Dear Great Book Guru, Friday’s Beach Music at Sea Cliff Beach is such a treat - great music, delicious food at Jay and Tanya Potter’s Cliffside Café, and beautiful views of the Sound! While looking out at the many boats anchored there, I thought about a book that a friend recommended about yachts and their owners.  Have you heard of it?  Sea Cliff Beach Fan

Dear Sea Cliff Beach Fan, THE HAVES AND THE HAVE-YACHTS by Evan Osnos is a fascinating book about the ultra rich.  There are many, many very wealthy people but then there are those whose wealth is so much that they own super yachts, and Osnos tells the tales of these ultra-wealthy in a series of ten essays. He leads off with a fascinating take on famous musicians who are hired to perform for small events - yes even children’s birthday parties - for exorbitant fees. Sting, Andrea Bocelli, Jon Bovi, Eric Clapton, Mariah Carey are a few he mentions. Later he profiles Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his lavish lifestyle. The Greenwich Rebellion chapter traces the transformation of Greenwich, Connecticut from home to storied old money families to the extraordinarily wealthy and political powerful. Trust Issues introduces us to a young woman who becomes the trusted financial advisor to the Getty heirs and then turns on them spilling family secrets that reveal their incredible wealth and machinations. The most disturbing essay was about a Hollywood actor/con artist who manipulated friends and family out of $500 million dollars.  The lifestyle of the people Osnos describes is astonishing - almost beyond belief - but not quite… highly recommended!