(View entire post here)
Three Cups of Tea Young Readers Edition and Listen to the Wind Both #1 on The New York Times Bestseller Lists
Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea has become a publishing phenomenon for readers of all ages, with all four versions of his inspiring story published by Penguin Group (USA) currently on The New York Times bestseller list and two editions in the #1 position. For the week of February 15th:
- Three Cups of Tea (Penguin) is #3 on the trade nonfiction paperback list in its 105th week
- Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and Three Cups of Tea (Dial) is #1 on the children’s picture books list in its second week;
- Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition (Puffin) is #1 on the children’s paperback list in its second week;
- Three Cups of Tea (Dial) is #10 on the children’s chapter books list.
Mortenson continues to address standing-room-only crowds as he makes his way through his national tour. Last weekend, he spoke to over 1,200 fans at Santa Monica High School, followed by an event in La Verne, CA on February 1st that drew 800 people. Upcoming tour cities include Acton, MA; Kansas City, and Cedar Falls, Iowa. 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. Stay tuned for more updates to come!
With the help of Three Cups of Tea, the Penguin Young Readers Group had a phenomenal week on The New York Times bestseller list, with nine titles making the list. In addition to the titles mentioned above, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #6 in its fifteenth week, while Savvy by Ingrid Law (Dial) is #8 in its second week, both on the children’s chapter book list. On the children's paperback books list, Barack Obama: An American Story by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #5 in its 23rd week; and Barack Obama: United States President by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #6 in its fourth week; and Slam by Nick Hornby (Riverhead) returns to the list at #10 in its sixteenth week. And, Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (Razorbill) is #10 on the children’s series list in its seventh week.
Visit our feature on Three Cups of Tea to view new photos from the national book tour.
The Audacity to Win by David Plouffe, Campaign Manager, Obama for President, to be Published by Viking
Viking acquired world, first serial and audio rights to David Plouffe’s chronicle of the Obama for President campaign, the most fascinating political journey of our time. The book, tentatively titled The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama’s Historic Victory, was acquired by Clare Ferraro, President of Viking, and will be edited by Wendy Wolf, editorial director of non-fiction at Viking, and is scheduled for publication in the fall of 2009.
The Audacity to Win will share the story of the Obama for President campaign, written by the man who led it from day one through its triumphant victory. From the deliberations about whether to run against long odds, the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the drama of the general election campaign against John McCain and the strategic roads taken – and not taken throughout – this book will provide the only insider account of the two-year campaign that led to Barack Obama being elected the nation’s Forty-Fourth President. The book will also detail the business lessons to be learned from the formation and the functioning of an unprecedented $1 billion start-up – use of technology, crisis management, grassroots, and personnel management.
Penguin Young Readers Group Announces Jeff Corwin Publishing Program
Puffin Books and Grosset & Dunlap last week announced the fall 2009 publishing program with TV personality and wildlife biologist and conservationist Jeff Corwin (pictured). Corwin is best known as the host of popular television shows including: Animal Planet’s “Jeff Corwin Experience,” “Corwin’s Quest,” “Spring Watch” and “King of the Jungle;” Disney’s “Going Wild with Jeff Corwin;” Discovery Network’s “Investigation Earth;” and NBC’s “Jeff Corwin Unleashed” for which Corwin won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Host. Jeff Corwin was also co-creator and co-host of CNN’s “Planet in Peril” with Anderson Cooper. The publishing program will include paperback books for children ages 6-10 that are both fun and educational and combines Jeff’s passion for animals and conservation with his kid-friendly and entertaining personality. PW Children’s Bookshelf ran a nice piece on the book deal. Read it here.
Photo credit: Jacob Silberberg/Animal Planet
Penguin Group (USA) Authors Shine at the American Library Association Conference
Viking/Penguin author Nancy Atherton recently stole the show when she participated in the American Library Association meeting in Denver on January 24th. When she took the stage to speak at the author forum, “Women of Mystery,” the lights flickered, went out, and turned back on again. As they came back on Nancy spread her arms, gazed towards the heavens and called out, “Aunt Dimity!” summoning the main (and dearly departed) character of her beloved Aunt Dimity series, and causing the audience to erupt in laughter. She went on to captivate the audience of over 250 people, a full house. As Nancy said, “It wasn’t hard—librarians are quite fond of Aunt Dimity.”
