Latest news with #HachetteBookGroup
Forbes
04-04-2025
- Forbes
Travel Expert Rick Steves' Coming-Of-Age Memoir: 'On The Hippie Trail'
Rick Steves in Nepal, 1978. Rick Steves—best-selling author, renowned guidebook guru, popular public television host and radio personality who founded and heads the impressively successful group-tour company Rick Steves' Europe, which leads more than 30,000 vacationers annually abroad—astounds once again with his latest book, On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer (Avalon Travel, Hachette Book Group). . The origin of this singular, coming-of-age memoir springs from a remarkable hard-cover journal that Steves, during the summer of 1978, toted along a 3,000-mile stretch of horizon-unfolding experiences in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal (see route map below) on what was then called the Hippie Trail—an overland trek from Europe and West Asia through South Asia. Notable for its cheap-budget lifestyle and an alternative hippie subculture that interacted more readily with locals than traditional tourists did, the trail held legendary allure, spotlit by the Beatles' 1968 trip to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. Ripe for meaningful exploration through mysterious lands, 23-year-old Steves was a recent college graduate and piano teacher from Washington State. En route, he daily penned 1,000 words, chronicling a vast expanse of observations and interactions. Returning home, his well-worn pages brimmed with 60,000 words. Soon after, the travelogue was tucked into storage and forgotten. Forty-two years later, during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Steves stumbled upon his diary, rereading passages about his formative trip. A personal anthropological dig. His hand-written script was transcribed into type and lightly edited. The resulting 2025 published narrative stays true to Steves' early emerging voice and enthusiastic purview: candid, curious, earnest, empathetic and hopeful. It exudes the transformative power of travel. An unvarnished, very readable revelry. Photographs—from an era when each camera snapshot was carefully considered because film rolls were limited and costly to develop—enrich his in-the-moment, on-the-spot reportage. Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw traveled overland from Istanbul to Kathmandu during the summer of 1978. Steves was accompanied by his friend Gene Openshaw, an ideal travel companion. Cellphones, GPS, apps, personal computers, social media, online recommendations and digital reservations did not yet exist. In their rucksacks, the duo packed a foldout paper map of the itinerary, few clothes and ample medicine (antibiotics, malaria pills, iodine drops for the water). Openshaw and Steves on the Pakistan-Indian border. This fresh-faced leap into the unknown catapulted Steves and Openshaw toward wisdoms beyond their years. They were free, determining their own paths, facing their own consequences. Unable to stay in touch with loved ones in the United States, they relied on themselves. There were no guidebooks about this region, nor an ability to make advance bookings—so they slept among a patchwork of accommodations, often searching and scrambling for overnight cover. Their Western values encountered distinctly different cultures and characters, the collision of which fortuitously instilled wonder and humility. Steves and Openshaw in Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. The monsoon season soaked them in Delhi. They fought off leeches and biting winged insects. Bumped and bustled on scruffy buses, crowded trains and narrow rickshaws. Dodged mischievous monkeys. Witnessed chaos and repression. Faced myriad complexities. Peered at ramshackle neighborhoods and broken roads. The poverty was jolting, heart-breaking. Visiting a village outside Delhi, Steves relieves a local woman of her load. They also rejoiced at the sublime beauty of picturesque landscapes. Cherished unexpected embraces, uplifting connections and formidable kindnesses. Made friends in Tehran. Got high for the first time in Afghanistan, which they departed via the mountainous Khyber Pass, navigating through Waziristan, an ungovernable region where Pashtun tribes set their own rules and strong-armed their own defenses. Rode elephants and ponies. Boated the milky Ganges River. Were awed by the strikingly white marble Taj Mahal, a monument to romance. Hiked the Himalayas. Floated on a dreamy Kashmir Lake houseboat. In Kathmandu, they exchanged namaste greetings with villagers in a lengthy, slender settlement and up a ridge overlooking a pastoral valley. Sweeping his vision across the panorama, Steves told Overshaw that he couldn't remember ever being more contented, happy and at peace. In Kashmir. "I've never met a family so disconnected from the rest of the world or so warm and welcoming," says Steves. At journey's end, when Steves flew home and 'dove into adulthood,' he explains: 'In the wake of this adventure—having stoked my travel spirit—I made a decision that changed the trajectory of my life: I let my piano students go, turned my recital hall into a lecture hall and began a small travel business.' His pivotal seed was planted, aligning a passion that has brought an array of travel pleasures to millions of people. Rick Steves today. Steves and Openshaw were unaware at the integral crossroad of their lives that 1978 would be the last Hippie Trail summer. In 