Oh, Andre. Drugs and hair pieces, really? Please don’t tarnish my teenage self’s ideals of you. I’m still hoping that this is just Entertainment Tonight going for the glitzy headlines and that once I’ve read OPEN, you will remain in my heart as the greatest tennis player ever.
Get ready to start see Andre everywhere in the media – the blitz is on!
Open by Andre Agassi
(9780307268198, On sale 11/09/2009)
Knopf
NATIONAL PUBLICITY LINE UP:
10/28/2009 — Cover story/feature with excerpt (first serial) — People 10/29/2009 — Dual first serial with People magazine — SPORTS ILLUSTRATED 11/06/2009 — Review by Sean Gregory — TIME Magazine 11/08/2009 — Interview with Katie Couric — CBS-TV 60 Minutes 11/08/2009 — Interview with Howard Fendrich — Associated Press 11/09/2009 — Feature/Profile — USA TODAY 11/09/2009 — Interview — TENNIS CHANNEL 11/09/2009 — Two hour taped interview with Rick Reilly — ESPN 11/11/2009 — Interview— NBC-TV Today Show 11/11/2009 — Live interview — WNYC-AM Leonard Lopate Show 11/11/2009 — Live interview with host Michael Kay — YES NETWORK Center Stage 11/11/2009 — Taping (air date tk) — CBS TELEVISION Rachael Ray Show 11/11/2009 — Interview with Terry Gross — NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO Fresh Air 11/11/2009 — Interview — WABC-TV Live with Regis & Kelly 11/12/2009 — Live interview with anchors Chetry — CNN American Morning 11/12/2009 — Air date tk – Interview — CHARLIE ROSE INC. Charlie Rose Show 11/12/2009 — Live interview with host Joe Scarborough — MSNBC Morning Joe 11/12/2009 — Live interview /Chris Russo/ Mad Dog Unleashed — SIRIUS XM RADIO Mad Dog Radio 11/12/2009 — interview (now also on Fox Business Network) — WABC-AM Imus in the Morning 11/13/2009 — Drive Time Radio Satellite Tour — ABC RADIO NETWORK 11/15/2009 — re-airing Agassi documentary “Between the Lines” to coincide with the book release — TENNIS CHANNEL 11/16/2009 — Drive time radio tour — ENVISION RADIO NETWORK 11/18/2009 — Interview — PBS-TV/KCET-TV Tavis Smiley Show Month of December — Feature with Stefanie Graf and Andre about his book — VOGUE (on stands mid-November) Month of December — Proust Questionnaire — VANITY FAIR(on stands mid-Nov)
REGIONAL PUBLICITY:
09/03/2009 — Fall preview in free weekly local paper — Las Vegas Weekly 10/12/2009 — “I want to Read: ‘Open’ by Douglas Perry — The Oregonian 10/22/2009 — tennis writer Michelle Kaufman promotes Andre’s events in Miami — MIAMI HERALD 11/03/2009 — Cover feature — LAS VEGAS MAGAZINE 11/09/2009 — Feature/Profile (run date tk) — Yerevan Magazine — CA – Los Angeles 11/09/2009 — Review by Joel Drucker (run date tk) — Confirmed CA – San Francisco 11/10/2009 — Feature in Doug Elfman’s 3A column — LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL 11/11/2009 — Interview — WPLJ-FM Scott and Todd in the Morning — NY – New York City 11/11/2009 — Interview — WOR-AM Joan Hamburg Show — NY – New York City 11/13/2009 — Live interview — Boomer and Carton in the Morning, WFAN-NY 11/16/2009 — Feature/profile by Michelle Kaufman (run date tk) — MIAMI HERALD FL – Miami/Fort Lauderdale 11/18/2009 — Interview — KFI-AM Bill Handel Show — CA – Los Angeles 11/18/2009 — Interview — KPCC-FM AirTalk with Larry Mantle — CA – Los Angeles 11/18/2009 — Live interview on Good Day LA — KTTV — CA – Los Angeles 11/20/2009 — Live interview on the Ronn Owens Show — KGO-AM — CA – San Francisco 11/21/2009 — Interview — KALW-FM West Coast Live — CA – San Francisco
After enjoying, yes, actually enjoying President Obama’s press conference last night (with special thanks for ending just in time for LOST), I was thrilled to learn this morning that he is currently reading NETHERLAND by Joseph O’Neill.
