The Penguin Group would like to invite you to join bestselling author Jane Green for a chat about her newest novel, Dune Road, on Monday, July 6^th at 2 PM EST.

You can join the chat by visiting The Water Cooler at the scheduled time. 

Dune Road is the story of life in an exclusive beach town after the tourists have left for the summer and the eccentric (and moneyed) community sticks around—from the bestselling author of The Beach House. Warm, witty and gloriously observed, Dune Road is Jane Green at her best, full of brilliant insights into challenges that come with forging a new life.

The chat, which is the first in what will be a monthly feature in the newly launched "From the Publisher’s Office" network on the Penguin website, will allow readers to ask questions of the author, after having had the first three chapters of the book serialized on the site. The reading experience will be rounded out with a complete Readers Group Guide once the chat has been completed. If you can’t take part, all chats will be archived on the site, so check back at any time.

We’ll also be letting participants in on a special offer to express our thanks for taking part in the chat.

We hope that you’ll be able to join Penguin and Jane Green for this special event!

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Candace Havens is our guest blogger during the week of July 6yj. If you have any questions for Candace Havens, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information on Dragons Prefer Blondes:

Second in the paranormal series featuring the Caruthers sisters, party girls who save the world-between cocktails.

Alex Caruthers is a sassy socialite who knows when it's time to turn in her dancing shoes and kick some serious dragon booty. But when Ginjin-the dragon warrior who's tried to kill her numerous times-chooses her as his mate, Alex finds herself in a situation that's too hot to handle.

For help she turns to Jake, head of Caruthers security-and a total hottie in a suit-and asks him to pose as her boyfriend. Their relationship might be fake, but Alex can't deny that one touch from Jake makes her burn hotter than any dragon could.

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Penguin Books Online Digest, 6/29 - 7/2, 2009

EXCERPT

EXCERPT - Everything Matters!, Ron Currie, Jr. (Viking)

EXCERPT - Glover's Mistake, Nick Laird (Viking)

EXCERPT - Provenance, Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo (The Penguin Press)

FEATURE

FEATURE - Branded by Fire, Nalini Singh (Berkley)

FEATURE - Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang, Katie MacAlister (Signet)

FEATURE - Atlantis Unmasked, Alyssa Day (Berkley)

FEATURE - Burning Alive, Shannon K. Butcher (Onyx)

FEATURE - Skinwalker, Faith Hunter (Roc)

FEATURE - The Dark Reaches, Kristin Landon (Ace)

FEATURE - A Plague of Secrets, John Lescroart (Dutton)

FEATURE - Public Enemies, Bryan Burrough (Penguin)

VIDEO

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Danica McKellar is our guest blogger during the week of July 6th. If you have any questions for Danica McKellar, add a comment to any of her posts.

Here is more information about Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss: 

Read an excerpt.

The New York Times bestseller-from the author of Math Doesn't Suck-teaches girls how to kick pre-algebra butt

In her New York Times bestselling books, actress and math genius Danica McKellar shatters the "math nerd" stereotype and gives girls the tools to ace middle-school math in her unique, just-us-girls style. Now, in her second book, Kiss My Math, McKellar empowers a new crop of girls-seventh to ninth graders-to tackle the next level of mathematics: pre-algebra.

Stepping up not only the math but the sass and style, McKellar helps math-phobic teenagers chill out and finally "get" negative numbers, variables, absolute values, exponents, and more. As she did so effectively in Math Doesn't Suck, McKellar uses personality quizzes, reader polls, real-life testimonials, and stories from her own life-in addition to clear instruction, helpful tips, and practice problems-revealing why pre-algebra is easier, more relevant, and more glamorous than girls think. McKellar is clearly reaching her audience: parents, teachers, and especially girls are asking for more. 

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Since this blog is turning into a Paris primer, I'll tell you some cool things that Paris has added since the last time I was here -- and that we don't have in the States.

1) Paris's City Hall runs what it calls the "Vélib'" rental program - anyone has access to thousands of three-speed, unisex bikes at hundreds of stations around the city. You stick your credit card into a slot, pay €1 for a 30 minute ride, and go. (If your trip goes longer, you pay a little more.) Anyone can pick up a bike at any Vélib' station and return it at any other one.

We in America are so turned-off by the government, but this kind of thing is so cool; I can't see any downside. It gets people moving around the city faster, and exercising; it eases traffic; it's cheaper (and more fun) than the subway; and its good for the environment. I wonder if any US cities will start doing this?

2) Paris Plages. (Paris beaches.)

All around the city, man-made sandy beaches are set up, each with a pool, with deckchairs, ice cream stands, with concerts. Because they're a book friendly country, you can also borrow books free of charge, play beach volleyball, etc. The bummer is that it doesn't start until July 20. (This was here the last time I visited, but its on;y been around for about five years, so I thought it was worth mentioning.)

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As I've been visiting various cities and promoting the book, people have been asking how I managed to get Art Williams to open up and tell his story. This is a natural question, given that he not only shared some very valuable criminal secrets, but also bared many of the emotional wounds that helped mold his criminality in the first place.

What can I say? I'm a journalistic ninja with the ability to get sources to instantly pour out their stories. Seriously, at the risk of sounding reductive, there are only two ways a journalist can get a source to talk honestly: because the source wants to, or because he is forced to. And Art definitely wanted to talk.

Why? The answer he first told me was that he was sick of his life. He wanted to put crime behind him, and telling our stories-whether we're criminals or congressmen-is a well-worn path towards exercising our demons. Confession must be as old as language. But as I got to know Art better, I saw other motives as well. He was proud of his counterfeiting accomplishments-not because he had "beat the system" or anything so vainglorious-but because buried within him was that 12-year-old kid who had skipped two grades before winding up in the projects. Even though poverty and crime had been determining factors with him, in his heart he wanted inclusion into a bigger world where he'd still be considered part of the smart set.

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Last night I read to a nice crowd at Shakespeare and Co. Then a bunch of writers and I (Jonathan Safran Foer, the poets Joshua Beckman and Matthew Roher) had dinner at a bistro near Notre Dame with Sylvia, owner of Shakespeare and Co and the daughter of its founder, a guy who used to hang with all the famous Beats. The night felt very Parisian - public reading, bistro, famous writers -- and was the first time I can say that I felt at all like Hemingway. (Not that I'm claining - are you listening crazy blog people? - not that I'm claiming to be anywhere near as good as Hemingway.... Though I do have a certain macho appeal, especially when my back isn't hurting and if I've avoided dairy, which can make me gassy.)

Anyway, I've been reading Updike a lot since he died, and am reading him now. (Of The Farm.) It's weird to feel the need to defend a guy whose career saw the abundant successes and lotto-size returns that Updike's did. But it's weird, too, what's happened to our bard of suburbia; why is it that so many younger writers don't groove on Updike?

 

 

 

 

» Jennifer Kolari, MSW, RSW, discusses and reads her guide to forming bonds with and understanding challenging children.

» Read more about Connected Parenting

» Read Jennifer Kolari's posts on the Penguin Blog

Jennifer Kolari, Connected Parenting, Podcast

 

 

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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.