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Penguin Group (USA) Has Major Presence at ALA Conference
Penguin Group (USA) had a major presence at the annual American Library Association conference in Washington DC, where 20,000 librarians converged this past weekend. The Penguin booth was packed throughout the conference with enthusiastic librarians who browsed and purchased display copies, snapped up galleys and promotional items, stood on long lines to meet signing authors, and did their best to avoid the 100 degree temperatures outside the convention center. The Academic Sales & Marketing team of Alan Walker, Dominique Jenkins, Tanya Leet, Sara Clemens and Kym Giacoppe was joined at the booth by Howard Wall and Joe Johnson from the PGI Sales division. The We Give Books program was also introduced to the library community, with the newest batch of live in-booth readers helping to push the running book donation total to over 12,000 by the end of the conference.
As always, Penguin authors were the stars of the show: Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor, Dave Isay and Junot Diaz all brought in big crowds as part of ALA's keynote auditorium speaker series. PGI authors were featured on every themed ALTAFF panel: Madeline Hunter, author of Ravishing in Red (Jove) in the Romance panel; Dwayne Betts, author of A Question of Freedom (Avery) (pictured here) and Randa Jarrar, author of A Map of Home (Penguin), both on the Diversity panel; Jean Kwok, author of Girl in Translation (Riverhead) on the First Authors panel; Jim Breuer, author of I'm Not High (Gotham) and Julie Klausner, author of I Don't Care About Your Band (Gotham) on the Humor panel; and Sophie Hannah, author of The Dead Lie Down (Penguin) at the ALTAFF Tea. Laney Salisbury, author of Provenance (Penguin Press), gave a great talk as part of ALA's prestigious Notable Books Breakfast, and Ann B. Ross' Miss Julia Renews Her Vows (Viking), Vicki Myron's Dewey's Nine Lives (Dutton), Sarah Blake's The Postmistress (Amy Einhorn/Putnam), Maggie Sefton's Skein of the Crime (Berkley) and Peter Bognanni's The House of Tomorrow (Amy Einhorn/Putnam) all made appearances at the booth for well-attended signings.
Penguin Young Readers Group Authors Steal the Show at ALA Conference
Penguin Young Readers Group also enjoyed a terrific American Library Association Conference with well attended author presentations, mobbed book signings, and award celebrations.
At the American Library Service for Children pre-conference, David Small, author of Elsie's Bird (Philomel), spoke to a select group of 150 librarians about the process of creating a picture book and Rosemary Wells, author of Max & Ruby (Viking), and Viking Publisher, Regina Hayes, discussed publishing changes over the past 20 years. Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still (Dutton), ended the day by celebrating her William Morris finalist award for a debut young adult author with her committee.
Jacqueline Woodson, author of Pecan Pie Baby, kicked off the first official day of the conference with a Reader's Theater performance for over 400 librarians.
On Sunday, Andrea Creamer, author of Nightshade (Philomel), John Green and David Levithan, authors of Will Grayson, Will Grayson (Dutton), John Barnes, author of Tales of the Madman Underground (Viking), Ally Condie, author of Matched (Dutton), and Nancy Werlin, author of Extraordinary (Dial), speed promoted their books to 360 librarians at the Young Adult Coffee Klatch and John Green, David Levithan, and Andrea Creamer entertained 50 teens at the Penguin sponsored pizza party.
On Monday, John Grisham, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (Dutton) (pictured here), spoke to over 1000 enthralled librarians at ALA's keynote auditorium speaker series and John Barnes celebrated his Printz Honor and gave an award presentation speech to 300 young adult librarians.
Andrew Ross Sorkin Wins Loeb Award for Too Big to Fail
Earlier this week, the recipients of the Loeb Awards were announced and Andrew Ross Sorkin was selected as the winner in the Business Book Award category for Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System - and Themselves (Viking). The Loeb Awards are among the highest honors in business journalism and the winning entry in each category receives $2,000. This year's Loeb Awards encompassed the major business stories of the past year, including the Toyota recall, Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme and investigations into the causes of the financial meltdown.
The Loeb Awards have been presented for 37 years by Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. They were established in 1957 by Gerald Loeb, a financier and founding partner of E.F. Hutton, to honor journalists who make significant contributions to the understanding of business, finance and the economy.
To view the full list of winners, click here.
Follow the Car! More Highlights from the Penguin Anniversary-Mobile
The Penguin Anniversary-Mobile hit California this week. On Monday, the car was in Berkeley at Book, Inc. for an event hosted by Michael Pollan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Food Rules (Penguin). Pollan spoke for about 45 minutes before taking questions from the audience. The event was a huge success with about 200 attendees and many books sold throughout the evening. The Penguin Mini was also a big hit with many fans excited to take pictures next to it. Michael's eagerly-awaited event was also plugged in the local papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle.
Unfortunately, it was following this successful event that Penguin driver, as well as Editor-in-Chief and VP of Penguin Books, Stephen Morrison discovered a little problem....He updated the Penguin blog writing, "Leaping into the Penguin Mobile, I powered up and drove off only to discover that the dashboard was telling me the tire was low....by the time I parked up by the restaurant and got out to look at the tire...it wasn't just low...it was completely flat." But no worries! The tire was fixed and the Penguin Mini was quickly back on the road.
