Make Me Even - A Coming of Age Novel

Jerrold Fine

Summary

For one 1970s teenager, winning at poker and winning on Wall Street go hand-in-hand: “A coming-of-age story for the ages.” —Peter Lattman, vice chairman, The Atlantic In the wake of his mother’s death, Rogers Stout has no choice but to grow up fast. By high school, he already has the gambler’s gifts: a titanic brain, an uncanny ability to read people, and a risk-taker’s daring. All he lacks is direction . . . Everything changes the summer before his senior year when Rogers is invited into the boisterous environment of an investment bank’s trading room—and to a gambling hall dive where he immediately wins big at poker, capturing the attention of his coworkers with his card-playing skills. Intrigued by trading markets, Rogers’s intellectual curiosity takes him to Wharton and then Wall Street, where he faces challenges as an outsider who thinks and acts differently from the white-shoe establishment. Riding professional and personal highs and lows—like the stock market crash of 1974—he’ll have to learn to rebound, if he’s to survive . . . An intriguing look at human aspiration and the interplay of honor, greed, fear, and individuality, this novel reveals a time when a new generation upended the status quo on Wall Street and forever changed investing.“A rip-roaring yarn of baseball, poker, and Wall Street told with humor and humanity, and a loving rendering of Wharton in the seventies.” —Geoffrey Garrett, dean, The Wharton School“[An] absorbing story of an aspiring Wall Street trader.” —Kirkus Reviews

Available since: 10/04/2022.

Print length: 326 pages.

Other books that might interest you

Go Ask Ali - Half-Baked Advice...

Ali Wentworth

New York Times bestselling author Ali Wentworth offers her hilarious and unique advice on surviving the absurdity of modern life in her third collection of laugh-out-loud comic vignettes.
Ali Wentworth's first two books, Ali in Wonderland and Happily Ali After, were lauded by readers, critics, and fellow comedians alike. Entertainment Weekly included Happily Ali After on its "Must List" and hailed it as "hilarious. . . . Her glass isn't half full—it's "empty and cracked," while Cosmopolitan praised it as "razor-sharp." Chelsea Handler called Ali in Wonderland "truly hilarious," and Kathy Griffin christened it, "Chicken Soup for the Vagina." Alec Baldwin has described Ali as "funny and warm and crazy all at once. Like Barbara Eden. But on something. Like crystal meth," and Jerry Seinfeld has raved, "Everything that comes out of Ali Wentworth's mouth is funny!"
At once endearing and hilarious, thoughtful and far-fetched, this third collection offers Ali at her wisest and wittiest as she delivers tips, pointers, and quips on a host of life's conundrums and sticky situations, including the funny, sometimes embarrassing yet unforgettable situations that have shaped her inimitable world view as a wife, mother, actress, comedian, and all around bon vivant. Thoroughly entertaining, Go Ask Ali is packed with thoughts and musings from "the girlfriend you want to have a glass of wine with, the one who makes you laugh because she sees the funny and the absurd in everything" (Huffington Post).

Show book

You Should Sit Down for This - A...

Tamera Mowry-Housley

The beloved star of Sister, Sister and former co-host of The Real sheds her “good girl” image and inspires women to do the same in this powerful memoir. A lighthearted and supremely entertaining memoir, You Should Sit Down for This is like spending the afternoon sharing tea, fresh baked cookies, and conversation with Tamera Mowry-Housley, the fun-loving, wisdom-sharing girlfriend we all need in our lives (always ready to top off your wine!). Most of us know Tamera Mowry-Housley as a beloved TV star—one‑half of the memorable duo on the hit show Sister, Sister and co-host of the FOX talk show The Real. Tamera’s spunky Sister, Sister character stole the hearts of millions, but the transition in the public eye from teen-girl star to grown woman with a family and thriving career wasn’t easy. Being raised in Hawaii as an army brat instilled in her the discipline needed to succeed and conquer her dreams, but she felt secluded and sheltered, and wondered if living on her own terms would ever be her reality. Then, she decided it would. Vowing to live true to herself, Tamera stopped letting other people define her, tapped into her faith, and tossed away negativity to hone her own happiness and create a unique path forward for herself. In this pink book of quirky advice and storytelling, she encourages everyone to do the same. A celebration of love, cookies, and the juicy parts of life, she’ll leave you feeling liberated and motivated to embrace the highs and lows of growing. In You Should Sit Down for This, Tamera shares heartfelt stories about exiling herself from the world of beauty pageants, the pressures of being a teenage star, her struggle with rejection, the craziness of dating later in life, the challenges of balancing family and career, and why it’s okay for women to hide out in their closets when they just need a few minutes of peace. Tamera doesn’t shy away from the tough experiences, hilarious missteps, and big lessons it took to build a thriving career and the full life she’s living today.  Our favorite girl next door offers “Tameraisms,”—bite-sized pieces of wisdom to empower other women to step up to life’s unexpected turns and surprises and make it all work. You Should Sit Down for This is a much-needed reminder of the magic that can happen when we open our minds and hearts to become the very best versions of ourselves.