On January 25th, Craig Johnson, Viking/Penguin author of the Walt Longmire Mystery series (pictured), spoke at an AAP sponsored breakfast panel in front of about 200 librarians. Craig was a huge hit, warming the audience with some very funny stories (which can’t be repeated in this space). Librarians flocked to the Penguin booth after the event for signed copies of his books and a chance to talk to Craig and his big winning personality up close!
The next day, Sunday the 26th, local Colorado author Jim Sheeler, spoke at the ALA’s Annual Arthur Curley Memorial Lecture in front of another large crowd of 200-300 librarians. Jim interwove a slide show with readings from both of his books, Final Salute (The Penguin Press) and Obit (Penguin) to a crowd of incredibly moved librarians. Jim also appeared at the Penguin booth for a long and crowded signing where numerous librarians thanked him for honoring fallen Iraq soldiers and their families. The daily ALA conference newspaper Cognotes, which is handed out to the majority of the 10,000 conference attendees, had front page articles on Jim on both the day of and day after his talk.
Finally, on the last day of the show, NAL author John Shors spoke at the Friends of the Libraries Tea to another packed house of 150 librarians. John warmly thanked librarians for their support, and talked about the writing of his new book Beside a Burning Sea as well as his efforts to phone conference with over 1,000 book clubs all over the world.
Several Penguin Group (USA) Titles Acknowledged by the American Library Association
Four Penguin Group (USA) titles were selected as winners of the 2009 CODES Notable Books Council Awards by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA). City of Thieves by David Benioff (Viking) was selected in the fiction category. And in nonfiction, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century by Steve Coll (The Penguin Press), Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris (The Penguin Press) and In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto by Michael Pollan (The Penguin Press) were all winners. To see the full list of ALA Notables click here.
City of Thieves by David Benioff (Viking) was also the recipient of the 2009 Alex Award at the 2009 American Library Association Midwinter conference. The Alex Awards are given to 10 books written for adults with special appeal to young adults, from ages 12-18.
The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink (Riverhead) was selected among the list of 53 Great Graphic Novels for Teens. For the complete list of books, click here.
Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861–2003, William N. Eskridge, Jr, (Viking) was selected as the winner of the Israel Fishman Non-fiction award.
PGI titles also received recognition from RUSA’s 2009 Reading List Council. The Reading List annually recognizes the best books in the eight genres of Adrenaline, Fantasy, Historical fiction, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science fiction and Women's Fiction. For 2009, a PGI title was the winning title in the Romance category and several adult PGI titles were shortlisted in the Adrenaline, Fantasy and Romance categories:
The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Sensation) was the winner in the Romance category. My Lord and Spymaster by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Sensation) and The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig (Dutton) were shortlisted in the same category. The Dirty Secrets Club by Meg Gardiner (Dutton), Hold Tight by Harlan Coben (Dutton) and L.A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker (Dutton) were shortlisted in the Adrenaline category. And Ink and Steel by Elizabeth Bear (ROC) and Small Favor by Jim Butcher (ROC) were shortlisted in the Fantasy short list.
The Quick Picks list, presented annually at the ALA Midwinter Meeting suggests books that teens, ages 12-18, will pick up on their own and read for pleasure. Body Drama by Nancy Amanda Redd (Gotham) was a 2009 Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and The Way I Am by Eminem (Dutton) was also chosen this year for this list. A full list of this year’s winners can be found here.
Three PGI adult titles were selected for the 2009 popular paperbacks for young adults. The titles included: Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker (Berkley Trade), On the Road by Jack Kerouac (Penguin) and Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy and Other Misadventures by Lindsay Moran (Berkley Trade). The full list for 2009 can be found here.
Add the Penguin Blog Feed to your RSS reader for up to the minute news on the latest book award winners and more.
