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Viking Author David Benioff Wins Fiction Award from the SCIBA

At the Southern California Independent Bookseller Association's annual Author's Feast and Awards last weekend, Viking author David Benioff was presented with the SCIBA award in the fiction category for City of Thieves. The SCIBA Awards celebrate the eloquent literary voices who define what it means to be a Southern Californian. City of Thieves received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, great praise from The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and many others. The New York Times Book Review called his book "... a refreshingly traditional tale, driven by an often ingenious plot.... In contrast to the piety of so many of today's historical novels-their facts feel unimpeachable and their souls somewhere in the library-Benioff's book lets its characters inhabit the human condition in all of its sometimes comprised versatility."

Listen to a podcast with Benioff as he discusses writing and the inspiration behind his newest title, City of Thieves.

Viking Penguin's Anya Ulinich Wins Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction

Author Anya Ulinich has been selected to receive this years' Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers for her Viking Penguin novel, Petropolis. The prize, which includes a residency at Ledig House International Writers' Colony, is given annually to an American Fiction writer of exceptional talent and promise for a first or second book.

The award will be presented at a ceremony on Monday, December 22nd at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC, where Anya will receive a $2500 cash prize.

Listen to a podcast with Anya Ulinich as she discusses how painting influences her writing, her own experience as a Russian immigrant, and as an artist in America.

Gotham Author Matthew Polly Wins Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition

Matthew Polly, author of American Shaolin (Gotham), won a Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition's gold medal for his cultural tourism article "Bangkok Voice: Buddhas, Boxers, and Bar Girls," featured in Slate magazine. The winners of these prestigious awards were announced on October 18th, in Houston, Texas, during the annual convention of the Society of American Travel Writers and annual meeting of the SATW Foundation. Polly was honored as one of best travel journalists as judged by the faculty at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Check out some awesome videos and learn more about Matthew Polly and his book, American Shaolin, on his website.

 

J.M. Coetzee and Ceridwen Dovey Are Longlisted for the Australia-Asia Literary Award

Two Penguin Group (USA) authors have been longlisted for the Australia-Asia Literary Award: J.M. Coetzee for Diary of a Bad Year (Penguin) and Ceridwen Dovey for Blood Kin (Viking).

This award is for a book-length work of literary fiction written by an author who resides in Australia or Asia, or a work primarily set in Australia or an Asian country. The works must have been either written in, or translated into, English and published in the preceding year. This award is the richest literary award in Australia and Asia, valued at AUD $110,000.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday, November 21st, in Western Australia. Listen to a podcast with Ceridwen Dovey as she discusses and reads an excerpt from Blood Kin.

Charleston, South Carolina Celebrates the Premiere of The Secret Life of Bees Movie in Style

Sue Monk Kidd attended a gala last Thursday before the Charleston premiere of The Secret Life of the Bees, where the Mayor of Charleston read a proclamation designating Oct. 16, 2008 as "Sue Monk Kidd Day."

Then, at the Terrace Theatre on James Island, fans that had waited six years for the film, counted down the minutes in anticipation for the movie to start. The premiere was followed by a reception at the Harbour Club, where the proceeds went to the Lowcountry Initiative for the Literary Arts (LILA), of which Sue Monk Kidd is a board member.

Click here to watch a short video of Sue arriving at the Terrace Theater.

The Charleston Post and Courier also reported on the event. Click here here to read the article.

Don't forget Penguin.com's own The Secret Life of Bees feature page, where you can read an excerpt, view the trailer and stills from the movie, and find the reading group guide.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of November 2nd

Berkley/NAL achieves a record ten bestsellers simultaneously on The New York Times mass market fiction list for the week of November 2nd. This outstanding New York Times bestseller performance includes five Charlaine Harris Ace titles: Dead Until Dark at #2, Living Dead in Dallas at #6, Club Dead at #9; Dead to the World at #15 and Dead as a Doornail at #16. Also among Berkley/NAL's mass market fiction bestsellers for the week are: John Sandford's Dark of the Moon (Berkley) at #3, Patricia Cornwell's Book of the Dead (Berkley) at #12, Lora Leigh's Mercury's War (Berkley) at #13, Robert B. Parker's Now and Then (Berkley) at #19 and Katie MacAlister's Up In Smoke (Signet) at #20.

 

 

In addition, Penguin Group (USA) has two new debuts: Pete and Pickles written and illustrated by Berkeley Breathed (Philomel) is #10 on the children's picture book list, while Paper Towns by John Green (Dutton) is #5 on the children's chapter books list.

