(View entire post here)

Viking’s Sebastian Barry Wins Costa Book of the Year Award for The Secret Scripture

The Secret Scripture by Viking's Sebastian Barry has won the prestigious 2008 Costa Book of the Year award. Barry accepted the award this past Tuesday, January 27th at an awards ceremony in London, where the chair of the judges said: "Sebastian Barry has created one of the great narrative voices in contemporary fiction in The Secret Scripture. It is a book of great brilliance, powerfully and beautifully written." The award is accompanied by a £25,000 cash prize.

The Costa Book Awards recognize the most enjoyable books of the last year by writers based in the UK and Ireland. Originally established by Whitbread PLC in 1971, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's prestigious and popular book prize in 2006.
 

Three Cups of Tea Young Readers Edition Debuts at #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List while Listen to the Wind debuts at #2

The international success of Three Cups of Tea has now grown even larger with the publication of the Three Cups of Tea Young Readers Edition (Puffin), which debuts at #1 on The New York Times children’s paperback list for the week of February 8th, and Listen to the Wind (Dial), which debuts at #2 on The New York Times picture book list. The adult trade paperback edition of Three Cups of Tea is currently #4 on The New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list, after 104 weeks on that list. What a great example of successful cross-division publishing and the universal appeal of this story for all ages.

Greg Mortenson and his daughter Amira kicked off a national book tour last Thursday for the Three Cups of Tea Young Readers Edition with an appearance on “The Today Show” and a packed event at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center. Greg has since spoken to crowds of between 800 and 1000 in Dayton, Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta. Fans are buying multiple copies of the adult and children’s editions of Three Cups of Tea, as well as the picture book, Listen to the Wind, with many planning to give signed copies to their local schools. Rabbi Bookman at Miami’s Temple Beth Am Synagogue, which hosted an event in conjunction with Books & Books, summed up the spirit of Greg’s work when he commented how amazing it was to have a Christian speaking in a Jewish synagogue raising funds for Muslim children, with an intro by a Buddhist. Several hundred Muslims also attended that event.

Mortenson now heads to Washington, DC, where he will speak at Sidwell Friends. Upcoming tour stops include Los Angeles, Kansas City, Boston, Cedar Falls, Iowa and San Francisco. Upcoming national media includes feature coverage in People, Good Housekeeping, “The Tavis Smiley Show,” NPR’s “All Things Considered”, Family Circle, Junior Scholastic and The Washington Post.

Visit our feature on Three Cups of Tea.
 

Penguin Group (USA) Has Two Finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Awards

The National Book Critics Circle organization announced the finalists for its prestigious annual awards this past weekend and two Penguin Group (USA) authors and their books were among the finalists:

• Aleksandar Hemon for The Lazarus Project (Riverhead) in the Fiction category.
  
• Steve Coll for The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in An American Century (The Penguin Press) in the Biography category.

The award winners will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on Thursday, March 12, 2009.

The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, consists of nearly 700 active book reviewers who are interested in honoring quality writing and communicating with one another about common concerns. The centerpiece of the NBCC's activities is its annual awards, honoring the previous year’s best books in six categories: fiction, general nonfiction, biography, autobiography/memoir, criticism and poetry.

Click here to watch The Lazarus Project book trailer.

View the feature for The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in An American Century, which features a Q&A with Steve Coll, the first-chapter excerpt, and a podcast with the author.
 

e-Book Edition of Tom Clancy’s The Hunt For Red October Available for the First Time Ever

Penguin Group (USA) announced yesterday that eBook editions of all the published works by the #1 international bestselling author Tom Clancy will soon be available for the first time.

The first Clancy eBook will be available on next Tuesday, February 3rd when the author’s breakout debut The Hunt for Red October is released everywhere that eBooks are sold. That same day, the popular online retailer Amazon.com will open a special Tom Clancy Amazon Kindle store where consumers can purchase and wirelessly download The Hunt for Red October and can pre-order other Clancy eBooks.

After the February 3rd release of The Hunt for Red October, the rest of Clancy’s books—both fiction and nonfiction—including the sequels to The Hunt for Red October and the Commander and Net Force series, will be available for pre-order and released for sale as eBooks over the following seven weeks.

Visit our dedicated eBooks Page for the Penguin eBooks new releases, Penguin Enriched eBooks and Penguin eSpecials.
 

Penguin Young Readers Group Books and Authors Earn Multiple American Library Association Honors

The American Library Association announced its Children & Young Adult award winners and honors this week and Penguin Young Readers Group scored five honors:

• Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial Books for Young Readers) and After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson (G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers) both received 2009 John Newbery Honors for outstanding contributions to children’s literature.
  
• The Moon Over Star by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney (Dial) was named a 2009 Coretta Scott King Honor Book. The Coretta Scott King Book Award and Honor titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream.
  