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and the Islamic revolution arose in Iran. Easy, friendly and safe passage through both countries slammed shut. The world has changed a great deal since then, yet Steves continues to rally travel's impact to influence peace and partnership. Here, from the book's postscript, his thoughtful highlights about spreading your wings. • 'Those same 23-year-olds are still out there. I frequently hear from young globetrotters who have ventured beyond 'tourism' to become friends with the world, and I'm inspired by their stories.' • 'I miss the days of 'bon voyage.' There's so much fear these days. But the flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding through travel. Travelers learn that fear is for people who don't get out much; that culture shock is the growing pains of that broadening perspective.' • 'I've shared the lessons I learned on the Hippie Trail for over 40 years. And I'm an evangelist for the notion that good travel is more than bucket lists and selfies.' • 'I believe that if more people could have such a transformative experience—especially in their youth—our world would be a more just and stable place.' • 'Travelers understand that the big challenges of the future will be blind to borders, and we'll need to tackle them together—as global citizens and as a family of nations. And most fundamentally, travelers know that the world is a welcoming place filled with joy, love and good people.' • 'Young or old, rich or poor, backpack or rolling suitcase, the best way to understand this is to experience it firsthand. To get out there to know our neighbors. To build not walls, but bridges.' Steves bicycles in Afghanistan, where trucks were brightly painted. To read a digital scan of Steves' original hand-written journal, go here.
New York Times
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
She Brings Diverse Voices to Book Publishing
When Sally Kim started in the publishing industry more than 30 years ago, in her experience, 'only editors could sit at the table,' she said. 'The assistants would stand behind them, listening.' 'I remember pitching a book I wanted to buy in a meeting where I wasn't allowed to speak,' she said. 'I was too junior. They were doing me a favor.' Ms. Kim isn't silent anymore. Nor is she standing behind anyone. Her seat is at the head of the table, as president and publisher of Little, Brown and Company, one of the oldest publishers in the United States, which consists of six imprints and falls under the Hachette Book Group umbrella. A Korean American whose parents immigrated to the United States, Ms. Kim is the company's first Asian American woman to hold that position. Previously, she was senior vice president and publisher at G.P. Putnam's Sons. She said she had spent the past year at Little, Brown and Company inviting everyone, regardless of their position, to pull up a chair and find a seat at the table. 'Giving everyone a voice is a priority,' Ms. Kim, 51, said, 'so is reading projects together, weighing in and sharing their perspectives.' Ms. Kim grew up in Los Angeles. She now lives with her husband and two children, 12 and 14, in Westchester County, N.Y. During her career, she has acquired more than 100 books, including Kiley Reid's 'Such a Fun Age,' Robert Jones Jr.'s 'The Prophets,' and Gillian Flynn's 'Sharp Objects.' This interview, done in person at Hachette's office in Midtown Manhattan, has been edited and condensed. What is it like to be the first Asian American woman president and publisher at Hachette? Ten years ago, they never would have hired someone like me for this position. Coming up in publishing, I had no one who looked like me, especially in editorial. I didn't use that as a discouragement. I had to make my own reality. I'm now approaching this job as a huge right, and it colors everything I do, and every decision I make, and every person I hire. I spent my early years trying to conform, to play by the rules or make up for what I felt was lacking in my background, connections and education. I realize I cannot extract my identity and my Asian Americanness. What have you learned about yourself over the past year as president? That not fitting the mold and being a woman of color are my greatest assets. I learned I'm cut out for this job. I've learned to embrace my unique perspective because that's how I make change visible in what I do. What are some specific examples of changes you've implemented? I canceled our big standing acquisitions meetings, along with other reports and forms, as they didn't serve our purpose of connecting more books to readers. Marketing and publicity directors came to editorial meetings, which before were only editorial. I hired 24 new people, which is reflected in every different department including art, marketing, publicity and editorial. Meetings are now structured so everybody gets a turn to speak. We're buying more books as paperbacks to make them more affordable to readers. What results are you seeing from the changes you've implemented? Because we are a year or two out in terms of bringing a book to a reader, those results aren't available yet. But the changes I've made have shifted the culture, the energy and vibrancy here. We're starting to see the new DNA reflected in the people who are here and in the lists we are building. We're buying new books with diverse voices in different categories. Our covers, copy and the way we market, even talk about our books, have