Category: Books

Gary Weiss (MSJ76)

Back in the fall of 2016 we heard the news about the passing of Eddie Antar, “Crazy Eddie” as he was known to millions of people, the man behind the successful chain of electronic stores and one of the most iconic ad campaigns in history. Few things evoke the New York of a particular era the way “Crazy Eddie! His prices are insaaaaane!” does. The journalist Herb Greenberg called his death the “end of an era” and that couldn’t be more true. What’s insane is that his story has never been told.

Before Enron, before Madoff, before The Wolf of Wall Street, Eddie Antar’s corruption was second to none. The difference was that it was a street franchise, a local place that was in the blood stream of everyone’s daily life in the 1970s and early ’80s. And Eddie pulled it off with a certain style, an in your face blue collar chutzpah. Despite the fact that then U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoffcalled him “the Darth Vader of capitalism” after the extent of the fraud was revealed, one of the largest SEC frauds in American history after Crazy Eddie’s stores went public in 1984, Eddie was talked about fondly by the people who worked for him. They still do–there are myriads of ex-Crazy Eddie employee web pages that still attract fans, and the Crazy Eddie fraud scheme is now taught in every business school across the United States.

Many years have passed since the franchise went down in spectacular fashion but Crazy Eddie’s moment has endured the way that iconic brands and characters do–one only need Google the media outpouring that accompanied his death. Maybe it’s because it crystallized everything about 1970s New York almost perfectly, the merchandise and rise of consumer electronics (stereos!), the ads (cheesy!), the money (cash!). In “Retail Gangster,” investigative journalist Gary Weiss takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most unbelievable business scam stories of all time, a story spanning continents and generations, reaffirming the old adage that the truth is often stranger than fiction.

Reviews:

New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/books/review-retail-gangster-gary-weiss.html

Wall Street Journal

https://www.wsj.com/articles/retail-gangster-review-lets-make-a-deal-11661205935

David Dennis (MSJ09)

A dynamic family exchange that pivots between the voices of a father and son, The Movement Made Us is a unique work of oral history and memoir, chronicling the extraordinary story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and its living legacy embodied in Black Lives Matter. David Dennis Sr., a core architect of the movement, speaks out for the first time, swapping recollections both harrowing and joyful with David Jr., a journalist working on the front lines of change today.

Taken together, their stories paint a critical portrait of America, casting one nation’s image through the lens of two individual Black men and their unique relationship. Playful and searching, anxious and restorative, fearless and driving, this intimate memoir features scenes from across David Sr.’s life, as he becomes involved in the movement, tries to move beyond it, and ultimately returns to it to find final solace and new sense of self—revealing a survivor who travels eternally with a cabal of ghosts.

A crucial addition to Civil Rights history, The Movement Made Us is the story of a nation reckoning with change and the hopes, struggles, setbacks, and triumphs of modern Black life. This is it: the extant chronicle of why we live, why we move, and for what we are made.

Greg Presto (BSJ04, MSJ07)

Exercise can do so much more than just make you sweat. It can also take you across the world to bike with zebras, back in time to the decks of the Titanic, or into the shoes of pro athletes, Hollywood superstars … and even presidents of the United States.

Whether you’re a beginner who can barely make it off the couch or a gym junkie who can’t stop moving, The Workout Bucket List is bursting with seriously fun fitness challenges and adventures for every type of person … and body! There are workouts, plans, races, and ideas to build your own ultimate life list of adventures—with options you can try at home, in your local gym, and across the globe. Inside this book you’ll:
· Race your bike over mountains against a locomotive
· Run in the world’s largest 10K
· Do leg day like America’s toughest firefighter
· Swim a mile in Mr. Rogers’s sneakers
· Tackle a workout using equipment from the Titanic
· Conquer the world’s tallest climbing wall
· Catch a big wave in the Big Apple
And hundreds more!

Lauren Kessler (BSJ71)

95 percent of the millions of American men and women who go to prison eventually get out. What happens to them?
A gripping and empathetic work of immersion reportage, Free: Two Years, Six Lives, and the Long Journey Home, by veteran journalist Lauren Kessler reveals what awaits the hundreds of thousands released from prison every year: the first rush of freedom followed quickly by institutionalized obstacles and logistical roadblocks, grinding bureaucracies, lack of resources, societal stigmas and damning self-perceptions, the often overwhelming psychological challenges. Free follows six people whose diverse stories paint an intimate portrait of struggle, persistence, and resilience.

