Congratulations to Charles Gasparino! His book, The Sellout, has won the book category of the IRE Awards. The awards, given by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. since 1979, recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year.

 Charles Gasparino in an award-winning business journalist, senior correspondent for Fox Business Network, a columnist for the Daily Best and the New York Post, and a freelance writer for Forbes and other publications. He previously wrote for Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal, where he covered issues on Wall Street, including pension funds, mutual funds, and regulatory issues. His New York Times best-seller, The Sellout: How Wall Street Greed and Stupidity Destroyed America’s Dominance of the Global Financial System is the definitive book on the current financial crisis in the United States and the events that led up to what is now being called “The Great Recession.”

Kaylie Jones, daughter of James Jones, author of WWII classic From Here to Eternity, reveals at The Daily Beast that her father’s original manuscript included a gay sex storyline deemed too risque for 1951. The original book included: “One character, Maggio [who] makes extra bucks by hanging out with older, rich gay men who live in Honolulu, who pay good money for his company,” and a “soldier, Bloom, realizes he enjoys sex with men, and is so terrified and ashamed of being gay and of being called on it, that he commits suicide.” Jones goes on to argue that the issues of acceptance and censorship her father struggled against continue to this day.

Kaylie Jones is an award-winning novelist and screenplay writer. She is the acclaimed author of A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (which was made into the Merchant Ivory film starring Kris Kristofferson and Barbara Hershey and won the New York Public Library Young Adult Fiction Award), Celeste Ascending, As Soon as it Rains, Quite the Other Way, Speak Now, and Lies My Mother Never Told Me: A Memoir (William Morrow). The daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist James Jones (From Here to Eternity, The Thin Red Line) she chairs the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, which awards $10,000 annually to an unpublished first novel. Her screenplay Anor of Aquatain, written with her husband, Kevin Heisler, won the gold medal at the Houston Film Festival, while her original screenplay Limbo, won a New York Women In Film Screenwriting Award. A Writer in Residence in the New York City public schools through Teachers & Writers Collaborative and a creative writing teacher at the MFA Program in Writing at Long Island University’s Southampton campus, she is a sought after keynote speaker at writers’ conferences and festivals, libraries, and universities.

Congratulations to Douglas Brinkley, winner of the 2009 National Outdoor Book Award in the history/biography category, for his book, Wilderness Warrior! Wilderness Warrior is a compreshensive biography of one of America’s most memorable presidents, Teddy Roosevelt. Don’t just take it from us, the National Outdoor Book Award site proclaims:

“Wilderness Warrior is an impeccably researched and thoroughly engrossing work on the one figure in history who set aside more of America’s outdoor heritage than any other.  Much has been written about Theodore Roosevelt, but in this ground-breaking, 940-page biography, Douglas Brinkley concentrates on Roosevelt the outdoorsman and conservationist, and in doing so, paints a vibrant portrait, as vibrant as the man himself.  One word describes it all: bully!“

Dr. Douglas Brinkley has been hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “America’s new past master,” and the late Stephen E. Ambrose called him “the best of the new generation of American historians.” He is the author of a number of award-winning and best-selling books, including The Great Deluge, Tour of Duty, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc, Parish Priest, and, he edited the number one New York Times best-seller The Reagan Diaries, the personal diaries kept by Ronald Reagan during his time in the White House.Most recently his biography, The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America is an instant New York Times best-seller.

Former Ivy League admissions officer and author of Fat Envelope Frenzy: One Year, Five Promising Students, and the Pursuit of the Ivy League Prize, Joie Jager-Hyman shares a few tips for suriviving the process and managing expectations:

If you’re a typical potential Ivy League applicant, you’re probably feeling more than a little stressed by the looming application deadline of January 1st.  In addition to all that senior-year homework you have to do and all the clubs in which you have to demonstrate leadership, you now have to answer tricky essay questions like “Write page 217 of your 300-page autobiography” or “Tell us about a person who has influenced you in a significant way.”

As a former Ivy League admissions officer, I know that the process can be stressful and confusing. Unfortunately, getting into a top college isn’t like Buddhism or Alcoholics Anonymous–there aren’t 12 steps that you can follow to enlightenment. That’s why I’m often surprised by all the bad advice that’s floating around when it comes to gaining an edge in the college admissions process. There’s no secret formula for getting in, but understanding what doesn’t work will save you time, money and, possibly, some tears.