Show book

The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde created his final and most lasting play, comic masterpieces of all time, The Importance of Being Earnest, in 1895. Considered one of the greatest, The Importance of Being Earnest is a farce, playing with love, religion, and truth as it tells the tale of two men. Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who bend the truth in order to add excitement to their lives. Jack invents an imaginary brother, Ernest, whom he uses as an excuse to escape from his dull country home and gallavant in town. Meanwhile, Algernon follows Jack's scam, but his imaginary friend, Bumbury, provides a convenient method of adventuring in the country. However, their deceptions eventually cross paths, resulting in a series of crises that threaten to spoil their romantic pursuits. Hailed as the first modern comedy in England, The Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde's most famous work.
An Author's Republic audio production.

Show book

Melusi's Everyday Zulu - There...

Melusi Tshabalala

Duduza. Bopha. Imbiza. Phapha. Asixoliseni. Amapopeye . . . What is the power of a single word?
Six days a week, advertising creative Melusi Tshabalala posts a Zulu word on his Everyday Zulu Facebook page and tells a story about it. His off-beat sense of humour, razor-sharp social observations and frank political commentary not only teaches his followers isiZulu but also offer insight into the world Melusi inhabits as a 21st century Zulu man.
Over the past few months he has built up a big and a loyal following that include radio host Jenny Crwys-Williams and Afrikaans author Marita van der Vyfer. He pokes fun at our differences and makes us laugh at ourselves and each other.
Melusi asks critical questions of everyone, from Aunty Helen, Dudu-Zille to Silili (Cyril Ramaphosa) and even Woolworths (why are their aircons always set on 'jou moer'?) His fans love him for his honesty and commitment to pointing out subtle and overt forms of prejudice and racism.
Melusi's Everyday Zulu holds up a mirror that shows South African society in all its flaws and its sheer humanity. Most importantly, he shows the power of words and that there's um'zulu in all of us!

Show book

PU-239 and Other Russian Fantasies

Ken Kalfus

The acclaimed short story and novella collection by “a virtuoso of the dismal comedy of Soviet life”—and the basis for the HBO film PU-239 (The New York Times). 
 
Ken Kalfus traverses a century of Russian history in tales that range from hair-raising to comic to fabulous. The astonishing title story follows a doomed nuclear power plant worker as he attempts to hawk plutonium in Moscow’s black market. In “Budyonnovsk,” a young man hopes that the takeover of his town by Chechen rebels will somehow save his marriage. 
 
Set in the 1920s, “Birobidzhan” is the bittersweet story of a Jewish couple journeying to the Soviet Far East, where they intend to establish the modern world’s first Jewish state. The novella, “Peredelkino,” which closes the book, traces the fortunes of a 1960s literary apparatchik whose romantic intrigues inadvertently become political. In these and other stories, Kalfus captures the famously enigmatic Russian psyche. 
 
A PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist

Show book

Laurel & Hardy - Chiller...

Larry Harmon

Laurel and Hardy were a British-American comedy duo act during the early era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957). Starting their career as a duo in the silent film era, they later successfully transitioned to "talkies.” From the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy, childlike friend to Hardy's pompous bully.

Show book