Confidence by Rafael Frumkin

February 13, 2023

Confidence by Rafael Frumkin

Ezra and Orson are best friends and sometime lovers, both growing up poor, who meet as baby criminals at Last Chance Camp, one stop before juvie. Ezra has his first experience with con games when he's ten, and he and his mother stop at a tent revival meeting, and his mother cons the church goers. He and Orson run their first scam together on a site like Etsy, then get into a bigger con game involving Bitcoin, because most people don't actually understand what it is or how to use it. Their target market is the ultra-rich, "the man," the blood suits (as Orson and Ezra call them), the kind of people who are so rich they have no idea what real life is like and don't bother to closely research the schemes of con men like Orson and Ezra. They are also the kind of people that the rest of us secretly enjoy watching get swindled because they deserve it and they can afford it. What does it matter if they get taken for a little money? But then the boys come up with an idea for a much bigger scam, a (phony) behavior altering device/program that takes off when they market it to the wives of ultra-rich men. They find themselves riding a billion dollar wave until it comes crashing down. Who needs the American Dream, these guys have the American Con.

Pyramid or Ponzi schemes have been around for a long time, as have con artists. Famous con artists include P. T. Barnum, L. Ron Hubbard, and Donald Trump, and Ezra and Orson aspire to join their ranks. The key to a successful con is offering something that is too good to be true, and making it a little obscure so that people don't understand exactly what they are buying. Orson and Ezra are opposites: Ezra is short, nerdy, brilliant, introverted and addicted to the internet; Orson is movie star handsome, charismatic, charming, and a born salesman. Ezra literally has tunnel vision, suffering from glaucoma and progressively poor eyesight, and he has a hard time seeing Orson for who he really is. Greed is always their driving force, but their real problems begin when Orson starts believing the BS that they are selling. 

Mel Brooks made a movie called The Producers, about a Broadway producer who concocts a scheme to produce the worst play ever written and make a killing by over-selling shares to investors (The Twelve Chairs is another Brooks film about con artists). 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Producers

A Wreath of Red Roses by Karen Baugh Menuhin

February 9, 2023

A Wreath of Red Roses by Karen Baugh Menuhin

When two drowning deaths occur within a few days of each other at a country house, Scotland Yard asks Major Heathcliff Lennox and retired inspector Jonathan Swift to investigate. They find themselves at an ancient house complete with moat and drawbridge that is raised every night (but no electricity or running water). They are also in the middle of an inheritance struggle, with six illegitimate but generally charming siblings all competing to claim their father's estate. But when a third resident is found murdered, Heathcliff and Swift realize that there is more at stake than a country baron's ancient house and suspect that one of the siblings may be responsible.

Great fun. I really enjoy the characters in this series, easy going Heathcliff and uptight Swift, Greggs the butler who always has a love interest, and Heathcliff's dog and cat, Fogg and Tubbs. The next book will be set in Heathcliff's own village, so we will see more of Persi, Heathcliff's smart wife.

Castle with moat and drawbridge

Before Versailles by Karleen Koen

February 11, 2023

Before Versailles by Karleen Koen

Louis XIV, later known as the Sun King, became king of France at the age of 21. He was surrounded by a court of dashing young men and beautiful young women. Louis married a Spanish infanta who spoke little French and preferred praying and embroidering to dancing and socializing, leaving Louis and his brother Philippe (known as Monsieur) to hunt, feast, party and engage in romantic intrigue. Louis is at first attracted to his brother's wife, Henriette, but realizes that it is taboo for him to take his brother's wife as his mistress. Louis' first mistress, Louise de la Valliere, came to court to be a lady in waiting to Henriette, and Louis was soon attracted to the lovely modest girl.

The story takes place over four months of Louis' reign. Very good historical fiction, well researched, recommended especially for readers who enjoy historical fiction about royalty.

