toibin, honored Boyden for Through Black Spruce, saying: "Joseph Boyden shows us unforgettable characters and a northern landscape in a way we have never seen them before."

The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honor of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller, who passed away from cancer the year before. The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction - long format or short stories - and endowed a cash prize annually of $25,000.00. In 2005, The Giller Prize teamed up with Scotiabank to create The Scotiabank Giller Prize, the first ever co-sponsorship for Canada's richest literary award for fiction. Under the new arrangement, the prize was increased to $70,000 with $50,000 going to the winner and $5,000 to each of the four finalists.

Eibhlin Byrne, Lord Mayor of Dublin, announced this past Monday the titles that have been longlisted for the prestigious 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, of which twelve titles belong to Penguin Group (USA).

• Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea (The Penguin Press/Penguin)
• Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton/Plume)
• Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee (Viking)
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead)
• Knots by Nurrudin Farah (Riverhead)
• World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton/NAL)
• Slam by Nick Hornby (Putnam Juvenile/Riverhead)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead)
• Consequences by Penelope Lively (Viking/Penguin)
• The Beautiful Thing That Heaven Bears By Dinaw Mengestu (Riverhead)
• Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan (Viking/Penguin)
• Luncheon at the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland (Viking/Penguin)

In addition to the twelve PGI titles, two Penguin Group titles were also nominated: Jessica White's A Curious Intimacy (Penguin Books Australia) and Michael Winter's The Architects Are Here (Penguin Books Canada).

The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane (Penguin) was selected by the Alpine Club of Canada to receive one of two Grand Prizes at the Baniff Mountain Book Festival, an annual event that features the latest titles in mountain literature, as well as maps, photographs, archival material, antiquarian books, and book signings by famous and soon-to-be famous mountain authors.

The Grand Prize, awarded at the festival last Thursday, November 6th, consists of a cash award of $2,000 (to be split between the two winners) and a glass sculpture. The winners were selected by the 2008 Banff Mountain Book Festival jury, which consisted of John Harlin, editor of the American Alpine Journal, David Chaundy-Smart, editor of Canada's Gripped magazine, and Julie Tait.

The Wild Places was also a previous winner of Boardman-Tasker Prize, given to the author of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.

The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon (Riverhead) and In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) have both been named "Best Books of 2008" by Hudson Booksellers, which has 60 bookstores, selling books in more than 400 Hudson News newsstands in airports and transportation terminals and grossing $100 million in annual book sales. The titles, selected by Hudson booksellers and managers, will be highlighted in Hudson stores starting December 1st.

Be sure to check out CBS's new web series "Novel Adventures," which will, on November 24th, feature a webisode, titled "If You Can't Take the Heat" based on The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn (Viking/Penguin).

"Novel Adventures," which centers around four women in a book club who are inspired by a different book each week and embark on a variety of adventures that take them to new and exciting places, is created by Jonathan Prince, who will also be the screenwriter for the Lifetime movie version of The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry.

The web series, sponsored by Saturn, also features Knit Two by Kate Jacobs (G. P. Putnam's Sons), the sequel to her #1 New York Times-bestselling book, The Friday Night Knitting Club, in a webisode called "The Prince and the Perfect Taco," with mixtures of inspiration from Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind and Knit Two, as the girls search for the urban myths of a gypsy taco truck and the perfect man. Jacobs herself has a part in the webisode, which precedes the November 25th publication of her new book.

In addition to the seven titles from Penguin Group (USA) to be named finalists for the 13th Annual Books for a Better Life Awards mentioned in Spotlight last week, one more book also made the cut: Green, Greener, Greenest: A Practical Guide to Making Eco-Smart Choices a Part of Your Life by Lori Bongiorno and Frances Beinecke (Perigee). Green, Greener, Greenest is one of five finalists in the newly-created "Green" category.

Four new debuts for Penguin Group (USA) on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of November 23rd: Salvation in Death by J.D. Robb (G. P. Putnam's Sons) appears at #2 on the hardcover fiction list; on the mass market fiction list, Suite 606 by J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Ruth Ryan Langan and Mary Kay McComas (Berkley) debuts at #2, while Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon by David Michaels (Berkley) is #11; and Real Sex for Real Women by Laura Berman (DK) is #9 on the hardcover advice, how-to and miscellaneous list.