From David Leonhardt’s exclusive interview with President Obama in this Sunday’s New York Times Magazine: “At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings —Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill.”
CNN’s blog Political Ticker, CBS News Political Hotsheet,Huffington Post,PW, Amazon’s blog Omnivoracious, NYT’s blog Papercuts, all covered the story.
This could very well be my favorite day to work in publishing. Knopf is publishing Andre Agassi’s memoir! It’s been a long journey from the days when his posters decorated my teenaged bedroom, but my respect and admiration (with the tiniest of crushes, of course) for this sports icon never waivered. Let the countdown to November begin!
Open: A Self-Portrait by Andre Agassi
A remarkable memoir by one of the world’s great athletes—an indispensable inside view of the world of tennis that transcends its subject to relate with stunning candor the amazing story of Andre Agassi’s life.
On sale:November 3, 2009 / First Printing: 750,000
I’d say I’m very picky about my poetry. That’s why I love April. Every April, our leading literary imprint, Knopf, sorts through it all for me and picks out the best stuff for their annual Poem-a-Day campaign.
This year, they’ve even got it set up so that you can subscribe to the feed instead of receiving the daily email. So one stellar poem shows up in my Google Reader every day, and I read it, and I feel at least twice as profound as I did before.
However, if you do want to sign up for the Poem-a-Day email, they are giving away signed books and including audio clips of the poets reading (which, depending on the poet, can really add a lot). We’re a little late in getting this to you, I know, but you can read the previous days’ poems on the Knopf website.
Here’s my favorite so far, from April 2nd, by J.D. McClatchy. What’s yours?
Going Back to Bed
Up early, trying to muffle
the sounds of small tasks,
grinding, pouring, riffling
through yesterday’s attacks
or market slump, then changing
my mind—what matter the rush
to the waiting room or the ring
of some later dubious excuse?—
having decided to return to bed
and finding you curled in the sheet,
a dream fluttering your eyelids,
still unfallen, still asleep,
I thought of the old pilgrim
when, among the fixed stars
in paradise, he sees Adam
suddenly, the first man, there
in a flame that hides his body,
and when it moves to speak,
what is inside seems not free,
not happy, but huge and weak,
like an animal in a sack.
Who had captured him?
What did he want to say?
I lay down beside you again,
not knowing if I’d stay,
not knowing where I’d been.
With Roger Clemen’s astonishing fall from grace at its center, the New York Daily News Sports Investigative Team has written the definitive book on corruption and the steroids era in Major League Baseball. An extraordinarily inside look at Clemens, baseball players such as Andy Pettitte and Jose Canseco, trainer Brian McNamee, and the myriad lawyers, politicians, drug dealers and sexual trysts that all make up the incredible Clemens story.
Knopf editor Peter Gethers addresses the question of how this book differs from the upcoming release from HarperCollins on Clemens.
“The Harper book is a biography of Roger Clemens. Our book is not a bio – it’s a book of investigative journalism by the Sports Investigative Team for the NY Daily News – the reporters who have broken almost every big story on Clemens and every big steroid story over the past 3 years.
While Clemens is the center of the book, it his role in the steroid investigation that dominates when he’s on stage. But the book gives equal time to Brian McNamee – the trainer who brought Clemens down – as well as the various lawyers, big time sports agents, Andy Pettitte, his father Tom Pettitte, Jose Canseco, politicians, even various drug dealers, criminals and porn stars. Ours is a muck-raking book – examining, among other things, the whole gym rat, drug culture of Texas athletes and dealers.
