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“The spectacular story of the strangest speculative bubble there ever was and the man behind it. A must-read for anyone looking to understand how manias start and markets go insane.”
— Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lords of Finance
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“Fascinating, strange, sad, funny, and entirely engrossing, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble is a smart, engaging book that’s as much about the odd saga of these plush toys as it is about the nature of obsession and desire.”
— Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of Rin Tin Tin
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“Enlightening…He writes fluently and has structured his tale artfully…Most impressive of all, Mr. Bissonnette refuses to gratuitously trumpet his story as an emblematic critique of American culture, human folly, or entrepreneurial greed—though of course it is all that and more.”
— Wall Street Journal
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“A fascinating account.,,Warner comes vividly to life in The Great Beanie Baby Bubble through stories from his sister, two ex-girlfriends, and dozens of former coworkers…Bissonnette’s research into the history of speculative markets helpfully situates the Beanie phenomenon in a larger framework. The story is a Greek tragedy served with a brutal twist of American capitalism.”
— BookPage, Top Pick
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“Equally heartwarming and heartbreaking, this accessible work will captivate.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
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“Thanks to Bissonnette’s balanced and thorough reporting, the account of Ty Warner, founder of the Babies, becomes a portrait of a creator obsessed with perfection, making money in a business he loved, in a company built on his dreams.”
— Booklist
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“Bissonnette does a masterful job of tracing the rise and fall of the Beanie Baby phenomenon of the 1990s…This cautionary tale of elevated consumerism, with collectors fretting over what they didn’t have rather than taking pleasure in what they did, serves as a useful history lesson for today, told with wit and subtlety.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“Bissonnette offers a crisp, investigative, and presumably unauthorized biography of creator Ty Warner, seventy, and a look at the rise of Beanie Babies and their swiftly ensuing three-year consumer craze…A spicy portrait of a taciturn toy magnate made entertaining with sensationalistic testimonial.”
— Kirkus Reviews