Barry Siegel Libri

How one man brought the Olympics to Los Angeles, fueling the city's urban transformation. Dreamers and Schemers chronicles how Los Angeles’s pursuit and staging of the 1932 Olympic Games during the depths of the Great Depression helped fuel the city’s transformation from a seedy frontier village to a world-famous metropolis. Leading that pursuit was the “Prince of Realtors,” William May (Billy) Garland, a prominent figure in early Los Angeles. In important respects, the story of Billy Garland is the story of Los Angeles. After arriving in Southern California in 1890, he and his allies drove much of the city’s historic expansion in the first two decades of the twentieth century. Then, from 1920 to 1932, he directed the city’s bid for the 1932 Olympic Games. Garland’s quest to host the Olympics provides an unusually revealing window onto a particular time, place, and way of life. Reconstructing the narrative from Garland’s visionary notion to its consequential aftermath, Barry Siegel shows how one man’s grit and imagination made California history.

Greg and Ira used to be do-good lawyers and partners, until it all went bad for Ira. Bad enough that he wakes up in jail staring at a death sentence for murder. Only Greg has a chance of getting him off--if he's willing to cross certain ethical lines. Greg peels back layer after layer of lies and finds Sandy, who says she was with Ira the night of the murder and saw the whole thing. The prosecution believes she's the perfect witness. But what if Greg can persuade her to tell the truth? Wouldn't Sandy then become the perfect witness for the defense?