Here are more bestseller highlights for the week of November 2nd:

Heat Lightning by John Sandford (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #6 in its fourth week on the hardcover fiction list.

 

On the hardcover nonfiction list, The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead) is #8 in its second week and Tried by War by James M. McPherson (The Penguin Press) is #15 in its second.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin) is #2 in its 120th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (NAL) is #3 in its second week; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead) is #4 in its seventh week; The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward (NAL) is #14 in its second week; Second Chance by Jane Green (Plume) is #16 in its 21st week; The Wednesday Letters by Jason F. Wright (Berkley) returns to the list at #18 in its third week; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #19 in its 189th week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is #1 in its 90th week; while Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is in the #2 slot in its 91st week; and The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) returns to the list at #18 in its 57th week.

I Can Has Cheezburger? by Professor Happycat and icanhascheezburger.com (Gotham) is #5 on the advice, how-to and miscellaneous paperback list in its second week, while A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) is at #8 on the same list in its 38th week.

In the young readers sector, on the children's paperback books list, Knucklehead written and illustrated by Jon Scieszka (Viking) is #3 in its second week; Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Speak) is #5 in its 20th week; Slam by Nick Hornby (Riverhead) is #7 in its second week; and Barack Obama by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #9 in its eleventh week. In the children's series list, Redwall by Brian Jacques (Philomel) returns to the list at #10 in its seventh week.

New This Week

Why Don't Your Eyelashes Grow? by Beth Ann Ditkoff (Avery, on-sale now)

Why Don't Your Eyelashes Grow? answers all the curious questions kids have about the human body. Author and former surgeon Beth Ann Ditkoff and her two daughters (ages 10 and 12) compiled a list of questions children commonly ask their parents (and adults often wonder as well) to shed light on some of the biggest mysteries about the human body.

Ditkoff and her daughters were featured on the "Today Show" yesterday in a segment where Kathy Lee asked viewers health trivia that are commonly misunderstood by both children and adults. One common theory they tested: If you eat carrots it will improve your eyesight: true or false? If you answered false, you are correct!

New Next Week

Home To Holly Springs by Jan Karon (Penguin, 10/28)

Jan Karon's novels abound in the wonder of small-town life, compelling readers to return again and again to read about her engaging characters. Booksellers and reviewers alike have raved about Jan Karon's Mitford novels since the first, At Home in Mitford, was published in 1996. Now with 30 million copies of her books in print, Jan Karon launches a new series, the Father Tim Novels, beginning with Home To Holly Springs. The book opens with Father Tim at home in Mitford. It has been nearly four decades since the last time he was in his home state of Mississippi, but he recently received an anonymous note from his hometown with the simple words "Come home." As Jan says, sometimes a trip back home becomes a journey of the soul. In Home To Holly Springs, readers will learn about Father Tim's relationship with his father, his parents' relationship with one another, why Father Tim left his home of Holly Springs, and who drew him back.

Home To Holly Springs will galvanize readers, whether old or new, as they learn secrets that will change Father Tim's life forever. Jan will be in Atlanta on December 22nd for an event at the Barnes & Noble in Buckhead.

Diary of a Bad Year by J.M. Coetzee (Penguin, 10/28)

Diary of a Bad Year is a riveting new work of fiction by Nobel prize-winner J.M. Coetzee. In the novel, Coetzee innovatively weaves together three narratives with grace and imagination, combining his views on politics with a world of characters and events that will leave readers caught in a literary game that is at once daring, comical, and heartrending, as well as clever and ultimately gratifying. According to The New York Times, Diary of a Bad Year is "funny and wise. Mr. Coetzee writes circles around any attempt to pin him down."

The Unpossessed City by Jon Fasman (The Penguin Press, 10/30)

Jim Vilatzer was going nowhere-working in his parents' restaurant, sleeping in his childhood bedroom-until he ran up gambling debts that forced him to go somewhere far away-fast. He uses his Russian-language skills (learned from his émigré grandparents) to cadge a job in Moscow interviewing survivors of the Gulag. Jim soon finds that he's falling in love with the capital city-with its brooding atmosphere, its entrepreneurial energy, its otherworldly churches and majestic subways. Moscow is more than just the setting of The Unpossessed City, the much-anticipated second novel from acclaimed bestselling author Jon Fasman; Moscow is an intricate, irresistible character.

