April 18, 2007   • BEHIND THE NEWS   • New Osteen Book at Three Million   • Grupo Nelson Teams with RBA Editorial • SHORT TAKES   • Eerdmans Book Wins Murray-Tutu Prize; Tyndale Takes the Fiction List; New Book Award for Small Publishers • AUTHOR PROFILE   • Laleh Bakhtiar: An American Woman Translates the Qur'an • RELIGION IN REVIEW   • Four Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, April 23   • A Starred Review Coming in PW on Monday, April 23 • BESTSELLERS: April PW Religion Bestsellers • COMING ATTRACTIONS • HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE BEHIND THE NEWS New Osteen Book at Three Million by Lynn Garrett The next book from megaselling pastor Joel Osteen—Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life—will have a first printing of three million and a one-day laydown on October 15. According to Free Press publisher Martha Levin, the house upped the ante from two million just this week, in response to "the enthusiasm of the accounts," she said. "We've been going at full tilt with this book since January, and in talking to people it became clear that two million wasn't going to be enough." The Osteen first printing is believed to be the highest for a hardcover book in S&S history, said spokesperson Adam Rothberg. Osteen made big news last year ("Osteen Heads to Free Press," PW Daily, Mar. 15, 2006) when he jumped the Warner ship for Simon & Schuster for a deal worth some $13 million, according to informed sources, though S&S denied that figure. Osteen's first book, Your Best Life Now, was published by Warner Faith (now Hachette's FaithWords division) in 2004 and has sold more than four million copies to date, with a constant presence on the bestsellers lists. S&S will publish Become a Better You simultaneously in Spanish-language and audio editions. Grupo Nelson Teams with RBA Editorial The Spanish division of Thomas Nelson, Grupo Nelson, has established a partnership with Spanish publishing company, RBA Editorial Group. Through the deal with RBA, which is based in Spain, Grupo Nelson will bring more marketing and distribution support to the house’s titles in the country, according to v-p and publisher Larry Downs. RBA currently works in magazine publishing, collectibles and specialized books. SHORT TAKES Eerdmans Book Wins Murray-Tutu Prize; Tyndale Takes the Fiction List; New Book Award for Small Publishers by Lynn Garrett >Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing has announced that J. Wenzel van Huyssteen has won the inaugural Andrew Murray-Desmond Tutu Prize for Alone in the World? Human Uniqueness in Science and Technology, which Eerdmans published in April 2006. The prize recognizes "the best Christian and Theological book by a South African in any of its official languages." Established by the Board of the Andrew Murray Prize Fund, the prize will be presented by Desmond Tutu himself in ceremony on May 31 in Wellington, South Africa. Read the full story...   AUTHOR PROFILE Laleh Bakhtiar: An American Woman Translates the Qur'an by Andrea Useem What does it mean beat someone "lightly?" Muslims have debated this question over the centuries while interpreting a verse in the Qur'an where God instructs Muslim men, if they fear "disobedience" from their wives, to take several steps: admonish them, sleep separately from them, and then—here's the point of controversy. Until now most Muslims have understood the final command, idribuhun, to mean "beat them lightly." Scholars have given this phrase a range of meanings, some as innocuous as tapping a wife with a wet noodle, others as ominous as hitting them without leaving a mark. But to Laleh Bakhtiar, an Iranian-American Muslim author and translator, this interpretation seemed both illogical and immoral. "As Muslims we are supposed to follow the Prophet Muhammad's example, and we know that the Prophet never hit anybody," so how could the Qur'an be saying it is okay? Bakhtiar told RBL, noting that when the Prophet Muhammad was upset with any of his multiple wives, he withdrew from them for some weeks rather than beat them. Read the full story... RELIGION IN REVIEW Four Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on Monday, April 23 Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries Noah Levine. Harper San Francisco, $13.95 paper (192p) ISBN 978-0-06-073664-4 Levine's first book, Dharma Punx, was the autobiography of a young hell-raiser. Having escaped juvenile hall and drug addiction through the slow discipline of Buddhist practices, the son of Buddhist author Stephen Levine is now himself a spiritual teacher. READ FULL REVIEW Bad Faith: The Danger of Religious Extremism Neil J. Kressel. Prometheus, $26 (264p) ISBN 978-1-59102-503-0 Are some religions, doctrines and practices more apt to inspire hatred and extremism than others? Are people who commit evil acts in the name of their faith carrying out or corrupting the "true" message of their religion? READ FULL REVIEW A City Upon a Hill: How the Sermon Changed the Course of American History Larry Witham. Harper San Francisco, $24.95 paper (336p) ISBN 978-0-06-085427-0 It takes a non-specialist to write this sort of history nowadays. Journalist Witham has most recently been writing popular studies of science, Darwinism and creationism in the U.S. Here he narrates the history of preaching in America, taking as his title John Winthrop's famous sermonic description to his fellow Puritans on their way to New England. READ FULL REVIEW Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest Churches Scott Thumma and Dave Travis. Jossey-Bass, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7879-9467-9 This data-driven description of American megachurches is aimed at leaders and members of smaller congregations who may harbor apprehensions about this growing phenomenon. READ FULL REVIEW A Starred Review Coming in PW on Monday, April 23 Here If You Need Me: A True Story Kate Braestrup. Little, Brown, $23.