Lawrence Ingrassia
Born:
Connection to Illinois: As a reporter early in my career, Inrassia worked in Chicago. Biography: Lawrence Ingrassia is an award-winning journalist. His latest book, A Fatal Inheritance, was selected as an Amazon Editors' Pick in both the Best Nonfiction and Best Biographies & Memoirs book categories for May 2024. Part memoir, part medical detective story, A Fatal Inheritance chronicles the story of his family, and families like his, puzzling over the many seemingly unrelated cancers afflicting them with the tale of the dedicated doctors - pioneers in cancer genetics - who starting in the late 1960s spent decades searching for an answer, at a time when cancer was a bit of a black box. They eventually solved the mystery by tracking down the culprit to a very rare inherited mutation in a gene, p53, that was unknown when their work began but has since become the most studied gene in the human body. This breakthrough discovery of the cause of what's now known as Li-Fraumeni Syndrome greatly expanded the understanding and treatment of not only hereditary cancers but of cancer in general. His first book, Billion Dollar Brand Club, was chosen by the New York Times Book Review as an Editor's Choice on March 1, 2020. It tells the story of an unlikely band of Davids - Dollar Shave Club and Harry's, Casper and Tuft & Needle, Warby Parker and Hubble, ThirdLove and eSalon, and countless others - that have taken on corporate Goliaths, and succeeded against the odds. It examines the many ways technology has leveled the playing field, in marketing, manufacturing and distribution, and enabled these upstarts to challenge long-dominant companies. Before becoming an author, Ingrassia worked as a senior editor at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. In his decades-long newspaper career, journalists working for him won five Pulitzer Prizes - for national reporting, explanatory reporting, international reporting and commentary - as well as Polk, Loeb and other awards. He was honored with the Minard editor award by the Gerald Loeb Awards for directing coverage of causes of the financial market meltdown in the fall of 2008; that coverage was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in the public service category. The Society of American Business Editors and Writers gave him its distinguished achievement award in 2017. His lives with his wife in Gig Harbor, WA.
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Web: http://www.larryingrassia.com
WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=Lawrence++Ingrassia
Selected Titles
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A Fatal Inheritance: How a Family Misfortune Revealed a Deadly Medical Mystery ISBN: 1250837227 OCLC: 1396974192 Henry Holt and Co 2024 Weaving his own moving family story with a sweeping history of cancer research, Lawrence Ingrassia delivers an intimate, gripping tale that sits at the intersection of memoir and medical thriller Ingrassia lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to cancer―different cancers developing at different points throughout their lives. And while highly unusual, his family is not the only one to wonder whether their heartbreak is the result of unbelievable bad luck, or if there might be another explanation. Through meticulous research and riveting storytelling, Ingrassia takes us from the 1960s―when Dr. Frederick Pei Li and Dr. Joseph Fraumeni Jr. first met, not yet knowing that they would help make a groundbreaking discovery that would affect cancer patients for decades to come―to present day, as Ingrassia and countless others continue to unpack and build upon Li and Fraumeni’s initial discoveries, and to understand what this means for their families. In the face of seemingly unbearable loss, Ingrassia holds onto hope. He urges us to “fight like Charlie,” his nephew who battled cancer his entire life starting with a rare tumor in his cheek at the age of two―and to look toward the future, as gene sequencing, screening protocols, CRISPR gene editing, and other developing technologies may continue to extend lifespans and perhaps, one day, even offer cures. |
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Billion Dollar Brand Club: How Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, and Other Disruptors Are Remaking What We Buy ISBN: 1250313066 OCLC: 1110150531 Henry Holt and Co. 2020 A leading business journalist takes us inside a business revolution: the upstart brands taking on the empires that long dominated the trillion-dollar consumer economy. Dollar Shave Club and its hilarious marketing. Casper mattresses popping out of a box. Third Love’s lingerie designed specifically for each woman’s body. Warby Parker mailing you five pairs of glasses to choose from. You’ve seen their ads. You (or someone you know) use their products. Each may appear, in isolation, as a rare David with the bravado to confront a Goliath, but taken together they represent a seismic shift in a business model that has lasted more than a century. As Lawrence Ingrassia--former business and economics editor and deputy managing editor at the New York Times--shows in this timely and eye-opening book, a growing number of digital entrepreneurs have found new and creative ways to crack the code on the bonanza of physical goods that move through our lives every day. They have discovered that manufacturing, marketing, logistics, and customer service have all been flattened―where there were once walls that protected big brands like Gillette, Sealy, Victoria’s Secret, or Lenscrafters, savvy and hungry innovators now can compete on price, value, quality, speed, convenience, and service. Billion Dollar Brand Club reveals the world of the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and corporate behemoths battling over this terrain. And what fun it is. It’s a massive, high-stakes business saga animated by the personalities, flashes of insight, and stories behind the stuff we use every day. |