Penguin Group (USA) Tops Booklist’s Editors Choice List
Every January, Booklist publishes its Editors’ Choice: lists of the best books, databases, video/DVDs, and audiobooks of the past year. This year, five Penguin Group (USA) adult titles were selected as 2008 Editor’s Choices including:
- The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell (Riverhead) in the History category
- The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (Riverhead) and The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall (Berkley) in the Fiction category
- The Soloist by Steve Lopez (Putnam/Berkley) in the Adult Nonfiction for Young Adults category
- City of Thieves by David Benioff (Viking) in the Adult Fiction for Young Adults category
From these lists, they further select what they call the Top of the List: the single best title in eight categories and Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris (The Penguin Press) was selected as a 2008 Top of the List Booklist Editor’s Choice in Nonfiction.
The full list of Editor’s Choice picks can be found here.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Read Moon Over Star (Dial) to Second Graders at Capital City Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
This Tuesday, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made an unannounced visit to Washington, D.C.’s Capital City Public Charter School. They joined the children in the library and read Moon Over Star (Dial), the recent Coretta Scott King Honor-winner, written by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Caldecott Winning-artist Jerry Pinkney. In this inspiring book, the 1969 Apollo moon landing inspires a young African-American girl to make one giant step toward all of the possibilities that life has to offer. According to the Washington Post, Principal Janine Gomez said that when she learned about the President’s visit, “I thought about all of the struggles that my ancestors have gone through before we had equal rights. I saw two worlds coming together.”
The story received major national coverage including feature articles in The New York Post and The Washington Post, among other major media hits.
Film Rights for This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper Sold to Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers has pre-empted the film rights to Dutton’s book, This Is Where I Leave You, by Jonathan Tropper, to be published in August. The negotiation was described to Dutton as “a monster deal” after a very brief and competitive submission in Hollywood. Spring Creek Productions (Recount, Blood Diamond, Rumor Has It, Analyze This) will produce the film and Jonathan is attached to write the script.
Read Variety’s coverage of the deal here.
Penguin.com’s Blog Praised on GalleyCat
Penguin.com's blog was given kudos on Mediabistro's Galleycat this week in a piece entitled "Six Stellar Publishing Company Blogs." Galleycat says: "Penguin Blog has a large collection of multimedia extras, and makes great use of authors as a rotating crew of bloggers."
Check out the full article here.
Check in to see who’s blogging daily on the Penguin Blog.
Penguin.com Survey Picked Up by USA Today
A recent post by a popular book blog, Bookroom Reviews, was picked up by the USA Today blog on USA Today’s website. The post, which links back to the Penguin website, features a recent survey conducted by Penguin Books in which 600 grown-up readers were asked to identify the most frightening literary characters from childrens books. The list of Top 10 scary characters in kids literature was compiled to celebrate the UK publication of Mr. Toppit, a novel based on childrens writer Arthur Hayman. To check it out, click here.
New This Week
The Canal Builders by Julie Greene (The Penguin Press, on sale now)
From 1904-1914, one of the greatest labor mobilizations in history took place as tens of thousands of workers traveled from all over the globe to hew the Panama Canal from the wilds of Central America. Though this momentous project is most commonly remembered as a feat of modern technology and engineering, in The Canal Builders: Making America’s Empire at the Panama Canal, historian Julie Greene focuses on the human dimensions of the Panama Canal story, chronicling how workers from all over the world traveled to Panama to build the waterway that would launch the American century.
Drawing from an abundance of diaries, letters and memoirs, The Canal Builders offers a workers-eye view of this massive undertaking that spans the project’s controversial beginnings through its completion. Though many Americans saw it as an act of scandalous land-grabbing when President Theodore Roosevelt seized rights to a stretch of Panama, Roosevelt believed the canal could strengthen American military and commercial power while appearing to be a benevolent contribution to the world.
But first it had to be built. It was neither new technology nor the threat of disease that posed the greatest challenge to the Canal Zone officials, but rather the question of how best to motivate, govern and discipline the people of the Isthmus. Workers faced harsh and inequitable conditions: unions were forbidden, a pay scale based on race and nationality determined how workers were compensated—with West Indians carrying out the brunt of the dangerous jobs—and anyone not contributing to the project was deported. Greene’s rich narrative opens a window on the lives of the laborers and shows the ways in which canal workers and their families overcame the often appalling conditions in the Canal Zone, resisted government demands for efficiency at all costs, and forced American officials to revise many of their policies.