–Don’t take easy classes just to get good grades. Admissions officers don’t just look at your grades, they also look at the courses you took in high school. A straight-A student in easy classes is like a minor leaguer with lots of potential. You’ve never competed against the major leaguers–those terrific students who challenged themselves in high school–and you’re not sure how you’d do. Colleges can’t be sure either, which is why it’s really important to push yourself (within reason) when it comes to your high school coursework if you want to get into a top college.

–Don’t believe the hype when you hear admissions officers at competitive colleges tell you that SAT (or ACT) scores don’t matter. It’s no coincidence that the average SAT scores in the Ivy League are sky-high and climbing. They are a convenient tool with which to compare students from different high schools with inconsistent grading criteria. Plus, it’s hard to justify accepting an A student with mediocre SAT scores when you are faced with another A student who also excelled on all of his or her tests. Be sure to look at a college’s average SAT scores when trying to assess your chances of getting in.

–Don’t pass up the statistical advantage of being an Early Decision candidate. Several Ivy League colleges offer students this option whereby they may submit one application to their first choice school by early November (as opposed to the Jan. 1 deadline for Regular Decision) and agree to enroll if admitted. Studies have confirmed that colleges prefer to admit students who commit to matriculating. So, if you fall in love with a college before Nov. 1, show it your love by applying Early Decision–and it will be more likely to love you back.

–Don’t fool yourself into thinking that the “perfect” essay will make up for less-than-perfect academics. The college admissions process is primarily an academic evaluation and students’ personal characteristics are only considered after their scholastic performance has been appraised. In my experience, students tend to latch onto the essay because–unlike the three years worth of grades on your transcript–the essay is one of the few things you have control over during the fall of your senior year. Though the essay is important, it’s also important to have realistic expectations of what it can do for you. No one gets into an Ivy League college just because he or she wrote a good essay.

–Don’t ignore the role your teachers and guidance counselors play in putting together a great Ivy League application. Most Ivies ask for two teacher and one counselor recommendation, and these are read with great interest in the admissions office. Remember, the process is primarily an academic evaluation, so what your teachers and counselors say about you counts as least as much as what you say about yourself.

Finally, one more piece of unsolicited advice: Don’t stress about college so much that you ruin your high school experience. Driving yourself and everyone around you crazy won’t change any outcome other than possibly inviting a breakdown or burnout. Remember that college is just four years of a (hopefully) long life. So pace yourself. Many of you will get to do all this again when you apply for graduate school.

- Joie Jager-Hyman was a former Assistant Director of Admissions for Dartmouth College, where she worked from 2000-2002. During that time, she read and evaluated over one thousand applications for undergraduate admission and interviewed hundreds of prospective students. She also traveled extensively, speaking to large audiences of students, parents, and counselors about the undergraduate admissions process. She is a perfect speaker for high schools, parent groups, and corporations seeking to demystify the college admissions process.

Author of Waiter Rant Steve Dublanica and restaurateur Danny Meyer share insider information about the restaurant business on the Today Show with Kathy Lee and Hoda. Useful tips to keep in mind when you go out for your next meal. Although, I think I’d rather not know if my steak fell on the floor before it got to the table!

Danny Meyer is one of the world’s most successful and admired restaurateurs. He is the President of Union Square Hospitality Group, which includes Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard, Shake Shack, The Modern, Cafe 2, Terrace 5, and Hudson Yards Catering. Meyer shares the secrets of his success with his revolutionary – and winning – philosophy about “Enlightened Hospitality” in Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business.

Feast your eyes on today’s New York Times to learn how Paul Rudnick stays a lean 150 lbs on a diet consisting of candy and other sweet treats. Just in time for Halloween, Rudnick tours his favorite Manhattan chocolate factories, while columnist David Colum struggles to make sense of Rudnick’s inconceivable good health.

