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Penguin Books Online Digest, 9/15 - 10/5, 2009

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPTS (5)

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPT The Scarpetta Factor Abridged Patricia Cornwell (Penguin Audio)

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPT The Scarpetta Factor Unabridged Patricia Cornwell (Penguin Audio)

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPT More Information Than You Require John Hodgman (Penguin Audio)

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPT Death Masks Jim Butcher (Penguin Audio)

AUDIOBOOK EXCERPT A Simple Christmas Mike Huckabee (Penguin Audio)

EXCERPTS (2)

EXCERPT Bicycle Diaries David Byrne (Viking)

EXCERPT Shooting Stars LeBron James and Buzz Bissinger (Penguin Press)

FEATURES (5)

FEATURE Covet J.R. Ward (Signet)

FEATURE Demon Forged Meljean Brook (Berkley)

FEATURE Shadowlight Lynn Viehl (Onyx)

FEATURE Dragon Moon Rebecca York (Berkley)

FEATURE Dracula The Un-dead Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt (Dutton)

Q&A (1)

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Hello from La Carmina!

My life revolves around Japanese pop culture; I'm the author of three books and blog about Harajuku fashion and all things kitschy-cute. I'm very excited to share my new cookbook with you -- Cute Yummy Time. 

Cute Yummy Time is inspired by the art of the cute bento. Japan's latest food trend: dolling up school lunches to look like adorable creatures (Hello Kitty, Pokemon). The creations are a feast for the eyes, but not all the ingredients may be familiar to Western palates. So Cute Yummy Time thinks outside the bento box, sharing more than 70 recipes for making food "so cute, you could just eat it!" 

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Two Gotham/Avery Authors Take Home Coveted Emmy Awards 

Gotham and Avery authors sure are busy: both Jim Kakalios and Diana Holtzberg have taken home Emmy awards The author of Gotham’s The Physics of Superheroes, as well as a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, Kakalios won an Upper Midwest Regional Emmy Award in the “Advanced Media: Arts/Entertainment category for his YouTube video “The Science of Watchmen." As the on-set science consultant for the hit 2008 movie The Watchmen, Kakalios’s unique insider’s perspective drove more than 1.5 million hits for the video, which was jointly produced by the Institute of Technology and the News Service Team.

In addition, at the 30th News and Documentary Film Awards on September 21st, Avery author Diana Holtzberg won an Emmy in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming category for the HBO documentary film, “The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale,” which reveals the unusual rise and fall of the 1980s artist Chuck Connelly. Holtzberg served as the Executive Producer for Films Transit International. Along with Deirdre Fishel, she is the co-author of the Avery book Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over Sixty (out in paperback 11/3), which is based on the critically acclaimed, eponymous documentary.

Congratulations to both Jim and Diana for their remarkable achievement!

Pictured: Diana Holtzberg after accepting the award.
 

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The 2009 National Book Festival Draws Record Crowd

The 2009 National Book Festival, which took place last weekend in Washington DC, was a major success, drawing a record number of attendees, with over 130,000 booklovers making it out to the National Mall, despite rainy weather.

Fifteen authors from Penguin Group (USA) participated this year, and all drew packed crowds for their presentations in the various pavilions on the National Mall on Saturday. Haynes Johnson/ Dan Balz (Viking/Penguin); Sue Monk Kidd/ Ann Kidd Taylor (Viking/Penguin); Junot Diaz (Riverhead); Daniel Silva (Putnam); Walter Mosley (Riverhead); Mark Kurlansky (Riverhead); Margaret Coel (Berkley); Craig Johnson (Viking/Penguin); and Ricky Minor (Gotham), as well as Penguin Young Readers Group authors Jon Sciezka; Jacqueline Woodson; Stephen Kellogg; and Nikki Grimes, all greeted hundreds of fans who braved the rain to hear their talks. In addition, Junot Diaz was a big hit as a featured headlining author at the festival's kick-off breakfast, hosted by the Washington Post, on Saturday morning, prior to the festival.

The Penguin Group (USA) booth area was constantly busy with readers of all ages who turned out to take photos with the Penguin and the Very Hungry Caterpillar, grab free Penguin Young Readers books and participate in a variety of book-related arts-and-crafts projects. Pictured here is Dr. James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, who stopped by the booth for an impromptu dance party with the Penguin.

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The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of October 11th

Penguin Group (USA) has four debuts on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of October 11th: on the hardcover fiction list, Hothouse Orchid by Stuart Woods (Putnam) is #5, while Hardball by Sara Paretsky (Putnam) is #9; and on the children’s picture books list, Otis, written and illustrated by Loren Long (Philomel) is #8, while Miss Smith and the Haunted Library by Michael Garland (Dutton) is #10.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:

On the hardcover fiction list, The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books/ Putnam) is #4 in its 26th week; Spartan Gold by Clive Cussler with Grant Blackwood (Putnam) is #10 in its fourth week; and Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #12 in its 21st week.

Standing on the edge of the blank page is one of my favorite places to be.  From here, anything could happen.  Ooh, the curiosity, the excitement, the burgeoning sense of infinite power!  Bwa ha! 

But with each word I type, the probability waves collapse and a story emerges.  That act of creation (or unveiling, depending on how much stock you put in the Muse) happens in all genres, but there's an added surge of unpredictability when the story contains science fiction, fantasy or paranormal elements.  Those otherworldly facets are inexhaustible -vampires and aliens and were-sea cucumbers, oh my!-so how to choose?  Alternate dimensions and time travel are thrilling to contemplate, but the writing has to take place in linear time in this boring old dimension with only one storyworld emerging from the limitless potential.

The world of the Marked Souls-my urban fantasy romance series from Signet Eclipse debuting with Seduced By Shadows tomorrow!-arose out of one simple question: Are we basically good or basically evil?

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Pooh, who had just put his paw into the tenth pot of honey, left it there, just to be on the safe side, and asked: "What about Christopher Robin?"
"The Rumour, Pooh. Do you suppose he has come back?" - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

To celebrate the publication of the first new Winnie-the-Pooh book in 80 years, here is a very short History of Pooh:

The oddly name (but beloved) bear known as Winnie-the-Pooh received his name from the real Christopher Robin, author A.A. Milne's son, who named his teddy bear after animals he saw at the London Zoo.

Milne first wrote about a teddy bear who was "short and fat" in his 1924 book of poems, When We Were Very Young. The bear that we know and love as Winnie-the-Pooh had his debut a year later in a story Milne wrote for the Christmas edition of the British newspaper, the Evening Standard. This story later became the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne only wrote one more Pooh book after that, The House at Pooh Corner.