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Alive in Necropolis Is Given an Honorable Mention for the PEN Hemingway Award

Doug Dorst’s debut novel, Alive in Necropolis, which was published by Riverhead in August of 2008, has been cited as an Honorable Mention for the 2008 PEN Hemingway Award, which honors the best work of debut fiction by an American author. The book was already selected as one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year, and met with outstanding praise upon publication. The San Francisco Chronicle called it a “smart and accessibly unconventional first novel . . . not quite a horror story, nor exactly a mystery, nor just a hard-boiled police procedural, but an adult coming-of-age saga that pulls with energy and imagination from these various genres. . . Alive in Necropolis proves truly haunting.” The book was also selected as an Editor's Choice by The New York Times Book Review, which called the novel “daring and bighearted."

Dorst's second book, The Surf Guru, a collection of short stories, will be published by Riverhead in 2010.

Jack McDevitt is Nominated for His Fourteenth Nebula Award.

Jack McDevitt has been Nominated for a Nebula Award in the category of “Best Novel” for Cauldron, which was published by Ace in November 2007. Cauldron is the sequel to McDevitt's 2006 hardcover entitled Odyssey, featuring the character Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins and her life-long search for the origins of the dreaded Omega Clouds. Odyssey was also nominated for a Nebula Award last year. Jack McDevitt is the winner of the International UPC Science Fiction Award, as well as the Campbell Award. He was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel five times before winning the award in 2006 for Seeker. With additional nominations over the years in other categories, McDevitt has garnered an amazing 14 Nebula nominations.

The Nebula Awards are voted on, and presented by, active members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Founded as the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1965 by Damon Knight, the organization began with a charter membership of 78 writers; it now has over 1,400 members, among them most of the leading writers of science fiction and fantasy.

The Nebula Awards Weekend will be held April 24th-26th at the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard, with the awards presentation banquet to be held on the UCLA campus to tie in with the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Penguin’s Mary Ellis Wins French Literary Award

Mary Ellis, author of The Turtle Warrior (Penguin), has won the “Prix Litteraire des lyceens et apprentis de la region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur,” a regional French literary award, in the category of “Best Novel.”

Beautifully written and deeply felt, The Turtle Warrior takes readers from the heartland of America to the battlefields of World War II and Vietnam weaving a haunting tale of an unforgettable world where the physical and spiritual, the past and the present, merge.

Read an excerpt from The Turtle Warrior.

From the Page to the Stage: Penguin Speakers Bureau Lines up A Series of Successful Events for Junot Díaz

Junot Díaz gains fans in each city he visits for events arranged by the Penguin Speakers Bureau. Following his event at the University of California Riverside, Ron Willison said “He was great! 300 in the audience and over 75 books sold. His Q&A answers were marvelous.”

Traecy Smith of Credit Suisse had this to say after his event at their offices in New York City: “We simply LOVE Junot! He had people literally running after him as he tried to leave. I know that the book tour schedule is a grinding experience and must be very exhausting but, he is such a great person that I hope that he realizes the impact that he has on those who are fortunate enough to meet him.”

Following Junot’s event at Stanford, Jeanette Miller of Stanford Three Books said “It was wonderful. Junot is wonderful, it was such a pleasure to meet and speak with him. There was much laughter among the authors and the audience. We had a packed house of 1750 in the main venue and another 50 at the simulcast.” Diaz is pictured with ZZ Packer and Lynda Barry, the other two authors who discussed their books at the event. To read more about it, click here.

Read a Q&A with Junot Díaz.

Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea is Chosen for Yet Another First Year Experience Program: All 19 Colleges at Ohio State University Have Adopted the Book

For the first time in the school’s history, all 19 colleges that are part of Ohio State University have decided on the same book, Three Cups of Tea, for the school’s First Year Experience program. Approximately 6,600 first year students will read Three Cups of Tea prior to the fall semester summer. The students will then hear Greg Mortenson speak on October 5th, in an event set up by Penguin Speakers Bureau.

Ohio State is the largest university in the country with 39,000 students at their Columbus campus. If you include regional campuses, the total comes to 58,000. Additionally, they plan to involve local schools and the community with the young readers titles. They also hope to raise enough money with Pennies for Peace to build a school.

View a feature on Three Cups of Tea on the Penguin website.

Ace Author Patricia Briggs on The New York Times Hardcover Bestseller List for Fourth Week

Patricia Briggs’s hardcover debut, Bone Crossed (Ace Hardcover), the fourth installment of the Mercy Thompson series, is in its fourth week on The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list. Bone Crossed debuted on the list at #3, thanks to an enthusiastic outpouring of support from the online science fiction community. With starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and The Romantic Times, as well as a great interview on Shelf Awareness, Bone Crossed has taken the media by storm. In addition, top science fiction publication, Locus, will feature an interview with Patricia in the May issue, and SciFiWire, the online branch of the SciFi channel, is posting an interview as well.