A chance meeting with an aspiring actress leads not only to romance but to her grandfather, a concentration camp survivor who wants to share his story. Soon Jim is on a roll, scoring interviews and learning about bygone atrocities-feeling like he has finally found where he belongs. But his success earns him the attention of Russia's Interior Ministry and the CIA. Jim has become an unwitting cog in a scheme to spirit Soviet scientists and their secrets out of Russia and into the hands of the highest bidder. Pursued ruthlessly by both sides, he must flee again, this time to the border country, where an economist-cum-mobster is preparing to peddle the world's most dangerous technologies to whichever terrorists can muster the cash first.

Fasman's 2005 debut, The New York Times bestseller The Geographer's Library, heralded the arrival of an exciting new voice, and with The Unpossessed City, Fasman further affirms his talent for extraordinary storytelling. With taut, ingenious plotting, Fasman engages our most visceral fears and throws brilliant light on our most primal drives-to feel that we belong, to find love, to become better than we are-in this rich, compelling novel.

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O'Nan (Penguin, 10/28)

Penguin will publish acclaimed writer Stewart O'Nan's recent novel Last Night at the Lobster on October 28th, in time to coincide with the Viking release of his upcoming novel, Songs for the Missing (November 3rd). A national bestseller, Last Night at the Lobster was chosen as A Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2007, selected as an "Editor's Pick," by The New York Times, and was one of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Fiction Books of the Year. O'Nan will promote Last Night at the Lobster in conjunction with Songs for the Missing in a 10-city tour to kick off on November 6th.

 

Listening Is an Act of Love by David Isay (Penguin, 10/28)

Over the last five years, StoryCorps - the most ambitious oral history project in American history - has recorded over 20,000 interviews with people from all fifty states and every imaginable walk of life, background, identity group, age, and state of mind. It is a nationwide celebration of our shared humanity, capturing for posterity the stories that define us. These interviews are archived at the Library of Congress and excerpts are broadcast regularly on NPR. And last fall, legendary radio producer and founder of StoryCorps Dave Isay gathered some of the project's most remarkable stories in Listening Is an Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project, now available for the first time in paperback. Wholeheartedly embraced by both critics and readers alike, Isay's collection is culled from an astonishing pool of memories. The voices heard in these interviews connect readers to real people whose lives are filled with ordinary and extraordinary experiences - joy, sadness, courage, meaning, despair, good work and bad, good times and the hardest times. Listening Is an Act of Love honors the participants of this revolutionary project and reaches out to those who now have the opportunity to share their lives through storytelling.

This year, StoryCorps will launch the first annual National Day of Listening on the day after Thanksgiving, when StoryCorps asks Americans to linger in the Thanksgiving spirit and honor a loved one by conducting an interview about his or her life. This week, Isay sets out on a national tour, with stops in San Francisco, Boulder, Minneapolis, Tulsa, Dallas, Miami, and Atlanta, and we'll celebrate the book and StoryCorps' National Day of Listening with a reading at the Brooklyn Heights Barnes & Noble on November 24th.

Man vs. Weather by Dennis DiClaudio (Penguin Original, 10/28)

For as long as man has walked on this earth, he has been forced to submit to the cruel tyranny of the weather. Now, in this paperback original, Man vs. Weather: Be Your Own Weatherman, Dennis DiClaudio offers a humorous and practical romp through the history and science of climactic conditions so we can read, understand and defend ourselves against the elements. For those who think weather is boring, think about the practical applications: Zero degrees Celsius is freezing and 100 degrees is boiling, but what about everything else -- if it's 18 degrees Celsius in the Dolomites, how many layers do you need when starting a multi-pitch climb at 7 a.m.? Thinking about going skydiving? What's the difference between a light breeze and a strong one? Why was this July's Nautica-NYC Triathlon such a killer for athletes? And then there's the just plain fun stuff: What exactly is a Category 5 hurricane? DiClaudio's handy interpretation of the Saffir-Simpson Scale measuring the severity of hurricanes explains the difference between defoliation and demolition (and everything in between). And don't forget the Fujita Scale measuring the severity of tornadoes (interestingly enough, a particularly American phenomenon).

Man vs. Weather is going gangbusters in the outdoors / hunting / fishing community - publications from Fishrap to Personal Watercraft Illustrated are planning reviews. Weather also has political ties -- think Bush and Katrina -- and Dennis DiClaudio will be interviewed on WOR Radio Network's "The Joey Reynolds Show" as well as "Left Jab" on Sirius / XM Satellite Radio. Keep an eye out for his new politics and weather column on Comedy Central's blog, Indecision 2008.

Penguin books, publishing, bestsellers, literary awards