Paul Rudnick is a celebrated playwright, screenwriter, columnist, and novelist. A gifted raconteur, he has shared his hilarious adventures of working in Hollywood and on Broadway at the New Yorker Festival, universities, Jewish organizations, and is a perfect keynote speaker for libraries, film and theatre organizations. His new collection of stories and essays, I Shudder: And Other Reactions to Life, Death, and New Jersey (Harper), is a brilliant, side-splittingly funny collection of essays in which he trains his wickedly perceptive eye on all manner of hilarious subjects: from living in a series of increasingly bizarre, altogether fabulous apartments in New York City; to cavorting with a cast of colorful artists who have to be read to be believed; and, above all, to keeping one’s tongue sharp in the midst of life’s many obstacles and hilarities.

Today Arianna Huffington announced that her first pick for the HuffPost Book Club is In Praise of Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed by our very own Carl Honoré!

So how does a book about slowing down relate to the rapid-fire, fast-paced nature of the Huffington Post? Honoré writes, “speed can be fun, productive, and powerful, and we would be poorer without it. What the world needs, and what the slow movement offers, is a middle path, a recipe for marrying la dolce vita with they dynamism of the information age. The secret is balance: instead of doing everything faster, do everything at the right speed. Sometimes fast. Sometimes slow. Sometimes in between.”

And there possibly couldn’t be a better time to read this book and learn from Honoré’s message. We live in an age of speed, work faster, eat faster, read faster, and it’s causing us to burn out personally, culturally, economically. Carl explains that the current recession is a prime example of how our economy, based on fast growth, fast profits, cannot be sustained.

Slowing down will make us happier, healthier, and more productive. So, read the book and discuss here, let us know how you’ve benefitted from slowing down. Then invite Carl to speak to your community!

Carl Honoré is a best-selling author and journalist based in London. Since 1991, he has written from all over Europe and South America, spending three years in Buenos Aires along the way. His work has appeared in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Economist, Observer, National Post, Globe and Mail, Houston Chronicle, and the Miami Herald. He is best known for his advocacy of the Slow Movement. A loose and international effort by the harried and haggard to decelerate the pace of their lives, the Slow Movement spans everything from telecommunications (slow email) and health care (slow medicine) to diet (slow food) and public space (slow cities). In addition to In Praise of Slowness, Carl is also the author of Under Pressure: How the Epidemic of Hyper-Parenting is Endangering Childhood.

In today’s New York Times piece Gary Vaynerchuk reveals why at the end of the day he’s just a ‘Storyteller.’

As Eric Asimov writes,

Few people had ever heard of Mr. Vaynerchuk in early 2006, when he posted his first episode of Wine Library TV on the Wine Library Web site.

Before long his high-volume, hyper-enunciated delivery, sprinkled with bizarre tasting analogies and unlikely stream-of-consciousness departures, had earned him a rabid Internet following, along with ridicule from detractors in the audience. He was called a clown and the Human Infomercial, whose over-the-top style was dumbing down wine. Yet his fan base kept growing. He estimates his audience for each episode of Wine Library TV (he’s just recorded No. 733) at 90,000 people, and he has nearly 900,000 followers on Twitter.

The numbers have made Mr. Vaynerchuk not only a wine industry phenomenon, but a social media superstar who’s being held up as a role model for using the tools of e-commerce to succeed in any business.

Online marketing trailblazer Gary Vaynerchuk (VAY NER CHUK) is a 33-year-old entrepreneur whose dual identity as both business guru and wine guy has made him known as the “Social Media Sommelier.” A self-trained wine expert, he revolutionized the wine industry with his video blog, Wine Library TV (affectionately known as The Thunder Show), and grew his family wine business from $4 million to $60 million in five years.

Holocaust survivor Rita Lurie and her daughter, Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, offer a firsthand account of survival and healing in the memoir Bending Toward the Sun. The book explores how the trauma of the Holocaust extends into the lives of second and third generations. Rita and Leslie shared their story today on the Today Show.

Deborah N. Landis recently shared her life’s work as a costume designer at the Dallas Museum of Art, but see what she had to say last year about the work of future designers, tips on how to be successful and her passion for exploring the untold stories behind her craft.

As she said in an interview for NBC’s Dallas affiliate, “…Stories are about people and people are the centerpiece of every movie, costumes are always in the foreground and always in the center of the frame. Yet, the work of a costume designer is often ‘hidden in plain sight’ and the costume designer’s work is often completely invisible.”