• Laurie Halse Anderson was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for her significant and lasting contribution to writing for teens for her novels, including Speak (Puffin) and Catalyst (Viking Books for Children).
  
• Jerk, California by Jonathan Friesen (Speak) was awarded The Schneider Family Book Award for Teens. The Schneider Family Book Award honors an author or illustrator for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences.

Each year the American Library Association and its member units honor books, print and other forms of media through a variety of awards. These awards are given to publications, and the authors, illustrators, and publishers who create them.

Add the Penguin Blog Feed to your RSS reader for up to the minute news on the latest book award winners and more.
 

Viking/Penguin’s Anya Ulinich Named a Finalist for Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich (Viking/Penguin) has been selected as one of five finalists for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, given by the Jewish Book Council. This year, the $100,000 prize will be awarded to an emerging writer of fiction. This is the largest prize of its kind in the Jewish literary world, and one of the largest literary prizes worldwide. The Sami Rohr Prize considers fiction and non-fiction in alternating years, honoring an emerging author in the field of Jewish literature who has written a book of exceptional literary merit that stimulates an interest in themes of Jewish concern.

The winner will be named in the spring, and a Choice Award winner who will receive a $25,000 award will also be announced at that time. A gala awards ceremony will be held in May at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan.

Listen to a podcast with the author here.
 

Two Books from Penguin Group (USA) Win Christianity Today Book Awards

Two books from Penguin Group (USA) have won Christianity Today Book Awards. The Reason for God by Timothy Keller (Dutton), has won in the category of Apologetics/Evangelism and Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris (Riverhead) was the winner in the Spirituality category.

For two decades, the annual Christianity Today Book Awards have recognized outstanding volumes that shed light on people, events, and ideas that shape evangelical life, thought, and mission. This year’s winners were selected from a pool of 436 titles submitted by 67 publishers

For more information about the awards, including judges’ comments and other resources, click here.

Listen to an audio excerpt from The Reason for God.

Also on Penguin.com, view our feature for a first-chapter excerpt, a Q&A and podcast with the author of Acedia and me.
 

Hudson Street Press Book, Bases Loaded, by Kirk Radomski Grabs More Media Headlines This Week

It may be Super Bowl Week, but baseball has been in the news every day, thanks to Kirk Radomski and his Hudson Street Press book, Bases Loaded: The Inside Story of the Steroid Era in Baseball by the Central Figure in the Mitchell Report. The ESPN exclusive interview with Radomski aired on Sunday night and has been re-airing all week with reports about David Justice and Doc Gooden denying involvement with Radomski. In addition to the ESPN interview, there have been numerous Sportscenter and sports talk radio discussions. Radomski issued a formal statement standing by everything in his book yesterday, which has been on ESPN and ESPN.com constantly for the past 24 hours. In addition to features in The New York Daily News, Newsday and The New York Post, there has been national print coverage in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post, as well as upwards of twenty other papers across the country, many of them with two or three days of consecutive coverage. There has also been an overwhelming online presence with coverage all week on every major sports blog including deadspin.com, mlb.com, sportingnews.com

Bases Loaded was discussed for seven minutes on NPR’s “Morning Edition” Wednesday morning and Radomski is also doing three major national radio shows including “The Don & Patrick Show” on Sirius and Premier Radio, Sports Byline USA Radio, and “Big O and Dukes” out of Washington, DC. There have been numerous national and local TV mentions throughout this week and next Tuesday Kirk will do his 20-city TV satellite tour which is already booking up nicely with major market morning shows on ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. More to come!
 

Daemon Is More Contagious than the Latest Computer Virus

The recent New York Times article about the computer worm affecting millions has struck a nerve with readers nationwide, bringing Daniel Suarez’s technological thriller Daemon to the forefront. Suarez’s most notable interviews to date include spots on the Glenn Beck Show (both on the radio and on an upcoming Fox News Channel segment) as well as an upcoming podcast with The New York Times’ “Tech Talk”. Daemon is also being featured on the viral technology website, Slashdot.org.

Daemon is even in reviews for other books! In a recent review for John Grisham’s The Associate, Time’s Lev Grossman stated, “Take a look at a thriller like Daemon, by Daniel Suarez, a software consultant who actually understands how cutting-edge networks work. This is a book that’s got the shock of the new, that's so fresh and well-informed that it's still covered in metal shavings and PVC dust. Reality is everywhere in Daemon, and it's exciting and scary.”

Check out the latest Mystery & Suspense feature and read an essay by Daniel Suarez and the first chapter of Daemon.
 

