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It's summer and that means summer movies! Check out the new Johnny Depp film, Public Enemies, which is based on a book by Penguin author, Bryan Burrough.

About the book:

"Ludicrously entertaining" (Time), Public Enemies is the story of the most spectacular crime wave in American history, the two-year battle between the young J. Edgar Hoover, his FBI and an assortment of criminals who became national icons: John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers. In an epic feat of storytelling, Burrough reveals a web of interconnections within the vast American underworld and demonstrates how Hoover's G-men overcame their early fumbles to secure the FBI's rise to power. Listen to a podcast with author Bryan Burrough for his book The Big Rich.

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Penguin Canada Takes Home Four Canadian Booksellers Awards

Penguin Group (Canada) followed up its 2008 Publisher of the Year win with four CBA Libris Awards from the Canadian Booksellers’ Association in 2009, including two awards for Joseph Boyden, who is published in the U.S. by Viking/Penguin.

• Marketing Achievement of the Year, for “Extraordinary Canadians,” biographies that re-imagine Canada’s most influential historical figures from the fresh new perspective of bestselling writers such as Joseph Boyden, Douglas Coupland and Vincent Lam;
• Sales Representative of the Year, to Adrienne Kerr, Penguin Canada Sales representative for Southwest Ontario;
• and a double win for Joseph Boyden, whose critically acclaimed Through Black Spruce (published in the US by Viking) won the Fiction Book of the Year Award, and whose outstanding literary work, contribution to Canadian culture, and support to the bookselling industry translated into an Author of the Year Award.

Boyden’s biography of Métis leaders Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont will be published as part of Penguin Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series in March 2010. The series is also the subject of an upcoming 12-part documentary television series on OMNI and The Biography Channel; news on author events and upcoming titles can be found here.

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Greg Mortenson Honored by National Education Association

On July 2nd, the National Education Association (NEA) will honor Viking/Penguin author Greg Mortenson with the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award, a special Human and Civil Rights Award, at the NEA’s annual meeting in San Diego, California. The NEA Human and Civil Rights Awards program honors individuals and organizations that promote peace and advance social and economic justice for all people. The Mary Hatwood Futrell Award is given to a nominee whose activities make a significant impact on education and on the achievement of equal opportunity for women and girls.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Three Cups of Tea has also received Pakistan’s highest civil award, Sitara-e-Pakistan (“The Star of Pakistan”) for his efforts to promote education and literacy and is also a nominee for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Concerning Three Cups of Tea, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel stated, “Every student in America’s public schools should receive a copy to learn firsthand what one person can truly do to make a difference in the world.”

Explore the reading group guide for Three Cups of Tea.
 

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#1 New York Times Bestsellers from Catherine Coulter and Sarah Dessen Add to Penguin Group (USA)’s Outstanding Bestseller Performance

Penguin Group (USA) continues to lead the industry in #1 New York Times bestsellers, with a total of 20 titles reaching that coveted position so far in 2009, as KnockOut by Catherine Coulter (Putnam) hits at #1 on the hardcover fiction list, and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen (Viking) appears at #1 on the children’s chapter books list for the week of July 5th.

KnockOut, the 13th novel in Coulter’s wildly popular FBI thriller series, starring husband-and-wife FBI Special Agent duo, Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock, introduces seven-year-old Autumn Backman. Autumn has a rare gift: she can communicate telepathically with a select few people, with whom she shares a special kinship. In a starred review in Publishers Weekly, Coulter was praised for the “well-developed characters and an expertly paced plot” that make KnockOut “one of the best in this paranormal suspense series.”

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So, I'm in Paris. Not the most natural place to be when your paperback is coming out in the US of A - but, I had a plan.

Today, Monday, June 29th, I'm reading at the venerable Shakespeare & Co.  - the independent Parisian bookstore that was instrumental in launching the careers of Hemingway and Joyce.  Plus, I'm scheduled to be interviewed on France24 -- a cable TV station that often does interviews in English - for a segment that's going to run six times today, all across Europe.

Or, that was the plan.

Somehow, though, things got screwed up. My French is bad (I mean, like trying-to-talk-to-a-dog bad). So when I answered France24 that, Yes,  I'd love to be in your studios, by some contortion of bad translation it came out as: Hell, no -I'd never do your stupid show, you French idiots.

So. Off to a good start.