In Behind the Hedges, journalist Rich Whitt focused his investigative lens on recent events at the University of Georgia, and in so doing examined the bigger story of "a sea change in how America supports its institutions of higher education." Through interviews with many key figures in a struggle for power at UGA over the last decade, Rich examines the controversial tenure of Michael Adams as UGA president, and how this controversy led to the unprecedented split between the Board of Regents and the UGA Foundation, with implications for the landscape of higher education funding nationwide.
“The Hamptons” is synonymous with luxury. Simply mentioning the name conjures images of poolside soirées, grandiose waterfront estates and endless days on the beach socializing with the upper echelon. But before this famed peninsula became the summer haunt of the glitterati, its forty miles of rolling sand dunes provided the perfect landscape for English settlers. Once New York high society caught wind of the charming hamlets and salty air, its members—from the Fords to the Vanderbilts—soon turned The Hamptons into a summer oasis. Next came the creatives seeking solitude, a place to write and sketch, away from the urban cacophony. John Steinbeck in Sag Harbor. Jackson Pollock in the Springs. And Andy Warhol in Montauk. Now, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Calvin Klein, Madonna, Alec Baldwin and Martha Stewart all enjoy Hamptons homes. They may come from different realms, but what’s one thing all Hamptonites, honorary or official, can agree on? The locale boasts a unique allure—one that morphs to meet the desires of its next seasonal guest or lifelong dweller.
Bestselling author Steven Gaines's "richly entertaining" (People) and juicy social history of the Hamptons. As one of America's most fabled communities--long a magnet for artists, celebrities, the very rich, and their respective hangers-on--the Hamptons have been a scene of constant collision among the established old guard, New Money, and the local families who farmed and fished the region for generations. In serving up three centuries of Hamptons history, Steven Gaines introduces a host of colorful characters including Jackson Pollock, Ron Perelman, Lauren Bacall, and the Bouvier Beales of Grey Gardens infamy. Philistines at the Hedgerow is a mesmerizing feat of storytelling--a book that takes us behind the privet hedges and rolling sand dunes and brings vivid life to the curious passions and personalities that animate the Hamptons.
For readers of The Smartest Guys in the Room and When Genius Failed, the definitive take on Brian Hunter, John Arnold, Amaranth Advisors, and the largest hedge fund collapse in history At its peak, hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC had more than $9 billion in assets. A few weeks later, it completely collapsed. The disaster was largely triggered by one man: thirty-two-year-old hotshot trader Brian Hunter. His high-risk bets on natural gas prices bankrupted his firm and destroyed his career, while John Arnold, his rival at competitor fund Centaurus, emerged as the highest-paid trader on Wall Street. Meticulously researched and character-driven, Hedge Hogs is a riveting fly-on-the-wall account of the largest hedge fund collapse in history: a blistering tale of the recent past that explains our precarious present . . . and may predict our future. Using emails, instant messages, court testimony, and exclusive interviews, securities analyst turned investigative reporter Barbara T. Dreyfuss charts the colliding paths of these two charismatic traders who dominated the speculative energy market. We follow Brian Hunter, the Canadian farm boy and elbows-out high school basketball star, as he achieves phenomenal early success, only to see his ambition, greed, and hubris precipitate his downfall. Set in relief is the journey of John Arnold, whose mild manner, sophisticated tastes, and low profile belied his own ferocious competitive streak. As the two clash, hundreds of millions of dollars in pension and endowment money is imperiled, with devastating public consequences. Hedge Hogs takes you behind closed doors into the shadowy world of hedge funds, the unregulated wild side of finance, where over-the-top parties and lavish perks abound and billions of dollars of other people’s money are in the hands of a tiny elite. Dreyfuss traces the rise of this freewheeling industry while detailing the decades of bank, hedge fund, and commodity deregulation that turned Wall Street into a speculative casino. A gripping saga peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and high drama, Hedge Hogs is also an important and timely cautionary tale—a vivisection of a financial system jeopardized by reckless practices, watered-down regulation, and loopholes in government oversight, just waiting for the next bust. Praise for Hedge Hogs “Regulators, legislators and judges inclined to sympathize with the industry ought to rush out and buy a copy of Barbara Dreyfuss’s Hedge Hogs, a wonderfully instructive tale about Amaranth Advisors. . . . Dreyfuss, a Wall Street analyst turned investigative journalist, not only plowed through what turned out to be a treasure trove of official records and transcripts, but supplemented it with plenty of her own reporting. She manages to organize it all into a tight, riveting and understandable yarn.”—The Washington Post “Clearly and entertainingly told . . . a salutary example of how traders who believe they are super-smart might be nothing more than lucky, and how there is nothing so intoxicating as the ability to speculate with other people’s money.”—The Economist “[Dreyfuss] does a great job of putting Amaranth’s out-of-control trader into historical context, explaining the blitz of deregulation that set the stage for someone like Hunter to do maximum damage.”—Bloomberg “The definitive take on the largest hedge fund collapse in history . . . You will not be able to put it down.”—Frank Partnoy, author of F.I.A.S.C.O. and Infectious Greed Named One of the Top 10 Business & Economics Books of the Season by Publishers Weekly
The Great Forgetting is another genre-bending novel from James Renner, author of The Man from Primrose Lane. When history teacher Jack Felter gets a call that his father, a retired pilot suffering from dementia, is quickly losing his last, precious memories, he reluctantly returns to bucolic Franklin Mills, Ohio. It’s been years since he’s been home. Jack has been trying to forget about Franklin Mills ever since Sam, the girl he fell in love with, ran off with his best friend, Tony. But Tony is gone, now. Vanished. Everyone assumes the worst. Soon Jack is pulled into the search for Tony, but the only one who seems to know anything is Tony’s last patient, a paranoid boy named Cole. As Cole pulls Jack into his web of conspiracy theories, the two of them team up to follow Tony’s trail—and maybe even save the world.
