Penguin Train Brings Finest News

• There was a major shakeup at Penguin's adult imprints Tuesday, which feature some of my favorites like Viking and Riverhead. Nearly every Penguin imprint was affected, from the aforementioned divisions to Dutton and Putnam, all of which make regular appearances on the bestseller lists. Even smaller ones like Avery, which focuses on health-related books, were impacted. There were three key headliner changes, but arguably the one most visible to the average reader is the late-summer closure of Gotham Books and Hudson Street Press.

Any change at the behemoth known as Penguin Random House impacts bookstores by virtue of that company being the biggest publisher by far with dozens of divisions, or imprints. The problem with having this many imprints is that eventually, there will be overlap and that's what led to the closure of Gotham and Hudson Street. For example, I've always found Viking to have a wide variety of titles. It manages to publish nonfiction history like The Boys in the Boat to fiction like Mo Yan's controversial Frog and throws in some critical thinking books from the likes of Sir Ken Robinson along the way. With that wide of range, there's bound to be some overlap with other Penguin imprints.

• On Friday, I wrote about three trends for 2015 films based on books. Naturally, dates and movies were shuffled after that post's publication. Instead of The Jungle Book coming Oct. 9, Disney has opted to delay that to April 2016 and bump up its adaptation of the Michael J. Tougias book The Finest Hours, the true story of the Coast Guard's rescue of two oil tankers during a 1952 Nor'easter storm. The film stars Chris Pine (Star Trek, Into the Woods), Casey Affleck (Interstellar, Oceans trilogy) and Eric Bana (Lone Survivor, Hulk). So essentially, they swapped one trend of public domain stories for another in survival stories. Frankly, I don't think it's a bad trade. I had already planned to cover The Finest Hours when it was set for release. When the book was published by Scribner in 2009, it received generally favorable reviews and it currently has a 3.91 on Goodreads.

• In other book film news, the adaptation of Paula Hawkins' debut novel The Girl on the Train is gaining more traction at DreamWorks. Erin Cressida Wilson is set to turn in a script soon. The story is about a train commuter with an unreliable memory becoming entangled in a murder investigation. Hawkins' novel is taking the literary world by storm and has been flagged as a major bestseller of 2015. This one, along with Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, which is set for publication next month, have been heavily hyped for months. Hawkins' novel was published this week by Riverhead. I'm about three hours into the audiobook and the novel is definitely dark and twisty while the comparisons to Hitchcock are accurate.

• Speaking of Hitchcock and trains, Gone Girl writer and screenwriter Gillian Flynn is re-teaming with star Ben Affleck and director David Fincher for a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train. No word yet on a release date.

Review: The Boys in the Boat

Maybe it's from my youth and watching the likes of "The Mighty Ducks" and "Remember the Titans," but I've always loved an underdog story. Whether its people overcoming personal obstacles or rallying to become the champion when no one expected them to win, I love watching people triumph. In the case of Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, originally published last year by Viking but was just released on paperback this summer by Penguin, the reader gets the best of both worlds in an excellent, page-turning read.

The book tells the story of the 1936 University of Washington rowing, or crew, team as they beat the rival University of California team and went on to represent the U.S. in the Berlin Olympics. Brown profiles every member of the team, especially Joe Rantz, who survived a rough childhood to get to college. Every member of the crew faced the hardships of the Great Depression, growing up in Northwestern logging camps, dairy farms and mining towns. Brown paints each setting, whether its the shell house where the crew's boat is stored or the Olympic race course, with painstaking detail akin to Laura Hillenbrand's outstanding Unbroken and Seabiscuit.

Initially, there are some personality clashes as people vie for spots on the crew, not to mention the inner rivalries between the class levels. But as the team gels together, the pace of the book quickens and I found myself rooting for the team more and more. I would sit in bed reading into the late night hours audibly cheering for the crew. Even the side characters like coach Al Ulbrickson, boat designer George Pocock and the sports journalists that follow the team, especially Seattle sports icon Royal Brougham, are all fully fleshed out.

As the story shifts to Europe, the pace picks up and Brown explains beautifully how Hitler wanted the Games to be, particularly involving filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, as well as how the team interacted with other Olympians. I have seldom watched an Olympic crew race on television, but I have a better understanding of the sport, both in terms of the strength and stamina needed and the strategy involved. I was absolutely riveted in the last race.

Here is the trailer for the book:

I absolutely loved this book and it is one of the top 3 books I've read this year. When I write feature stories, it's books like this that I aim for as an example of feature writing at its best. The book celebrates the triumph of what people can do when they work together as a singular unit and achieve great things. I try to be judicious in handing out 5-star ratings, but The Boys in the Boat is a book I'm glad I own in hardcover and will remain on my shelf for years to come. Rating 5/5 stars

Apparently, there is a film adaptation in the works. In 2011, more than two years prior to publication, The Weinstein Company purchased the film rights to the novel. The company distributed and produced such Oscar fare as "Silver Linings Playbook," "The Artist," and "The King's Speech." At the time, it was announced that"Thor" director Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct. However, there has been little to no new developments since the initial announcement.

Below, Brown further explains how he came to write the book at a Q&A session inside Washington D.C. literary landmark Politics and Prose: