A SOMERS HEAT WAVE
After a two-month stint on the national charts, Suzanne Somers got a media lift that spiked the sales of her Get Skinny on Fabulous Food and propelled it back into our top nonfiction spot. A full hour appearance on Larry King Live on June 29 had customers wanting still more Skinny. Crown's six trips back to press have raised the in-print total to an impressive 450,000. The Three Rivers paperback edition of an earlier title, Suzanne Somers' Eat Great, Lose Weight is back on our trade paper list; copies in print total 260,000 after four printings.

THE LADY OF THE LAKE
Barbara Delinsky, the bestselling author of more than 60 novels, has given her latest, Lake News, a particularly relevant spin. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, this July 2 release (national laydown date: June 22) offers "an incisive look at the power of the media and the easy violation of privacy in the information age." Among her other promotional efforts, Delinsky is availing herself of modern technology: she has participated in online chats at both Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com, and S&S is promoting the book on its SimonSays.com Web site. Other publicity plans include two weeks of advertising on National Network Radio, plus radio spots in 32 additional markets; print ads are set for USA Today and the book review sections of the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle. The author, a lifelong New Englander, is also slated for two New Hampshire store signings. Following a 235,000-copy first printing, two trips back to press bring the book's total to 260,000. A portion of the novel's acknowledgments page concerns PW's late Religion marketing manager and Southern sales representative, and seems especially fitting to quote here: "I also owe a debt of gratitude to Robin Mays, who passed away shortly after I finished writing this book. She's watching us, though. I know she is. Robin, the birdhouses are yours!"

THE WAR TO END ALL WARS
While the devastating effects of World War I have been unforgettably depicted in novels by Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque, seldom are historians credited with covering similar ground as movingly. But John Keegan -- generally considered the leading authority on military history -- has delivered an impressive list of books that not only have gone on to become classics in their field but bona fide bestsellers as well. His 14th, The First World War&&/B>/I>, was launched last month by Knopf with a 75,000-copy first printing; five additional printings bring the total to 96,500. So is a 475-page history of WWI what most people are packing up for the beach? Probably not. And yet Keegan's book has topped several summer roundups in a number of serious venues, including the Wall Street Journal. Keegan flew over from England to appear on Charlie Rose, the News Hour, C-SPAN and NPR; major profiles have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune; and front-page reviews around the country have been glowing. And we thought the only war that would be generating buzz these days was Star Wars.

A 'STRANGE' BESTSELLER
High up on the charts at the national chains (B&N, Walden, etc.) is a new novelization by Dave Wolverton of A Very Strange Trip, based on a 1981 screenplay by L. Ron Hubbard. First printing by Bridge Publications was 78,000; current back-to-press plans will take that figure to over 100,000. Wolverton is on a 20-city tour and the publisher is running a chapter excerpt in Science Fiction Age magazine; copies of the chapter have been distributed to booksellers nationwide. The high-tech novel is the first original SF from Hubbard since Battlefield Earth and the 10-volume Mission Earth, which were published about 10 years ago. According to Bridge, sales of Battlefield Earth are at the five-million mark worldwide.

With reporting by Dick Donahue.