About My Book

EIGHT SEPTEMBERS: WOMAN ON WALL STREET: 9/11 to LEHMAN is a gripping memoir that captures the tumultuous and transformative landscape of Wall Street through the eyes of a woman who lived and breathed its intensity during some of its most challenging years. Set against the backdrop of significant historical events, including the 9/11 attacks and the financial collapse of Lehman Brothers, the narrative offers a deeply personal and vivid account of the author's experiences as a banker in a male-dominated industry. Through detailed descriptions and personal reflections, Buyers chronicles her professional journey and personal struggles, highlighting how she and her colleagues navigated crises, managed risks, and maintained the financial infrastructure amidst chaos. The story is not only a testament to resilience and adaptability but also a poignant exploration of the balance between career ambition and family life.

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As a senior executive at JPMorgan during the 2000’s, I witnessed, participated in, and survived that decade’s most cataclysmic events devastating the financial services industry. EIGHT SEPTEMBERS: WOMAN ON WALL STREET, written in the style of a fast-paced novel, won the 2023 Florida Writers Association’s Royal Literary Palm Gold for unpublished memoir (93,000 words). Reviewers noted the “story was compelling and emotions raw,” “her voice brilliantly reflects a human quality that underpins her financial acumen,” and that the book has “good cadence, natural rhythm, and credible dialogue,” as well as “superior sensory descriptions.”

Readers gain a front row seat to world changing incidents from the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 through the 2008 implosion of investment bank Lehman Brothers. Responsible for funding Wall Street brokerage firms’ daily activities, I operated at the epicenter of these situations. Only a small percentage of people work in and understand this critical part of the US economy—even fewer are women. EIGHT SEPTEMBERS introduces and explains to readers this opaque universe by inviting them into my day-to-day life, where they witness the finance world’s headlines from the inside and experience the pressures of a working mother at the height of her career. Changes at the bank, in the industry, and in the economy ratchet up the stakes.

Escalating crises invaded my professional life, and the “three D’s” invaded my personal life—divorce, dementia and death. EIGHT SEPTEMBERS chronicles the rising tension as I ricochet between New York, Hawaii, and Pennsylvania, attempting to care for my aging parents and young children while coping with ever larger predicaments at work and at home. The book explores the tension between internal needs and external demands, and the price we pay when things get out of balance.