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Putnam Launches Major Publicity Campaign for Sue Grafton’s U is for Undertow
Putnam will launch one of the biggest publicity campaigns Sue Grafton has ever had for her latest book, U is for Undertow, due out on December 1st. National media includes features in USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Readers Digest, Time.com, AARP Magazine and Costco Connection. Coverage is also confirmed in People, Washington Post, Portland Oregonian, Tampa Tribune, Southern Living Magazine, Kansas City Star, Louisville Courier-Journal, and the Richmond Times Dispatch.
Sue will be on the road the first two weeks of December doing major talks and book signings in eight cities, including New York, Louisville, Atlanta, Kansas City, Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, with radio and print interviews in every market.
Grafton has been interviewed for Barnes & Noble's prestigious video series “Tagged!” She has also been interviewed as part of Borders author feature series, Borders Presents.
Over the past 25 years Sue Grafton, one of the most popular and highly-acclaimed mystery writers of the 21st Century and #1 New York Times bestselling alphabet mystery series, has become iconic…notably, her one-of-a-kind female private investigator Kinsey Millhone has become a cultural phenomenon. Grafton’s novels have earned her numerous awards, critical raves, and editions in twenty-six languages and twenty-eight countries. This year, Sue was also named Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.
In U is for Undertow, Kinsey investigates the disappearance of a little girl in the California coastal town of Santa Teresa. When a fragile young man shows up at Kinsey’s door in 1988, claiming that he saw two men burying a suspicious bundle twenty-one years earlier, she doesn’t know whether to believe him or not. Using multiple points of view, shifting between the booming ’80s and the freewheeling ’60s, Grafton has crafted an adult boy-who-cried-wolf story that is guaranteed to keep readers up late.
Thirteen Penguin Group (USA) Titles Are Among the 2009 Booklist's Editors’ Choice Selections
Booklist announced their 2009 Editor’s Choice selections and Penguin Group (USA) has five adult titles and eight young readers titles on the list. The titles are:
- Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby (Riverhead)
- Googled by Ken Auletta (The Penguin Press)
- The Third Reich at War by Richard Evans (The Penguin Press)
- Man of Constant Sorrow by Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean (Gotham)
- Miles from Nowhere by Nami Mun (Riverhead)
- Fire by Kristin Cashore (Dial)
- I Want to Be Free by Joseph Slate (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
- Marching for Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge (Viking)
- Mission Control, This Is Apollo by Andrew Chaikin (Viking)
- A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck (Dial)
- Sweethearts of Rhythm by Marilyn Nelson (Dial)
- Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking)
- Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin (Dutton)
The adult and books for youth editorial staff at Booklist selected titles as representative of the year’s outstanding books for public-library collections. The complete list will be available in the January edition.
John Flanagan’s Rangers Apprentice Series to be Transformed into BookPeople Literary Camp in Summer 2010
The New York Times bestselling Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan will be the newest series to be transformed into the popular BookPeople literary camp for summer 2010. Topher Bradfield, Children’s Outreach Coordinator for BookPeople in Austin, TX and Camp Director, began the literary camps in 2006 with Camp Half-Blood based on the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. That year, there were 54 campers. The camps have grown over the past four years, selling out with 502 campers attending six sessions of Camp Half-Blood (with over 240 names on the waiting list.) Other literary camps that BookPeople have created and ran include Camp Spiderwick, Half Moon Investigations Camp and Kiki Strike Camp.
Camp Ranger’s Apprentice will include activities like archery, tracking, concealment, rock climbing and sword and sax knife training. There will be a back story woven through the training exercises and a quest to complete that will draw from material in the books. All the campers will be divided into groups by Fife. At the end of the summer, campers will become apprentices, each earning a silver oak leaf pin.
In January 2010, Penguin Young Readers will launch a national sweepstakes to win a spot at the Ranger’s Apprentice Camp. The contest will be promoted through online advertising and with a postcard blown into Ranger’s Apprentice: Erak’s Ransom, on sale January 5th. More information, including a letter from Ranger’s Apprentice protagonist Will Treaty can be found here. Registration opened on Saturday, November 14th and as of this past Wednesday, there were only twelve spots left. Topher reported that it was the best start of any first year camp. Shelf Awareness ran a story announcing the Ranger’s Apprentice camp on Wednesday, November 11th.
The Help and The Omnivore’s Dilemma Are Favorites Among the Stars
In the December issue of InStyle magazine, seven celebrities tell readers which book they can’t put down in the “Hot Reads” section and two Penguin Group (USA) titles make the list. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker, can’t put down The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn/ Putnam). The Help has been on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list for 33 weeks and is #4 this week. Singer Katy Perry has also been spotted with a copy. Canadian actress Rachel McAdams has been seen with a copy of Michael Pollan’s New York Times bestseller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and says she can’t put it down. The Omnivore’s Dilemma has been on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list for 113 weeks and is #15 on the list this week.
Read an excerpt and explore the reading group guide for The Help, and listen to a podcast with author Kathryn Stockett.
Explore The Omnivore’s Dilemma reading group guide to read our Q&A with Michael Pollan. Pollan defines the omnivore’s dilemma and comments on topics from both The Omnivore’s Dilemma and his second book In Defense of Food.
