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The Barnes & Noble web site is certainly looking lovely today. Defending Jacob is currently at #48 on the B&N bestseller list and rising fast — it was around #350 at lunchtime. Not bad for a book that hasn’t even been published yet! I want to cherish little moments like this because, hey, you never know. Maybe this is as good as it gets.

With just a couple of weeks left until Defending Jacob is published, last week brought two bombshells.

First, Barnes & Noble announced that Defending Jacob will be February’s pick for the Barnes & Noble Recommends program. This is a game-changer. For four or five weeks from its publication date, the book will have a prime placement at the front of every B&N store, accompanied by endorsements from booksellers. It will be heavily promoted online, as well. Already, Defending Jacob is prominently featured in the B&N Bookseller’s Guide to Good Reading and the list of Best Books of the Month. And — my favorite part — the dust jacket of all B&N stock will feature the lovely gold badge you see above. I am incredibly honored. The list of past selections for B&N Recommends is a roll call of books that were “that book.” Maybe, just maybe, Defending Jacob will be “that book” for a while, too.

Also last week, the American Booksellers Association announced that Defending Jacob made the Indie Next list for February. Another huge honor and one that is sure to bring the book to many, many people’s attention. I am always exhorting people to support their local indie bookstore if they’re lucky enough to have one. What a wonderful thing to have the indies supporting me!

It crosses every writer’s mind at some point: what would it be like to be picked for the Indie Next list? Or B&N Recommends? Happily, I’m about to find out.

Other news:

• Bookreporter.com has a nice new feature on Defending Jacob. The “author spotlight” includes a book-giveaway contest and an original essay by me, in which I hold forth shamelessly on “the unwritten rules of the legal thriller.” (Hint: I did not know there were rules until they asked me to write about them.)
• Barnes & Noble has added a new feature to the Defending Jacob page at BN.com: an interview I did recently with writer-editor Tess Taylor. Have I become such a gasbag that I can fill multiple web sites with my carrying-on? It’s starting to look that way.
• The Author Tour page has been updated with some newly scheduled radio appearances and an additional Boston-area reading, on March 1 at 7:00 PM at my own local bookstore, the lovely Newtonville Books, just a mile or so from the murder scene in Defending Jacob.