The Hamptons are known as a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, but since its earliest days as a sleepy summer colony, the area has also been at the epicenter of American garden design, boasting a vast collection of lushly innovative, private landscapes-and a staggering assemblage of creative gardeners, designers, and landscape architects. Hamptons Gardens invites you behind the private hedges and into the picturesque landscapes, showing work by groundbreaking designers such as Edwina von Gal, Oehme, van Sweden and Associates, and Miranda Brooks. From the sustainable and native to the over-the-top and avant garde, these gardens frame or transform houses-both modern and traditional-and extend the living space outdoors. Hamptons Gardens makes stops at the estates of Southampton, the cliffs of Montauk, East Hampton's Georgica Pond, and even the famed Grey Gardens. In collaboration with photographers Mary Ellen Bartley and Doug Young, author and Hamptons-insider Jack deLashmet open the garden gates to the Hamptons' most exciting private gardens in this visually stunning edition.
Everyone wants to be the kind of leader who energizes and mobilizes others-yet too few are. Why is it so challenging to crack the code? All it takes is the right conversation…great leaders inspire action with their words. They spark enthusiasm and commitment. With a single conversation, they can change the direction of someone's life. Executive coach Kristi Hedges spent years studying exactly what inspiring leaders do differently. Informed by quantitative research and thousands of responses from leaders at all levels, she reveals that inspiring communication isn't about grand gestures. Instead, those who motivate us most do a few things routinely, consistently, and intentionally. In Inspiration Code, Kristi explains: Present: investing their attention carefully and guiding the flow of conversations Personal: speaking genuinely, listening generously, and bringing out the potential of those around the Passionate: exhibiting sincere emotion and exuding energy attuned to the situation Purposeful: helping others find meaning and see their place in the bigger picture Eye-opening and accessible, The Inspiration Code dispels common myths about how leaders communicate-and guides them in cultivating qualities that authentically excite. Inspired companies need inspirational leaders. Learn to unlock motivation, lift peoples ‘sights, and lead them into the future.
In their follow-up to The Hamptons: Life Behind the Hedges, authors Susan Meisel and Ellen Harris take the reader on yet another intimate journey through the Hamptons that they love. From the beaches to the farms and produce stands, from mansions to humble cottages, from sparkling backyard pools to lush gardens and manicured lawns, this insider's tour allows the reader a glimpse of a quieter side of the Hamptons. Often lost in the fray of traffic, shopping, and partying, the Hamptons revealed in these pages is a place long beloved by artists, writers, and those seeking respite from the rigors of the city. Through Meisel's gorgeous photography and the authors' personal, conversational text, the essence of the Hamptons is vividly conveyed. edge; wisteria vines wending its way across the facade of a tiny cottage; wide open fields of perfectly plowed rows of potatoes wrapping around a huge red barn; a majestic mansion overlooking the bay; a gate, slightly ajar, reveals the interior of a well-groomed garden; a yellow table and chairs is set beside a velvet-purple lavender garden, so inviting for a bit of reading and an ice-cold lemonade. Perusing these images, it's easy why the Hamptons continue to draw people to come for a vacation...or to stay forever.
Chris Hedges’s profound and unsettling examination of America in crisis is “an exceedingly…provocative book, certain to arouse controversy, but offering a point of view that needs to be heard” (Booklist), about how bitter hopelessness and malaise have resulted in a culture of sadism and hate. America, says Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Chris Hedges, is convulsed by an array of pathologies that have arisen out of profound hopelessness, a bitter despair, and a civil society that has ceased to function. The opioid crisis; the retreat into gambling to cope with economic distress; the pornification of culture; the rise of magical thinking; the celebration of sadism, hate, and plagues of suicides are the physical manifestations of a society that is being ravaged by corporate pillage and a failed democracy. As our society unravels, we also face global upheaval caused by catastrophic climate change. All these ills presage a frightening reconfiguration of the nation and the planet. Donald Trump rode this disenchantment to power. In his “forceful and direct” (Publishers Weekly) America: The Farewell Tour, Hedges argues that neither political party, now captured by corporate power, addresses the systemic problem. Until our corporate coup d’état is reversed these diseases will grow and ravage the country. “With sharply observed detail, Hedges writes a requiem for the American dream” (Kirkus Reviews) and seeks to jolt us out of our complacency while there is still time.