On Wednesday, the Penguin Mini continued its journey with a stop at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena. The event featured Penguin representatives Howard Wall and Amy Comito, as well as author of The Divorce Party (Penguin), Laura Dave. The special guest of the night was John Parrot, winner of the 'Penguin Cover Challenge' from Bravo's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. The Los Angeles Times plugged the event in there Book Events section.
Stay tuned for more coverage in next week's Spotlight, and keep up with the Penguin Mini's tour with blog posts and photos in Penguin Community.
Pictured: The Penguin mini in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Iowa City Book Fair Celebrates Penguin's 75th
In addition to the usual activities and excitement of the annual Iowa City Book Festival, this year readers will have even more to look forward to! The book festival will be joining in on the Penguin 75th celebrations with a Penguin sponsored book raffle. The lucky winner of the raffle will receive the complete Penguin 75th anniversary book set, with titles representing the best of Penguin's rich 75 year history. Tickets go on sale July 12th for $5 with all proceeds going to the Iowa City Book Festival.
The Iowa City Book Festival, presented by the University of Iowa libraries, is a three-day celebration of books, reading and writing. This year's festival will take place on July 16th - 18th.
Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire Mystery Series in Development for a TV Show
A television series based on Craig Johnson's Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire from the Viking/Penguin Walt Longmire Mystery Series is in development with Warner Horizon Television and TNT. Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Greer Shephard and Michael M. Robin (The Shephard/Robin Company) are executive producing alongside Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny, who are adapting the novel for the small screen. Greg Yaitanes is attached to direct. Shephard and Robin are currently executive producers on "The Closer" (TNT). Among other projects, they executive produced "Nip/Tuck" (FX) and "Trust Me" (TNT), the latter created and produced by Baldwin and Coveny. Yaitanes is also an executive producer and Emmy Award-winning director on "House" (Fox).
Craig Johnson is currently touring via motorcycle throughout the summer for the dual publications of Viking's Junkyard Dogs (the sixth novel in the award-winning series) and Penguin's The Dark Horse. When asked who he thought should play the tough but tender sheriff, Johnson, who has been retained as a creative consultant, replied, "Gary Cooper, but he's not returning our calls."
For more information on Craig or his motorcycle tour, please visit his website.
Villanova Selects The Unforgiving Minute as Its 2010 FYE Book
Villanova University has chosen The Unforgiving Minute by Craig Mullaney (Penguin Press/ Penguin) for their annual "One Book Villanova Program" for this coming fall semester. The author will speak on campus. Villanova has one of the largest FYE programs in the nation and this is the third Penguin book chosen in the program's four year history. Previously, the school chose The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) and Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji (NAL). Like its predecessors, The Unforgiving Minute will enrich discussion on campus with its connections to current world events, engaging narrative and inspiring coming-of-age story.
Read an excerpt and view the reading group guide.
New This Week
Home Team by Sean Payton (NAL, 6/29)
Home Team: Coaching the Saints and New Orleans Back to Life is the revealing and emotional story about how a football team and a city raised each other back up after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, culminating in the Saints winning their first Super Bowl championship in franchise history. Written by Saints Head Coach Sean Payton and New Orleans native (and Newsday columnist) Ellis Henican, Home Team has already received incredible praise from around the country, with the New Orleans Times-Picayune raving "A book whose ending is known by all must get by on the strength of its previously undisclosed details, and this book is filled with them... [Payton's] delight in telling it is contagious, with breezy anecdotes, flourishes of wit, and just enough candor and salty language to reassure the reader that the manuscript wasn't whitewashed by some No Fun League public relations hack in New York."
Coach Payton was in New York this week for a national media blitz, doing over 20 interviews with ESPN (television, radio, and online); and interviews with NBC's "Today Show," SiriusXM radio, Versus' Network's "The Daily Line," Bloomberg News, Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," MSNBC's "Morning Joe," and several of the top NFL columnists in the country. His appearance on the nationally syndicated "Dr. Phil" airs July 6th, with another flurry of national media airing the week of July 12th from Los Angeles, with Coach Payton appearing on ESPN's "ESPY Awards," PBS' "The Tavis Smiley Show," the NFL Network, and the nationally syndicated sports radio program, "The Jim Rome Show."
With the New Orleans Saints taking on the Minnesota Vikings in The Superdome for the first nationally televised game of the NFL season on September 9th, Home Team will continue to attract national media attention through the summer.
New Next Week
The Search by Nora Roberts (Putnam, 7/6)
Putnam will publish The Search, the latest stand-alone novel from superstar Nora Roberts next week. In this latest romantic suspense, Nora explores the discipline, hard work and heroism of search-and-rescue dogs and the humans they partner with. A dog owner herself, Nora is familiar with the fierce intelligence and unwavering loyalty of a beloved dog.
The Search was featured on "Good Morning America" on June 30th as one of the show's summer reading picks and an Associated Press review of the book will run in various major newspapers across the country next week. The early reviews have been great. Library Journal raved, "another gripping page-turner from one of the genre's best" and Romantic Times Book Reviews said, "an un-put-downable read! Roberts again proves why her name is synonymous with excellence."
With 169 New York Times bestsellers and more than 400 million copies of her books in print, #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts is a true publishing phenomenon. Last year Roberts was dubbed "America's favorite writer" by The New Yorker-a claim that's easy to support as 2009 saw her books debut at the top of all three New York Times adult fiction bestseller lists (hardcover, trade paperback, mass market).
Read an excerpt from The Search.
