AMAZON EDITORS' PICK: BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF MAY, 2024
Lawrence Ingrassia
Many families are touched by cancer, but a handful seem especially cursed. Mine is one of them. My mother first developed breast cancer in her 30s, and died at 42. A sister died at age 24 of abdominal cancer. Then my brother's son developed cancer in his cheek when he was just 2 years old. My other sister died of lung cancer at age 32, and my brother developed a different kind of lung cancer at 46.
Each new cancer brought grief - and disbelief. Why was this happening? When would cancer strike next, and who? Could nothing be done? Why was I the only of the four siblings spared? Oncologists had no answer, beyond surmising that our family (myself excepted) had incredibly bad luck. Or so they thought, for a long time.
My latest book, A Fatal Inheritance, chronicles the story of my family, and families like mine, along with the pioneering cancer researchers who worked decades before making a groundbreaking discovery that solved the medical mystery behind our seemingly unrelated cancers. Published May 14, 2024, it was selected as an Amazon Editors' Pick in the Best Nonfiction and Best Biographies & Memoirs book categories for May 2024, and also one of the Best New Biographies and Memoirs by Readworthy by BookBub.
Adaptations were published by The Wall Street Journal, "Solving the Cancer Mystery That Devastated My Family;" the Washington Post, "As cancer haunted my family, we discovered a fatal inheritance;" and the Daily Mail, "I lost my mom, three siblings and nephew to early-onset cancer."
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My first book - Billion Dollar Brand Club, about upstart brands taking on corporate giants that long dominated the trillion-dollar consumer economy - was published Jan. 28, 2020, and was named to several best business book lists for 2020.
I got hooked on journalism as a student at the University of Illinois in the early 1970s, and stayed hooked for more than four decades. As an editor and reporter, I've worked with the best in the business at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Why journalism? I love the energy, the passion, the dedication, the people.
During my career, I have interviewed prime ministers (of Iceland) and future prime ministers (of Britain). I have been deposed by lawyers for Donald Trump (before he became president). I have covered tense international trade negotiations, foretold why the euro currency would face many challenges, written about the legalization of gay marriage in Europe (many years earlier than in the U.S.) and profiled the last manned fire watchtower in the woods of northern Maine. I witnessed the collapse of the Twin Towers across the street from my Wall Street Journal office on 9/11.
A FATAL INHERITANCE SELECTED AS AMAZON EDITORS' PICKS, MAY 2024
Accolades for Billion Dollar Brand Club
"In Billion Dollar Brand Club, the veteran business journalist Lawrence Ingrassia (a former editor at The New York Times) ferrets out the most compelling, consequential stories and people behind the direct-to-consumer revolution. He weaves riveting tales of legacy brands caught resting on their laurels, the hungry newcomers who outsmarted them and a network of prescient investors working behind the scenes." The New York Times
"Far more than a journalistic take on unorthodox online retailers . . . [Ingrassia] offers an insightful description of how entrepreneurs armed with little more than an idea have undermined powerful incumbents in industries that once enjoyed tantalizing profit margins." The Wall Street Journal
- No. 2 on Inc. magazine's list of "10 Best New Business Books of 2020"
- Selected for "Best in Business Book Awards" shortlist for 2020. SABEW Best in Business
- "Editors' Choice: New Books We Recommend," The New York Times
- Chosen as one of "The 20 Best Business Books of 2020" by Entrepreneur's Handbook
"In Billion Dollar Brand Club, the veteran business journalist Lawrence Ingrassia (a former editor at The New York Times) ferrets out the most compelling, consequential stories and people behind the direct-to-consumer revolution. He weaves riveting tales of legacy brands caught resting on their laurels, the hungry newcomers who outsmarted them and a network of prescient investors working behind the scenes." The New York Times
"Far more than a journalistic take on unorthodox online retailers . . . [Ingrassia] offers an insightful description of how entrepreneurs armed with little more than an idea have undermined powerful incumbents in industries that once enjoyed tantalizing profit margins." The Wall Street Journal
- No. 2 on Inc. magazine's list of "10 Best New Business Books of 2020"
- Selected for "Best in Business Book Awards" shortlist for 2020. SABEW Best in Business
- "Editors' Choice: New Books We Recommend," The New York Times
- Chosen as one of "The 20 Best Business Books of 2020" by Entrepreneur's Handbook
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A leading financial journalist takes us inside a business revolution: the upstart brands taking on the empires that long dominated the trillion-dollar consumer economy.