Alan Heymann (BSJ97)

Human beings are expert storytellers. “Don’t Just Have the Soup” is a collection of 52 analogies from Alan Heymann’s executive and leadership coaching practice. Sometimes, the analogies come to his own mind. Sometimes, they hatch from the minds of clients or other coaches.

Analogies are a simple way to weave stories together and meet people where they are. In coaching, they’re a powerful tool for reframing what the client is experiencing.

They’re organized around 6 topics: The leader mindset, Communication, Time and attention, Relationships, Transitions and Coaching.

Linda K. Wertheimer (BSJ86, MSJ86)

Faith Ed, Teaching about Religion in an Age of Intolerance, gives an intimate cross-country look at the ongoing debate over how to handle religion in the schools. Veteran education journalist Linda K. Wertheimer traveled to communities around the nation, listening to voices on all sides of controversies over teaching about religion, including those of clergy, teachers, children, and parents who are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, or atheist. Her investigation, which includes a return to her rural Ohio school system, which once ran weekly Christian Bible classes, reveals a public education system struggling to find the right path forward and offers a promising roadmap for raising a new generation of religiously literate Americans.

Lori Marshall (BSJ86, MSJ88)

“One-Way Ticket to L.A.” is the story of how a nurse from Ohio found love in Hollywood. Written by Barbara Marshall with her daughter Lori Marshall, the memoir chronicles Barbara’s journey from nursing school to Los Angeles where she met a fast-talking comedy writer from the Bronx named Garry Marshall. He would go on to direct movies with Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Julie Andrews and more. Together, Barbara and Garry built one of the most respected marriages in Hollywood. With mutual love and encouragement, their fairy tale lasted 53 years. The book was published by Sarah Street Press in early 2021.

Ian Douglass (MSJ 2006)

Douglass has collaborated with professional wrestling star B. Brian Blair to complete Blair’s 472-page autobiography. Featuring forewords by Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Steve “Gator” Keirn, along with an afterword from Hulk Hogan, Truth Bee Told has been praised by reviewers as an instant classic professional wrestling autobiography.

Despite growing up amidst the challenges caused by poverty, disfiguring injuries and familial strife, Brian Blair’s determination to better himself and his life circumstances took him to worldwide wrestling fame, and also to major successes in the realms of business and politics. Truth Bee Told places you in the passenger’s seat alongside Brian for an entertaining and often hilarious journey through more than 40 years in the professional wrestling industry. You will learn the steep price Brian paid to go from welfare to millionaire, as you experience every marvelous conquest and heartbreaking catastrophe right alongside him. As a tell-all autobiography that pulls no punches, Truth Bee Told more than lives up to its name.

Alisa Parenti (COMM87, MSJ88)

In this historical fiction novel, Parenti takes readers from the tenement halls of the Lower East Side to the walls of Sing Sing as the United States is engulfed by the “Red Scare.” Ethel, the first woman on death row for conspiracy to commit espionage, speaks with Mary Wurth, a young reporter from Queens looking to prove her worth. With the world divided on whether Ethel should live or die, Mary struggles to understand what it means to be an American, and is enamored with the prospect of seeing the true Ethel.

BETRAYAL explores issues deeply impacting our world today, such as the unequal treatment of women, the debate on capitalism versus socialism, and growing nationalism around the globe. Ultimately, this book asks readers what it really means to betray – or to be betrayed.

Parenti is an award-winning broadcast journalist, reporter, and anchor. She has also served as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University teaching multimedia journalism and news writing. She and her husband, Jim (MSJ 88), reside in Washington, DC.

Saumya Roy (MSJ02)

“Castaway Mountain” is a narrative non fiction book on the Deonar garbage mountains of Mumbai and the waste pickers who live off them. It follows the life of Farzana Shaikh, a teenaged waste picker, over eight years as she found toys, snacks, jeans, friends and love on these mountains. Among the most fearless pickers in her community, Farzana works on, looking for forgotten treasures amid the trash even as the mountains make her sicker. Through her, Castaway Mountain tells a story of overconsumption, pollution, climate change and how the poor and marginalized face the brunt of it all.

Farzana’s story is interspersed with that of a court case to close down the garbage mountains- one that has stretched on for three decades, while the mountains have only grown taller, erupted in fires and spewed noxious air. Castaway Mountains is about the unspoken trauma of living in places like this and how this trauma is expressed through ancient myths pickers have heard of, through their scarred bodies and how it lingers, subconsciously, in their minds.  It is a beautiful story of light and life amidst darkness, one that will grip readers and move them.