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of February 8th

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of February 8th

As mentioned above, two new debuts for Penguin Group (USA) for the week of February 8th: Listen to the Wind: the Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (Dial) is #2 on the children's picture book list, while Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Puffin) is #1 on the children's paperback books list.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:

On the hardcover fiction list, Black Ops by W.E.B. Griffin (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) is #5 in its fourth week; Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) is #6 in its eighth week; Mounting Fears by Stuart Woods (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #7 in its second week; The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee (Viking) is #11 in its second week; and From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #12 in its fifth week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, Why We Suck by Denis Leary (Viking) is #4 in its tenth week; and The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson (The Penguin Press) is #12 in its seventh week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin) is #5 in its fourth week; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #6 in its ninth week; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Riverhead) is #10 in its 21st week; The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #15 in its 49th week; World Without End by Ken Follett (NAL) is #17 in its sixteenth week; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #20 in its 201st week.

On the mass market paperback list, The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts (Jove) is #8 in its ninth week; The Shooters by W.E.B. Griffin (Jove) is #9 in its fourth week; Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #10 in its 20th week; Betrayal by John Lescroart (Signet) is #11 in its fourth week; T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton (Berkley) is #13 in its ninth week; Star Bright by Catherine Anderson (Signet) is #18 in its third week; and Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (Ace) is #20 in its ninteenth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is #4 in its 104th week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #9 in its 105th week; and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #13 in its 71st week.

In the young readers sector, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #6 in its fourteenth week on the children’s chapter books list. On the children’s paperback books list, Barack Obama: An American Story by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #3 in its 22nd week; and Barack Obama: United States President by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #4 in its third week. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is #8 on the children’s series list in its sixth week.
 

New This Week

The Big Rich by Bryan Burrough (The Penguin Press, on sale now)

The cost of oil is one of the top issues facing Americans today—from daily reports about the price per barrel to the debate over offshore drilling, oil is at the forefront of our national conversation. But we forget that there was once a time when there seemed to be an endless supply of oil right here in our own country—when big oil was controlled not by faceless corporate conglomerates, but by families. In The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes, bestselling author and Vanity Fair correspondent Bryan Burrough explores the beginnings of America’s obsession with oil by chronicling the lives of the Texas oil industry’s four wealthiest captains, known in their heyday as the “Big Four”—Roy Cullen, H. L. Hunt, Clint Murchison, and Sid Richardson.

Though they all came from modest backgrounds, the Big Four would ultimately form one of the great economic and political powerhouses of the twentieth century—Texas oil. The Big Four became a class unto themselves—entertaining British royalty and Hollywood movie stars on their sprawling ranches, flying around the world on private jets, and buying their own secluded islands. But as Burrough reveals, there is much more to their legacy than that of the swaggering Texas oil tycoon—Texas oil money as a whole steered the nation to the right in the 20th century. From the west Texas oil fields to the halls of power in Washington, The Big Rich tracks these four icons and their families through the 1980s when bitter family feuds, scandals, and bankruptcies eroded their fortunes and prominence. Yet despite their fall, the profound economic, political, and cultural influence of Texas oil endures to this day.

Burrough’s book tour includes stops in New York, DC, Philadelphia, and a week in Texas with events in Dallas, Houston, and Austin. We’ve already seen a featured excerpt from The Big Rich in Vanity Fair and excellent reviews in GQ, Fortune, New York Times Book Review, and in the Times’ Business section, with reviews to come in the Economist, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BusinessWeek, and Newsweek, as well as local reviews in the Dallas Morning News, Austin American Statesman, Houston Chronicle, and much more. Burrough will also appear on Bloomberg’s “Night Talk,” “Reuters Insider,” C-Span’s “Afterwords,” and the “Diane Rehm Show” on NPR.

Redeemed by Heather King (Penguin, on sale now)

Heather King has seen it all. She’s hit bottom as an alcoholic waitress. She’s reached the top as a Beverly Hills lawyer. But it’s only when she embarks on a searching spiritual quest, quits her job, and becomes a Catholic—and a writer—that her true life begins. In her passionate, gritty, and deeply moving new book, Redeemed: Stumbling toward God, Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding, King combines memoir with keen insights into the spiritual life.

For more about Redeemed, view the reading group guide here.

The Accident Man by Tom Caine (Penguin, on sale now)

If Princess Diana had been murdered, what sort of man would have killed her? Meet Samuel Carver, the Accident Man. In The Accident Man: A Novel, Carver is a good man who makes bad things happen to bad people. Whether it’s a drug-baron’s helicopter malfunctioning in mid-flight or a terrorist suffering a grisly fate in a bomb factory, Samuel Carver is probably behind it and with good reason. Ex-SAS and now a freelance mercenary, he is the frontline weapon of the Consortium, a black-ops British government outfit . . . or is it? Combining the fast-paced plotting of a Lee Child or Robert Ludlum novel with the tension, romance and international intrigue of a James Bond movie, The Accident Man is a first-rate spy thriller packed with twists, turns, and a double-crossing femme fatale.

Listen to a podcast with the author and read an excerpt from the book.