Penguin Group (USA) Weekly Update - 2/25

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"The Oprah Winfrey Show" to Promote A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle on Three Upcoming Shows As the World Gears Up for Oprah's First-Ever Live Interactive Webcast

Oprah Winfrey interviews Dutton President and Publisher Brian Tart as part of a segment on the phenomenon of the Oprah's Book Club selection and webcasts on tomorrow's show - which will also feature interviews with celebrities who love the #1 New York Times bestseller, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and two members of Oprah's Book Club from the US. A New Earth and the webcast will also be promoted next week, on the Monday, February 25th show. Then Thursday, February 28th, Oprah will devote the last segment of her show to message board comments about A New Earth and the upcoming webcast.

Beginning March 3rd, Oprah Winfrey will join author and renowned spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle to teach a free, live interactive webinar exclusively on Oprah.com. Each weekly class will correspond to a chapter from A New Earth, with the discussion focusing on the chapter's themes. 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.

Viking/Penguin's Reading the Man Selected as Co-Winner for Prestigious Lincoln Prize

Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters by Elizabeth Pryor (Viking/Penguin) was recently named co-winner of this year's Lincoln Prize at an awards ceremony at Gettysburg College. The other winner was The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes. Each author will receive a $20,000 cash prize.

The prestigious Lincoln Prize is awarded annually by the Lincoln and Soldiers Institute at Gettysburg College for the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier, or a subject relating to their era. Last year's winner was Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. This prize has also been won by such authors as John Hope Franklin, James McPherson and William McFeely.

Gotham Author Kevin Cook Wins 2007 USGA Book Honors

Kevin Cook's Tommy's Honor has been named the recipient of the United States Golf Association's 2007 Herbert Warren Wind Book Award. This award recognizes Tommy's Honor as an outstanding contribution to golf literature while attempting to broaden the public's interest in, and knowledge of, the game of golf.

Tommy's Honor recounts the detailed history of Old and Young Tom Morris, the father and son from St. Andrews who dominated professional golf in Scotland during the latter half of the 19th century. "It's a great pleasure to get the Herbert Warren Wind Award," said Cook. "I fell in love with the Morrises' story in 1986 on my first trip to St. Andrews."

The USGA is a national governing body of golf in the United States and Mexico, including more than half the world's golfers and golf courses. The Herbert Warren Wind Book Award was established in 1987 in honor of the famed New Yorker and Sports Illustrated writer who coined the phrase "Amen Corner" at Augusta National.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of March 2nd

Penguin Group (USA) holds a 2008 industry best five #1 positions simultaneously on The New York Times bestseller lists: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) is #1 on the Hardcover Nonfiction List; 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; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #1 on the Trade Paperback Fiction List; and The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Jove) is #1 on the Mass-Market Fiction List

This marks the fifth time this year that Penguin Group (USA) has achieved four or more simultaneous #1 New York Times bestsellers in the same week. See today's previously distributed Spotlight Special for a full report.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights for the week of March 2nd:

On the hardcover fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #4 in its 39th week; Stranger in Paradise by Robert B. Parker (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is at #5 in its second week; World Without End by Ken Follett (Dutton) holds at #6 in its nineteenth week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Viking) moves up to #8 in its seventh week; The Ghost War by Alex Berenson (G. P. Putnam's Sons) debuts at #11; and Sizzle and Burn is #12 in its third week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) is #1 in its seventh week; and Iceman by Chuck Liddell (Dutton) is at #16 in its third week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is at #1 in its fourteenth week; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) holds at #5 in its 154th week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #8 in its seventh week; and The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) moves up to #9 in its 87th week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, The Faithful Spy by Alex Berenson (Jove) shoots up to #1 in its third week; Tom Clancy's Endwar by David Michaels (Berkley) rises to #4 in its second week; White Lies by Jayne Ann Krentz (Jove) moves up to #7 in its second week; Hard to Handle by Lori Foster (Berkley) is at #10 in its second week; White Night by Jim Butcher (Roc) is at #11 in its second week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Signet) is at #14 in its seventeenth week; Three in Death by J.D. Robb (Berkley) is at #15 in its third week; and Dawn's Awakening by Lora Leigh (Berkley) is at #17, in its second week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) holds in the #1 position in its 56th week; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) follows right behind at #2 in its 55th week; and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) moves up to #13 in its 25th week.

On the advice, how-to, and miscellaneous paperback list, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) holds at #1 in its third week; and Getting Things Done by David Allen (Penguin) is at #10 in its fourteenth week.

In the young readers sector, Valentines are for Saying I Love You by Margaret Sutherland, illustrated by Amy Wummer (Grosset & Dunlap) moves up to #3 on the children's paperback list, while Barack Obama by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) rises to #7 on that same list. Ranger's Apprentice by John Flanagan (Philomel, hardcover and paperback) returns to the children's series list at #8 in its twelfth week.

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