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Penguin Group (USA) Authors a Hit at This Year's BEA

Penguin Group (USA) had a very successful BEA 2008 this past weekend in Los Angeles. Our booth was constantly filled with booksellers, librarians and media people. Many of BEA's most talked about events featured Penguin Group (USA) authors, including a Book Sense reception honoring Khaled Hosseini for winning Book of the Year for A Thousand Splendid Suns, a special reception for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson's upcoming Razorbill book, Influence, and Riverhead author Lewis Black's wildly successful Saturday Night BEA benefit.

Lewis Black, whose Riverhead book, Me of Little Faith went on sale this week, headlined the BEA Saturday Night benefit event in front of an audience of 2,000 book expo attendees at L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre, where he performed a riotous standup routine, and then was interviewed on stage by his longtime friend, Sara Nelson, Editor-In-Chief of Publishers Weekly, about the book.

John Hodgman, author of the upcoming More Information Than You Require, to be published by Dutton in October, was the Master of Ceremonies at Sunday's Book & Author Breakfast, where he introduced his fellow literary colleagues Ted Turner, Azar Nafisi, and Dennis Lehane. New York Magazine felt that John "I'm a PC" Hodgman was the funniest guy throughout all of BEA, "who at a forum at 8 a.m. Sunday managed to blow every other humorist out of the water." Hodgman also signed poster/blads of More Information Than You Require at the Penguin Booth for three hours on Saturday afternoon.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, authors of the upcoming book, Influence, mingled with 70 booksellers at a party in West Hollywood on Thursday night. The party was covered in USA Today as the lead item in the Life section. Mary-Kate Olsen was quoted: "It was the first party to launch the book, and we just wanted booksellers to know that we're really excited about it. We worked so hard on it." (To read the full article, click here ). The book is also prominently featured in a cover story on Mary-Kate Olsen in the most recent issue of Elle.

Penguin Group (USA) authors also held popular book signings and were featured in special BEA online interviews. In addition, publishers, editors and other Penguin executives participated in such events as the BEA Editors Buzz Forum and panels focused on such issues as digital, green and global publishing.

David Shanks, who attended many high profile BEA events, also spent a great deal of time throughout the weekend meeting with major press, which resulted in Penguin Group (USA) being prominently positioned in key stories on BEA in USA Today, The New York Times, Associated Press, The Washington Post and many other publications, including the publishing trades.

Berkley Achieves its First #1 New York Times Hardcover Bestseller with Laurell K. Hamilton's Blood Noir

Already a #1 New York Times bestselling author for her mass market paperback Micah (released by Jove in 2006), Laurell K. Hamilton has now achieved the coveted #1 spot in hardcover for Blood Noir (Berkley), the sixteenth installment in her Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. Blood Noir also tops Publishers Weekly's bestseller list, another first for Hamilton. Hundreds of people attended each of Hamilton's signings in St. Louis and Ann Arbor; her last stop is an event tonight in Phoenix. The author will also promote the new book in Toronto next week with a signing at BookExpo Canada, the Canadian version of BEA.

Dutton's #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Harlan Coben Coming to the Big Screen in the U.S.

Harlan Coben has earned a lot of attention in the publishing world with his #1 New York Times bestseller Hold Tight. America will soon see him through a whole new medium: the silver screen. His novel, Tell No One, made into critically acclaimed movie in France, was a blockbuster and won numerous awards including the Lumiere (French Golden Globe) for best picture and multiple Cesars (French Oscars). Tell No One, directed by Guillaume Canet and starring Kristin-Scott Thomas, Francois Cluzet and Marie-Josee Croze, will now be released in limited cities across America later this month. The film adaptation follows Alex Beck who is still devastated by the brutal murder of his wife Margot in the early days of their marriage eight years ago. He receives an anonymous e-mail with a link to a woman's face standing in a crowd...his wife's face. Is his wife still alive? And why is the only message left to him "tell no one?"

Click here to watch a trailer.