Engaging and revelatory, The Canal Builders uncovers the human dimension of one of the biggest endeavors in the history of engineering, and, through this lens, recounts how the Panama Canal emerged as a positive symbol of American power, know-how, and beneficence that transformed the American national identity and its relationship with the world up to the present day. Reviews are assigned in the New York Times, New York Post and Bookpage, among others.
Passing Strange by Martha A. Sandweiss (The Penguin Press, on sale now)
Clarence King is a hero of nineteenth-century western American history. A brilliant scientist, bestselling author, and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, King was among the best and brightest of his generation. But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family: for thirteen years he lived a double life—as the celebrated white explorer, geologist and writer Clarence King, and as a black Pullman porter and steel worker named James Todd. King passed across the color line, revealing his secret to his black wife, Ada Copeland, only on his deathbed.
In Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line, noted historian of the American West Martha Sandweiss uncovers, for the first time, the life that King tried so hard marry his wife in a public way—as the white man known as Clarence King—would have created a scandal and destroyed his career. At a moment when many mixed-race Americans concealed their African heritage to seize the privileges of white America, King falsely presented himself as a black man in order to marry the woman he loved. Other Americans have passed the color line from white to black, but King stands out because of his prominence as a public figure. This was a white man who dined at the White House, belonged to Manhattan’s most elite clubs, and parlayed his privileged upbringing and Ivy League education into a career as an eminent scientist, writer, and government official. American history holds no comparable tale of a high-profile white man crossing the color line. And that he could pass—despite his appearance—highlights the extraordinary arbitrariness of racial categorization at the end of the nineteenth century.
As we enter an era in which our country, for the first time, is led by an African American president, Sandweiss’s riveting and tragic account of a love affair defined and almost completely destroyed by an unforgiving society sheds new light on the history of race in America. Reviews have already run in Essence and Reader’s Digest, with more to come from The New York Times, New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post. Sandweiss will also appear on C-Span’s “Book TV” and NPR’s “Diane Rehm Show.”
Blank Spots on the Map by Trevor Paglen (Dutton, on sale now)
The adventurous, insightful, and often chilling story of a young geographer’s road trip through the underworld of U.S. military and CIA “black ops” sites.
Trevor Paglen is a scholar in geography, an artist, and a provocateur. His research into areas that officially “don’t exist” leads him on a globe-trotting adventure into a vast, undemocratic, and uncontrolled black empire—the unmarked spots on a map, where our military conducts its most clandestine operations. Run by an amorphous group of government agencies and private companies, this empire’s annual budget is over $40 billion, yet almost no one knows how it works or what it does.
Paglen spies on the covert site at Groom Lake, Nevada, taking photos from a mountain top thirty miles away. He visits the widow of Walter Kazra, who, while working construction at Groom Lake, was poisoned by the toxic garbage pits there. The U.S. Air Force defense to his estate’s suit? The base does not exist. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.
Whether it’s from a hotel room in Vegas, secret prisons in Kabul, buried CIA aircraft in Central American jungles, Washington, D.C., suburbs, or a trailer in Shoshone Indian territory, Paglen’s reporting is impassioned, rigorous, relentless—and eye-opening. Blank Spots on the Map is an exposé of a world that, officially, isn’t even there.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Amy Einhorn Books, 2/10)
The Help by Kathryn Stockett is one of the most buzzed about debut novels this season. Set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, native Southerner Kathryn Stockett shows what happens when three women -- two black, one white -- decide to break through the boundaries that separate their worlds, risking everything to tell the truth about their lives. The Help has been named a Barnes & Noble "Discover" pick for Spring 2009, a February 2009 Indie Next Pick, and a Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Foreign rights have been sold in 11 countries to date. The Atlanta Journal Constitution raves, The Help allows us to see that complexity, with all its nuanced emotion, until we realize the similarities that make us all human -- black or white. This heartbreaking story is a stunning debut from a gifted talent." Kathryn kicks off her book tour on February 10th with an event in Atlanta at Georgia Center for the Book. From there, she'll embark on a 16-city tour, which includes Birmingham, Memphis, Jackson, MS, New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Media coverage is currently slated in People, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Atlanta Magazine, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, just to name a few.
Read a Q&A with the author here.
