Amazonia

A ';funny, contemplative' memoir of working at Amazon in the early years, when it was a struggling online bookstore (San Francisco Chronicle). In a book that Ian Frazier has called ';a fascinating and sometimes hair-raising morality tale from deep inside the Internet boom,' James Marcus, hired by Amazon.com in 1996when the company was so small his e-mail address could be james@amazon.comlooks back at the ecstatic rise, dramatic fall, and remarkable comeback of the consummate symbol of late 1990s America. Observing ';how it was to be in the right place (Seattle) at the right time (the '90s)' (Chicago Reader), Marcus offers a ringside seat on everything from his first interview with Jeff Bezos to the company's bizarre Nordic-style retreats, in ';a clear-eyed, first-person account, rife with digressions on the larger cultural meaning throughout' (Henry Alford,Newsday). ';Marcus tells his story with wit and candor.' Booklist, starred review