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-316-06630-3 It may take ingenuity to interest browsers in a memoir by a middle-aged mother who, 11 years ago, was suddenly widowed, then became a Unitarian-Universalist minister, and now works as chaplain to game wardens in Maine. But good memoir writing does not depend on celebrity or adventure—who'd have thought that a self-confessed recovering neurotic like Anne Lamott or a monastically inclined poet like Kathleen Norris would make it big?—and Braestrup's insightful essays are extraordinarily well written, mingling elements of police procedural and touching love story with trenchant observations about life and death. Alert to comic detail even in grisly circumstances (bears, for example, like to play ball with human skulls), she tells stories of lost children, a suicide, drunken accidents and a murder, always with compassion and a concern for the big questions inescapably provoked by tragic events. "Why did Dad die?" her children ask, and her response describes not only her theology but also her reason for being a chaplain: "Nowhere in scripture does it say 'God is car accident' or 'God is death.' God is justice and kindness, mercy, and always—always—love. So if you want to know where God is in this or in anything, look for love." (Aug.) BESTSELLER BYTES Chart Topper Commentary by Daisy Maryles Controversy continues to surround The Jesus Family Tomb by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino. In the April 10 Jerusalem Post, several scholars who had been interviewed for the eponymous documentary that suggests Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript burial cave in ancient Jerusalem revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth. Read the full story... PW RELIGION BESTSELLERS: April Hardcover Get Out of That Pit! Straight Talk About God's Deliverance Beth Moore. Thomas Nelson/Integrity, $24.99 ISBN 978-0-5914-5552-9 Grace (Eventually) Anne Lamott. Riverhead, $24.95 ISBN 978-0-5944-8942-6 The God Delusion Richard Dawkins. Houghton Mifflin, $27 ISBN 0-618-68000-4 Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs Emerson Eggerichs. Thomas Nelson/Integrity, $21.99 ISBN 978-0-5914-5187-7 The Jesus Family Tomb. Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino. Harper San Francisco, $27.95 ISBN 978-0-06-119202-9 Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris. Knopf, $16.95 ISBN 0-307-26577-3 Your Best Life Now Joel Osteen. FaithWords, $19.95 ISBN 0-446-53275-4 Mother Angelica's Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality Robert Arroyo. Doubleday, $16.95 ISBN 978 0-385-51985-4 Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul John and Stasi Eldredge. Thomas Nelson, $22.95 ISBN 978-0-7852-6469-9 Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know-and Doesn't Stephen Prothero. Harper San Francisco, $24.95 ISBN 978-0-06-084670-1 Paperback Forever Karen Kingsbury. Tyndale, $13.99 ISBN 978-0-4143-0764-0 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life Don Piper with Cecil Murphey. Baker/Revell, $24.99 ISBN 0-8007-5949-4 The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman. Moody/Northfield, $12.99 ISBN 1-881273-15-6 The Purpose-Driven Life Rick Warren. Zondervan. $14.99 ISBN 978-0-310-24756-2 Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why Bart D. Ehrman. Harper San Francisco, $14.95 ISBN 978-0-06-085951-0 Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis. Harper San Francisco, $10 ISBN 0-06-065292-6 Battlefield of the Mind Joyce Meyer. FaithWords, $14.99 ISBN 0-446-69109-7 Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality Donald Miller. Thomas Nelson, $13.99 ISBN 0-7852-6370-5 Ever After Karen Kingsbury. Zondervan, $14.99 ISBN 978-0-310-24756-2 Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World John Hagee. Strang/FrontLine, $14.99 ISBN 0-8423-8744-7     COMING ATTRACTIONS In the next RBL, we’ll talk to Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong about his new book, Jesus for the Non-Religious. CORRECTION: Due to a transmission error, the Catholic bestsellers list in the April 4 issue of RBL was actually the March list. The correct April list will run in next week's RBL. And also in April 4 issue, Rowan Williams's book Tokens of Trust was mistakenly attributed to Canterbury Press, when Westminster John Knox is its sole North American publisher. The correct ISBN for the American edition is 978-0-664-23213-9.   PW Religion BookLine from Publishers Weekly Editors: Lynn Garrett (lgarrett@reedbusiness.com); Daisy Maryles (dmaryles@reedbusiness.com) Contributing Editor: Jana Riess © 2007 Reed Business Information. Published weekly. If your links aren't working, you can view this newsletter by copy and pasting the following URL into your browser: publishersweekly.com/eNewsletter/CA6434266/2287.html To read past issues, click here. TO UNSUBSCRIBE You are currently registered to receive PW Religion BookLine at: michael.gwertzman@reedbusiness.com To unsubscribe, e-mail us here TO VIEW OUR UPDATED PRIVACY POLICY Click here. To subscribe to PW Religion BookLine, go to our newsletter subscription page. Contact your PW sales rep for advertising opportunities. 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