changed. How are you investing in diversification? My commitment to diversity is not just about race, it's about class and subjects of genres. And whom we hire, which are editors from diverse backgrounds like Nadxieli Nieto, who is the editorial director at Algonquin. Her mission is to lift up undiscovered voices who were being ignored — Southern voices, Latinx and writers of color, different forms of identity and orientation. How will you guide the next generation of women entering publishing? By helping them identify who they are, the space they want to create, and helping them see their diversity as an asset. By encouraging people to use their uniqueness as their superpower, and helping them find what their superpower is. That was not the message I got in publishing. It was all about conforming. Having people see an Asian woman in this position, especially since I didn't see any people who looked like me, is helping other people realize they can achieve this, too. I'm also teaching them how to be a good editor and how to think like a publisher. And by giving people, especially other women, positions of power and the opportunity to buy books that they believe in, that will amplify underrepresented voices and authors.
CBC
05-03-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Rot by Padraic X. Scanlan
In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight's devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate. In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland's place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland's overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire's laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland's wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire's embrace of modern capitalism. Uncovering the disaster's roots in Britain's deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy. (From Hachette Book Group) Rot is available in March 2025. Padraic X. Scanlan is a Toronto-based author and an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. His writing has been published in the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement and the New Inquiry. Rot is his third book.
The Guardian
05-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Publishers sue state of Idaho over library book bans
A group of major publishers in the US are suing the state of Idaho over a book-banning law. HB 710, enacted last July, forbids anyone under the age of 18 from accessing books deemed 'harmful to minors', including those depicting 'sexual conduct', in school or public libraries. The ban extends to classics and bestsellers, including The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Game of Thrones by George RR Martin and nonfiction books such as The 'What's Happening to My Body?' Book for Girls by Lynda Madaras. Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, and Sourcebooks filed a lawsuit on Tuesday alongside three authors, a public library district, the US writers' body the Authors Guild, a teacher, two students and two parents. This is the third state-level publisher-led lawsuit over book bans, following those against Florida and Iowa. The Idaho law 'goes even further than previous laws by removing classic books from public libraries in addition to schools', said Dan Novack, associate general counsel at Penguin Random House. HB 710's definition of 'harmful' materials is 'vague and overbroad', says the lawsuit. The law allows private citizens to file complaints, putting librarians 'in the untenable position of having to guess whether any member of the public might file an objection to a book whose message they disagree with' by claiming the text falls within the law's definition of harmful. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Libraries, many of which could not afford the cost of a defence if they were sued, have pre-emptively removed books from their shelves in response to the law. 'This type of self-censorship is inimical to first amendment liberties', said Michael Grygiel, an adjunct faculty member with Cornell Law School's First Amendment Clinic, which is representing the plaintiffs. Given that the law requires libraries to 'take reasonable steps' to restrict under-18s' access to 'harmful' books, libraries have to remove the texts from the library entirely, establish 'fully monitored, cordoned-off' adults-only sections, or convert to an 'adult-only' library. Donnelly Public Library, one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, converted to an adult-only library in May last year because it is too small to host an adult-only section, and it lacks the resources to review all the books in its collection to assess whether they fall under HB 710. Now under-18s cannot enter the library without their parent or guardian completing a three-part waiver. 'Our programming – which includes the only option for after-school care in Donnelly – has been severely impacted, with children unable to step inside the building to use the bathroom or keep warm without a complex waiver,' said the library's director, Sherry Scheline. Scheline added: 'Our circulation has also declined significantly.' There was a 42.8% fall in materials checked out from the library in the six weeks after the introduction of the legislation, compared with the previous year. Since the law took effect, titles moved to adult-only sections or removed from libraries entirely include A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
