By Erica Schwiegershausen 8/15/12 4:30pm

Shindigger

Dick Cavett. (Matthew Peyton/Getty)

Summer Reading: The East Hampton Library’s Authors Night

The Observer put down our book last Saturday and ventured out to Gardiner Farm for the eighth annual Authors Night at the East Hampton Library. By the time we arrived, a plethora of library patrons—evidently undeterred by the cloudy skies—swarmed the tent in hopes of chatting up their favorite writers.

Hosted by library benefactors Alec Baldwin and Barbara Goldsmith, the reception boasted a guest list of more than 100 authors—everyone from the former Real Housewife of New York Kelly Killoren Bensimon, author of the “supermodel diet” book I Can Make You Hot, to the esteemed Lyndon Johnson biographer Robert Caro. Literary aficionados of all breeds meandered between tables with plastic cups of wine, accumulating stacks of personally inscribed hardcovers.

Sitting beside a large pile of copies of his second autobiography, Dick Cavett appeared to be thoroughly enjoying the attention of a throng of admirers and photographers. As we approached, he spontaneously grabbed both sides of our head and pulled us in for a dramatic kiss on the cheek. “I just wanted to give the photographer a thrill,” he whispered, a gleam in his eye. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 6/13/12 12:50pm

Algonquin Round Table

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What Fresh PR Initiative Is This?: Literary Greats on the Current Attempt to Reengineer the Algonquin Round Table

“This hotel is exactly how I would have imagined the Algonquin transforming itself in the 21st century,” announced Penguin Books CEO David Shanks to an attentive crowd last week.

A single person clapped and, realizing they were all alone, stopped.

Mr. Shanks continued, “It exudes the grandeur of Gotham and the dazzle of the iconic Mad Men design gone modern.” Mr. Shanks cleared his throat. “It’s really amazing.”

Last Monday, a group (of “top hotel and publishing executives as well as media industry influencers,” per a press release) was gathered at a private party to celebrate the grand reopening of the gut-renovated hotel and the launch of its new partnership with Penguin Books. Read More

By Patrick Clark 6/05/12 9:27am

Morning Read

220px-Jon_Corzine

Trustee Blames Corzine, Execs for MF Global’s Misuse of Client Funds: Wall Street Roundup

Seeking redress: The bankruptcy trustee assigned to recover claims on MF Global’s U.S. brokerage unit pointed a finger at Jon S. Corzine, erstwhile CEO of the failed broker-dealer, in a 275-page report published yesterday. James Giddens, the trustee, may pursue claims of “breach of fiduciary duty and negligence” against Mr. Corzine and other officials, Read More

By Patrick Clark 5/29/12 6:38am

Morning Read

A New York City Police office stands at

JPMorgan Selling Assets Post-London Whale, Citi Kills Committee That Oversaw Toxic Debt: Wall Street Roundup

Squeeze play: JPMorgan has been selling profitable securities to prop up second-quarter results after the bank’s chief investment office and the trader known as the London Whale incurred billions in losses. The asset sales may be tax inefficient, and will deprive the lender of future gains, which is just too bad for Jamie Dimon’s firm. With its share price down 18 percent from the day before the trading losses were first reported, JPMorgan is under pressure to generate earnings. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 5/09/12 9:00am

Power Bookers

Ahuja (Photo by Kevin Hees)

‘Wall Street Maneet’ Ahuja, 27-Year-Old Squawk Box Producer, Has Ways of Making Them Talk

There’s a book party at Tao next week, but its guest list looks more like a Davos reunion. Among the yeses: ex-Chairman of the Fed Alan Greenspan, Nobelist Joseph Stiglitz, Pershing Square boss Bill Ackman, and Financial Times editor Gillian Tett.

Assuming they show, that’s not a bad draw for a first-time author. Then again, The Alpha Masters, by 27-year-old Squawk Box producer Maneet Ahuja, isn’t just any book. Like the party, the book is an impressive feat of investor-wrangling, a collection of insider accounts from low-profile, high-powered hedge fund managers like John Paulson, Marc Lasry and David Tepper. It’s out on May 21 from Wiley. Read More

By Tom Acitelli 6/15/11 4:55pm

Book Recalls

Mr. Sorkin at another thing years ago.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, Tommy Tune and an Ass Slap

The Transom spun around as a feminine (but firm) hand slapped our ass.

“You’re a reporter, obviously?” said a woman well into her second of something strong, in a first-floor room of the University Club on Tuesday afternoon.

We answered in the affirmative and then were told that an introduction to E.F. Hutton’s 84-year-old daughter Read More

By Foster Kamer 5/24/11 11:36pm

Elbow Rubbing

Closely Held Company: Is the Author of ‘Too Big to Fail’ Too Schmoozy With Wall Street?

A few hours after HBO’s Too Big to Fail, the star-studded adaptation of New York Times financial reporting wunderkind Andrew Ross Sorkin’s best-selling account of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, made its debut before a national audience, a broadcast journalist who reports for a financial news channel gave The Observer her postmortem.

“There’s just Read More

By Nate Freeman 5/17/11 11:40pm

Too Big To Fail

Greed is Good — for Décor!

Homeless men idled outside the Four Seasons restaurant as financial titans and celebrities shuttled in from the rain, assisted by burly bouncers. Upstairs, at Monday’s postpremiere party for HBO’s Too Big to Fail—based on the book by New York Times financial reporter wunderkind Andrew Ross Sorkin—sprawling platters of sushi and ceviche awaited consumption.

“Well,” Read More