Clemens is the villain of the book – and the book has enough proof of various perjuries on his part to do him some serious legal damage. None of this book’s major sources spoke to the author of the Harper book.
I can give you more if you need it. But think of it this way – we’ve got the Woodward and Bernstein of sports journalism writing about Clemens, focusing on the Senate investigation and the truth behind the drug accusations – and in doing so, exposing the whole drug and sex and cheating culture of baseball.” – Peter Gethers, Knopf
What we’ve all be eagerly awaiting! Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved series finally brought to life on HBO, beginning Sunday, March 29th, 8pm.
Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Cold Mountain), who died last year, directed the two-hour pilot. Grammy-award winner, Jill Scott, plays Precious Ramotswe. Tony award winner Anika Noni Rose (Dreamgirls) plays her secretary, Mma Makutsi. The series was shot is Botswana.
I joined the throngs of people this week who were surprised and upset by the sudden death of John Updike.Not only because it made me think of my own mortality and how fragile life is, but because he was such a fixture in our publishing life here at Random House, Inc.EVERY year (almost) it seems there would be some offering from him and he has his first collection of short fiction in nine years appearing in June 2009, entitled My Father’s Tears and Other Stories.
In the 18 years I have been at Random House he was frequently requested to appear by libraries, foundations, state and national conventions.The first year I worked here and was just overwhelmed by author requests – several of them for him – I came back from an early lunch and discovered him standing in front of our building (at that time 1501 50th Street).For one insane moment I almost threw myself at his feet, intending to clutch his ankles, and beg him to solve my problems and appear at all those libraries that had requested him.Even after all those years I can still recall the effort it took NOT to do that rash act.Instead a mere “Hello Mr. Updike,” saved the moment.I did speak to him several times over the years, he did make library appearances, and I will continue to keep his address and phone number in my file.
To date, 347 NYT readers from all over the world (Paris, Armenia, Auckland, NZ…) have posted comments in response to the obituary and 99.5% of them were very admiring and sorrowful.The small minority needn’t have bothered to be mean-spirited.I suspect they are aspiring writers suffering from a blockage of their own talents.I will quote one post which seems to sum up the thoughts of most:
1/28, 12:48 p.m.“Mr. Updike probably knew every word in the dictionary and then some.No one wrote a better sentence.I will miss him terribly.I don’t know why but I feel sadder than I ought to.We’re not related or anything.There must be a connection between us.He wrote it, I read it.Hundreds of hours, maybe more.Rest in peace.”– Jim H., Mass.
With the wonderful news that attendance for this year’s Midwinter conference in Denver is on track, don’t miss what the Random House, Inc. booth #1220 has to offer!
On the heels of the latest issue of our Random Revelations newsletter, I feel I must strongly echo Dave in praise and promotion of Abraham Verghese’s new novel, CUTTING FOR STONE, out in February from Knopf.
Think Grey’s Anatomy meets the Kite Runner…at least those are the loose comparisons I draw. There really is no way to describe this wonderful novel so I’ll give you the basics and let you discover the rest for yourself: a set of twins, borne out of a forbidden union, grow up at a mission hospital in Ethiopa where they navigate childhood, medicine, and their country’s political change. Certainly epic in story and size (500+ pages, but it is worth it!), Cutting for Stone is one for the “all-time favorite” bookshelf.
Also, the author will be in attendance at ALA-Midwinter. If you have the conference on your itinerary, make sure to keep this is mind. He will be speaking at the author’s breakfast on Sunday, January 25 with a booth signing immediately following.
This headline, FOUGHT OVER ANY GOOD BOOKS LATELY?, jumped out at me this morning from The New York Times. Book Group drama? How could that be?
How naive of me! Finding happiness within a book group can be a challenge, to say the least. The examples shared in the article alone could spark lively debates! Have you ever experienced book group drama?
Some of my favorite book group choices:
-Erica
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