Public Television to Air Program Based on Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind

Since its paperback release in March 2006, Daniel H. Pink's A Whole New Mind (Riverhead Trade Paperback) has been adopted by school systems, corporations, arts organizations and Oprah Winfrey herself as a powerful testament to the power and importance of right brain thinking. Through word of mouth and an amazing speaking schedule, Dan has emerged as one of the leading and most in-demand thinkers on work, education, business, and innovation, and a sort of cult hero to educators. A Whole New Mind first landed on The New York Times bestseller list over a year after its publication. This month, public television stations all over the country will air "Living on the Right Side of the Brain," a program featuring Dan and based on the ideas in his bestselling book. Some of the major markets included in this rollout are San Francisco, Boston and Detroit.

Great Coverage of DK’s Eyewitness Travel and Rough Guides books in the March Issue of BookPage

First-edition travel guidebooks from DK Eyewitness Travel and Rough Guides dominate a travel article that is featured in the March edition of BookPage. Great quotes about a number of the books appear. Here are some of the hightlights:

• Top Ten Cape Town & the Winelands and Top 10 Buenos Aires “These guides are superior passports to truly pleasurable, meaningful trips. The Top Ten guides offer the ultimate in 10-item lists that showcase top sights and activities, entertainment, restaurants and lodging and itineraries. Well-written, efficiently cross-referenced, sparked with excellent photos, they cover all the basic and also throw in pullout maps. These mini guides give big bang for the buck.”
• DK Argentina and DK Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania: “…Good for both pre-planning and lugging along on road trips…Rich in quality color photography and images and maps. Also, they are virtual encyclopedias on these countries’ history and monuments, arts and culture, manners and mores, sights and cuisines. Nothing has been overlooked in these compact references that you’ll want to keep permanently in your travel library.”
• The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget: “Thorough and budget-conscious…this book will have travelers fully briefed on Asian history and manners, mores, cultures and sights before they set foot on a plane…[A] must-have travel planner.”
• Ultimate Adventures: “Well organized…Good for pre-planning [and] packed with crisp, informative prose and beautiful action-packed color photography.” The Rough Guides series “Rough Guides are excellent all-around travel manuals, offering top itineraries, ideas to make your trip unique and more cost-effective and, most importantly, the basics of how to get there how to get around and how to have a grand time while connecting meaningfully the people.”

New on the Penguin Website

Be sure to check out the feature page on the Penguin website celebrating the 60th anniversary of George Orwell's 1984 here.

June Casagrande reads from her book, Grammar Snobs are Great Big Meanies, which uses humor to focus on grammar usage and examines why grammar snobs are the way they are, on this week’s Penguin Podcast.

Next week, author Stuart Brown, M.D will discuss how important playing is for children and adults. You can also read his blog posts here.

Martha A. Sandweiss, author of Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line is our Penguin Guest Blogger this week. Check out her posts here.

The New York Times Bestseller Highlights for the Week of March 15th

Three new debuts for Penguin Group (USA) on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of March 15th: Promises in Death by J.D. Robb (G. P. Putnam's Sons) debuts at #1 on the hardcover fiction list, Robb's first #1 in the series while Night and Day by Robert B. Parker (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #6 on the same list; and Plague Ship by Clive Cussler (Berkley) is #7 on the mass market fiction list.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights:

On the hardcover fiction list, Bone Crossed by Patricia Briggs (Ace) is #15 in its fourth week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, Obama: The Historic Journey, with an introduction by Bill Keller and biographical text by Jill Abramson (Calloway, distributed by Riverhead Books) is #8 in its second week; The Inaugural Address 2009 by Barack Obama (Penguin) is #10 in its fourth week; The Gamble by Thomas E. Ricks (The Penguin Press) is #11 in its third week; and Why We Suck by Denis Leary (Viking) is #16 in its fifteenth week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #7 in its fourteenth week; People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin) is #10 in its ninth week; and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz (Riverhead) is #16 in its 26th week; The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin) returns to the list at #18 in its 129th week; and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #19 in its 204th week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) holds the #1 slot in its 109th week; Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #8 in its 110th week; The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #16 in its 76th week; and The Soloist by Steve Lopez (Berkley) is #18 in its second week.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) is #8 on the paperback advice, how-to, and miscellaneous list in its 51st week.

In the young readers sector, Listen to the Wind by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth (Dial) remains #1 on the children's picture book list in its sixth week; while on the children's chapter books list, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Razorbill) is #3 in its ninteenth week. On the children's paperback books list, Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Puffin) is #3 in its sixth week and Barack Obama: United States President by Roberta Edwards, illustrated by Ken Call (Grosset & Dunlap) is #9 in its eighth week.