Richistan

The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through "Richistan" entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own "arborists." They're also different from Old Money and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire. Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century's nouveau riche. Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they're also shaking up the establishment's bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, making lean, results oriented philanthropy an important new driving force. And, as Frank reveals, the influence of the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as their nonstop quest for status reshapes the entire American economy. Robert Frank is a senior special writer at the Wall Street Journal, where he writes a weekly column and daily blog called The Wealth Report. He has been with the Journal for thirteen years and was part of a team of reporters that won an Overseas Press Club award in 1998 for its coverage of developing economies. He lives in New York. Reader of over 200 audiobooks, Dick Hill has won three coveted Audie Awards and several AudioFile Earphones Awards. His recent audio includes the New York Times bestsellers Second Chance, This Moment on Earth, and Against the Day. AudioFile includes Dick on their prestigious list of "Golden Voices."