OPRAH PICKS A 'WIFE'
For the past few days there's been dancing in the streets around the offices of Little, Brown (well, okay, maybe just some frolicking in their aisles) -- Oprah's latest book club selection is The Pilot's Wife, an LB novel published in May 1998 (hardcover copies in print: 35,000). The Back Bay trade paperback edition was scheduled for a June release, but moved ahead following Ms. Winfrey's announcement -- her 23rd pick -- last Wednesday. A first paperback printing of 650,000 was just augmented with an additional 150,000 copies. This is the sixth novel by acclaimed writer Anita Shreve and her third with Little, Brown (following Resistance and The Weight of Water); her first three titles -- Eden Close, Strange Fits of Passion and Where or When -- were published by Harcourt Brace. Her work has consistently garnered glowing reviews -- the three LB titles, in fact, all received starred reviews from PW. Now, said LB editor-in-chief Michael Pietsch, "Thanks to Oprah's Book Club, a huge new readership will get to experience the beauty and emotional complexity of Anita's novels."

GREATER ABUNDANCE
On March 22, Oprah aired a follow-up show on Sarah Ban Breathnach's Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self (the original show aired on Oct. 13, 1998). Breathnach was the sole guest and dozens of women in the audience gave testimonials as to how instrumental this book and her earlier book, Simple Abundance, have been in changing their lives. As a result, both books went back on the national charts, with Something More landing in our #2 slot. Warner reports that there are a total of 1,051,000 copies in print for that book; it has so far had a 13-week run on PW's weekly list. Simple Abundance has 3,819,000 copies in print; it debuted on our list in April 1996, and has appeared 128 times -- 10 of those in the #1 spot.

SPENSER'S SILVER GIG
With the publication of Hush Money in March, Robert B. Parker marks the 25th anniversary of his classic Boston PI, Spenser, also the inspiration for the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. Putnam published the new book with a first printing of 150,000 and notes that it is one of the fastest-selling Parker novels. Sales have been stimulated by Parker's 13-city tour, which continues through April.

P TRY IN MOTION
P try books seldom sell enough copies to get on the radar screen of bestseller charts -- a fact that holds true also for books published by university presses. So it's not surprising that University of Pittsburgh Press was very excited about its recent numbers on three p try titles by Billy Collins -- Picnic Lightning, Art of Drowning and Questions About Angels. The house noted that in February alone, these three collections sold nearly 8000 copies. Sales to date for Picnic Lightning, released last April, total nearly 20,000. The press has also reprinted all three books -- 10,000 copies apiece for Questions and Art and 7000 for Picnic. Fresh Air/Terry Gross recently rebroadcast an hour-long interview with Collins; the following day Picnic Lightning briefly hit #59 in Amazon.com's bestseller rankings.

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
When Universal Studios was casting about for a new title for its film version of Homer Hickam Jr.'s Rocket Boys, it found the answer in an anagram of the title: the movie -- and Dell's mass market edition of the book -- are now titled October Sky. The former NASA engineer's remembrance of his rocket-building youth in Coalwood, W.Va., during the 1950s was published by Delacorte last September (and received a starred PW review); it has 85,000 copies in print following two trips back to press. Dell's mass market, which marks its third week on our list, has 300,000 copies after five printings. The movie opened on February 19 to glowing reviews; as of the last weekend in March, it was still among the top 15 moneymakers.

With reporting by Dick Donahue.