“Billion Dollar Brand Club is a fascinating, eye-opening adventure tour through the companies remaking our economy and lives. Lawrence Ingrassia’s stories of how start-ups have transformed nearly everything—from how we buy and sell to how we work and live—are critical reading. If you want to understand why you’re buying razors, or mattresses, or nearly everything else in a totally new way, then BUY THIS BOOK.”
--Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
“In Silicon Valley, billion dollar companies were once called ‘unicorns’ because they were so rare. These businesses have disrupted the entire retail sector, but until now no one has really understood how they did it. Lawrence Ingrassia’s fascinating, fast-paced, and truly elucidating book details how a herd of unicorns changed the way we live, and will continue to disrupt the business world for decades to come.”
--Nick Bilton, special correspondent, Vanity Fair, and author of Hatching Twitter
“Billion Dollar Brand Club chronicles the seismic changes rocking retail. Lawrence Ingrassia does a masterful job illuminating the new breed of internet-forged brands and the savvy entrepreneurs who have overthrown decades of thinking about what it means to sell.”
--Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store
“Lawrence Ingrassia has given us an exhilarating behind-the-scenes look at the personalities and processes shaping what we buy and how. Every page is full of insight and real-world stories about what it takes to create a product and brand that will be around for the long term in a world where things move faster than ever.”
--Eric Ries, author of The Startup Way and The Lean Startup, and founder and CEO of LTSE
“In the last few years, upstart brands have come out of nowhere to take over huge businesses. Think Warby Parker, Casper, and Dollar Shave Club. How did they do it? That’s the question everyone, from consumers to the big brands who previously owned these categories, wants to know. Lawrence Ingrassia’s engaging, must-read new book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, has the answers.”
--Bethany McLean, coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here
“Billion Dollar Brand Club is a fascinating, eye-opening adventure tour through the companies remaking our economy and lives. Lawrence Ingrassia’s stories of how start-ups have transformed nearly everything—from how we buy and sell to how we work and live—are critical reading. If you want to understand why you’re buying razors, or mattresses, or nearly everything else in a totally new way, then BUY THIS BOOK.”
--Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
“In Silicon Valley, billion dollar companies were once called ‘unicorns’ because they were so rare. These businesses have disrupted the entire retail sector, but until now no one has really understood how they did it. Lawrence Ingrassia’s fascinating, fast-paced, and truly elucidating book details how a herd of unicorns changed the way we live, and will continue to disrupt the business world for decades to come.”
--Nick Bilton, special correspondent, Vanity Fair, and author of Hatching Twitter
“Billion Dollar Brand Club chronicles the seismic changes rocking retail. Lawrence Ingrassia does a masterful job illuminating the new breed of internet-forged brands and the savvy entrepreneurs who have overthrown decades of thinking about what it means to sell.”
--Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store
“Lawrence Ingrassia has given us an exhilarating behind-the-scenes look at the personalities and processes shaping what we buy and how. Every page is full of insight and real-world stories about what it takes to create a product and brand that will be around for the long term in a world where things move faster than ever.”
--Eric Ries, author of The Startup Way and The Lean Startup, and founder and CEO of LTSE
“In the last few years, upstart brands have come out of nowhere to take over huge businesses. Think Warby Parker, Casper, and Dollar Shave Club. How did they do it? That’s the question everyone, from consumers to the big brands who previously owned these categories, wants to know. Lawrence Ingrassia’s engaging, must-read new book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, has the answers.”
--Bethany McLean, coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here