Generation Kill by Evan Wright Adapted by "The Wire" Producer David Simon for New HBO Series, Premiering July 13th

The critically-acclaimed New York Times-bestselling book, Generation Kill by Evan Wright, which Putnam published in hardcover in 2004, was adapted for television in a highly-anticipated seven-part series entitled "Kill" for HBO. "Kill," produced by David Simon - also the producer of HBO's hit series, "The Wire" - begins airing on July 13th. "Kill" is based on Wright's chronicle of life embedded with the Marines in 2003. Riding with First Recon, a front-line Marine combat team that literally led the explosive first stages of the invasion of Iraq, Wright underwent the full gamut of experiences - from firefights and ambushes to combined battles with armor and aircraft.

To coincide with the series, Berkley will re-release Generation Kill in paperback in July. A frightening and profane first-hand account of a remarkable new breed of American warrior unrecognizable to their forebears, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality, and the camaraderie of a new American war, Generation Kill was called "one of the best books to come out of the second Iraq war" by The Financial Times.

Author Aoibheann Sweeney Wins Lambda Literary Award

Penguin Press/Penguin author Aoibheann Sweeney has been selected as a winner in the Lesbian Debut Fiction category for the 20th annual Lambda Literary Awards for her book Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking. The winners were announced on May 29th by the Lambda Literary Foundation at a gala celebration attended by 300 people.

Awards were presented in 21 categories and the winners were chosen by a jury of judges who come from all walks of literary life: journalists, authors, booksellers, librarians, playwrights, illustrators. In all, 85 judges participated in the selection of winners from the pool of 463 books that were nominated by 190 publishers

Viking publicist Lindsay Prevette was named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in NYC" by the New York Post. Joining the ranks of such female powerhouses as Hillary Clinton, Anna Wintour, Tina Fey, and Barbara Walters, Lindsay Prevette was #43. The Post comments; "How do you get on "Oprah"? In the case of Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, with a good publicist. That coup led to 47 weeks at No. 1 on the bestseller list and a movie starring Julia Roberts out next year. Prevette's other authors are lining up." To check out the full list, click here.

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

Penguin Group (USA) has five new debuts on The New York Times bestseller list for the week of June 15th: Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton (Berkley) debuts at #1 on the hardcover fiction list; Second Chance by Jane Green (Plume) hits at #10 on the trade fiction list; In the Woods by Tana French (Penguin) appears at #20 on that same list; and on the mass-market fiction list, High Noon by Nora Roberts (Jove) debuts at #3, while With Every Breath by Lynn Kurland (Jove) hits at #13.

Penguin Group (USA) also racks in another week with four simultaneous #1 bestsellers, for the ninth time this year, an industry best. In addition to Blood Noir, The Hollow by Nora Roberts (Jove) holds at #1 in its fourth week on the mass-market list; Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin) is #1 on the paperback nonfiction list in its 70th week; and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle (Plume) maintains its #1 position on the paperback advice, how-to and miscellaneous list for eighteen consecutive weeks.

Here are more New York Times bestseller highlights for the week of June 15th:

On the hardcover fiction list, The Front by Patricia Cornwell (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #7 in its second week; and Phantom Prey by John Sandford (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is #9 in its fourth week.

On the hardcover nonfiction list, My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor (Viking) is #6 in its second week, while Always by My Side by Jim Nantz (Gotham) is #11, also in its second week.

On the trade paperback fiction list, The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Berkley) is #2 in its 22nd week; The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Riverhead) is #3 in its 169th week; The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards (Penguin) is #7 in its 102nd week; The Last Summer (Of You and Me) by Ann Brashares (Riverhead) rises to #9 in its fourth week; The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (NAL) is #17 in its 29th week; and Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (Plume) is #18 in its fifteenth week.

On the mass market paperback fiction list, Invisible Prey by John Sandford (Berkley) is #14 in its sixth week.

On the paperback nonfiction list, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin) is #2 in its 71st week; The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (Penguin) is #10 in its 40th week; A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink (Riverhead) is #12 in its seventeenth week; I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley (Riverhead) is #13 in its eighth week; and Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster (NAL) is #16 in its fourth week.

On the paperback advice, how-to and miscellaneous list, Getting Things Done by David Allen (Penguin) is #9 in its 28th week.

In the young readers sector, Ladybug Girl (Dial) is #8 on the children's picture book list in its eleventh week, while Return to Fairyopolis (Warne) returns to the list at #10 in its second week. On the children's paperback list, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen (Speak) is #10 in its fourteenth week, and on the children's chapter books list, Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen (Viking) is #4 in its sixth week.

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