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

Rough Weather by Robert B. Parker (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #14 in its third week on the hardcover fiction list.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor (Viking) is #9 in its thirteenth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin) is #2 in its 123rd week; World Without End by Ken Follett (NAL) is #4 in its fifth week; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead) is #5 in its tenth week; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #11 in its 191st week; Second Chance by Jane Green (Plume) is #15 in its 24th week; Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon (Penguin) is #17 in its second week; and The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright (Berkley) is #19 in its fifth week.

On the mass market paperback list, The Chase by Clive Cussler (Berkley) is #6 in its second week; Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #9 in its ninth week; Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #14 in its ninth week; Dark of the Moon by John Sandford (Berkley) is #17 in its sixth week; and Club Dead by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #18 in its eighth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is #4 in its 93rd week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #6 in its 94th week; and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #17 in its 60th week.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) is at #6 in its 41st week on the advice, how-to and miscellaneous paperback list, while I Can Has Cheezburger? by Professor Happycat and icanhascheezburger.com (Gotham) is at #7, in its fifth week on that same list.

Pure Hard Workout by Tiki Barber (Gotham, on-sale now)

Tiki Barber and his trainer, Joe Carini, give readers a pure hard workout. The former NFL great, now a "Today Show" correspondent, teams up with his renowned trainer to reveal the phenomenal lifting program that made him a gridiron star. Tiki Barber's Pure Hard Workout is already garnering a lot of media attention. Next week, in addition to doing five radio tours, Barber will appear on Fox Business Channel, Bloomberg TV, 5 national radio tours, and NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me." He will also make an appearance on "The Today Show" the following week.

Why We Suck by Denis Leary (Viking, 11/18)

An incredible publicity launch is set for the highly-anticipated Why We Suck by Denis Leary. The campaign will be kicked off next week with "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "Hardball with Chris Matthews" (11/18); "The View," "Imus in the Morning," and "Morning Joe" (11/19); and the "Today Show" (11/20), plus a two-part segment on "Access Hollywood" (11/20-11/21). Over the coming weeks, Leary will also appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman" (11/27), "Jimmy Kimmel Live" (12/3), and the "Rachael Ray Show" (12/5). In addition, NPR will feature him on "Day to Day" (12/1) and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!" (12/4).

The first serial is in this month's issue of Playboy on stands now, and USA Today will feature an interview with Denis early in the week of on-sale. Be sure to catch him when he at Borders/Penn Station (11/18) or B&N/Staten Island (11/19) before he hits the road for Boston, Chicago, and LA.

Do the Right Thing by Mike Huckabee (Sentinel, 11/18)

When Governor Mike Huckabee entered the Republican presidential race, he was the ultimate dark horse, with almost no money, no consultants, and no name recognition beyond Arkansas. But Huckabee had one big advantage: a common sense message that connected with millions of people, and not just his fellow evangelical Christians. He spoke about family values, fair taxes, and helping hard-working, middle-class Americans in a tough economy. And to the dismay of some Republicans, he talked about fighting Wall Street greed and K Street corruption.

Do The Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America is Huckabee's amazing story, in his own words-from making commercials with Chuck Norris to meeting a Michigan woman who insisted on donating her wedding ring. But this is more than just a campaign memoir. It's a vision for a smarter, fairer type of politics-"vertical politics"-that focuses on common sense solutions for education, health care, the economy, and many other issues. It's not about right versus left; it's about taking America up rather than down. Huckabee also shows how the Republican Party can heal its divisions-between social and fiscal conservatives, the wealthy and the middle class, the religious and the secular-and become a true majority party again.

Shadows at Dawn by Karl Jacoby (The Penguin Press, 11/20)

In the pre-dawn hours of April 30, 1871, a combined party of Americans, Mexicans, and members of the Tohono O'odham tribe surrounded an Apache band living in the Arizona borderlands-under the supposed protection of the United States government-and killed nearly 150 people, mostly women and children, in their sleep. In its day, the atrocity, which came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, generated unparalleled national attention-federal investigations, heated debate in the press, and an elaborate criminal trial. In his powerful new book, Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History, prize-winning historian Karl Jacoby examines one of the worst Indian massacres in American history in order to shed light on the clash of cultures in the American West, and the violent conflict that went hand in hand with its settlement.

Jacoby, a professor of history at Brown University, will do local events in Providence, RI, and reviews are already scheduled for The American Scholar, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and Tucson Weekly, with much more to come.