Louise de la Valliere, first mistress of Louis XIV

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry

February 6, 2023

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom by Rabia Chaudry

Born into a Pakistani family that emigrated to the U.S., Rabia Chaudry has had a lifelong battle with her weight. Raised on the carb-heavy American diet and with family genetics that tend toward being overweight, Rabia struggled with her weight all her life, viewing her body with self-loathing. Because of her weight, her Pakistani family obsessed that she would never marry, but she married before she finished college. Three pregnancies over the next 20 years didn't help her weight issues. She tried many diets and extreme exercise programs, and even had weight loss surgery. Everything she did was moderately successful, but the weight always came back. This is her account of her journey and eventual acceptance that she is never going to look like Beyonce (just like I'm never going to look like Heidi Klum). There are traditional Pakistani recipes at the end of the book that sound wonderful.

I first learned about Rabia while listening to the podcast Serial, about the Adnan Syed case. Syed was the best friend of Rabia's brother, and she has known him since he was a child. Although her parents wanted her to become a doctor, Rabia went to law school instead and ended up working on immigration issues and cases of wrongful conviction.

Rabia Chaudry

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

February 5, 2023

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Do you follow your heart, even though you know it's going to hurt the people you're closest to? The four Padavano sisters have always functioned as a unit: oldest sister Julia is the organizer, second sister Sylvie is a reader and a dreamer (and a librarian), and twins Cecelia and Emeline are like two halves of a whole. But when one of the sisters marries a broken young man, there are unexpected consequences for all the sisters, shaking their foundations and forcing them to rethink who they are. If you grow up without love, can you be healed by another person.

This is a modern re-telling of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, which is referenced throughout the text, with the four sisters changing roles. Having read Little Women, I knew someone was going to die, but it wasn't who I expected, and I did some crying through the last chapters anyway. 

I am of the same generation as the Padavano sisters, and their mother Rose reminds me a lot of my mother, with the drama and the constant concern over what the neighbors or the pastor was going to think about everything. She also would have thrown me out just as Rose did the unmarried pregnant sister. 

Wonderful read, highly recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Lozano branch of the Chicago Public Library, where sister Sylvie works

River of the Gods by Candice Millard

February 1, 2023

River of the Gods by Candice Millard

Since Roman times, explorers searched for the source of the River Nile. In Victorian England, two explorers - Sir Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke - join together to mount an expedition to discover the source of the "White Nile." Companions at first, they disagreed about which of them deserved the credit for the discovery and eventually became bitter enemies.

Speke was a British aristocrat who was largely ignorant of Africa's people, languages, and customs, and his main interest was hunting and killing as many animals as possible. Burton was an Anglo-Indian who grew up outside of England and spent much of his early life in India, a brilliant but odd man who spoke more than 20 languages. While Speke claimed to have found the source of the Nile, it was actually their guide, an African named Sidi Mubarak Bombay, who was the real hero of their exploits.

While maybe not as gripping as the author's other works, there is still excellent research and loads of gripping historical detail. The narrative was successful in that I learned about something that I had formerly known little about. I had heard of Sir Richard Burton, but it was for his translations of works including The 1,001 Arabian Nights rather than his explorations. I had never heard of John Hanning Speke, or suspected there was so much controversy about the source of the Nile. Interesting narrative nonfiction.

Sir Richard Burton

John Hanning Speke

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

January 31, 2023

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

Geeta lives in a village in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where she supports herself by making wedding jewelry. Five years earlier, her no-good husband Ramesh walked out on her. It wasn't much of a loss, since Ramesh beat Geeta, stole her money, and drank heavily. After he ran off, a rumor began to circulate that Geeta had murdered Ramesh, and the story persisted. Although it troubled her at first, it kept the men (and also many women) away from her out of fear. Struggling to construct a life for herself as a single woman of undefined status living on her own (i.e., not under a man's control), Geeta's role model is Phoolan Devi, India's Bandit Queen who took revenge on all the men who abused her (physically, sexually, verbally). But now the women in the village have begun to come around, wanting Geeta's help in disposing of their own no-good husbands.

In this contemporary novel, Shroff explores issues that trouble modern India: caste, gender roles, religion, discrimination, domestic abuse. Another rec;urring theme is motherhood and the pressure placed on women to have children (preferably male children), as well as men abusing children (especially girl children). There is a lot of humor and the women are clever about getting around the men in their lives. One of my favorite aspects of the book is when Geeta rescues and adopts a street dog that she names Bandit. One of the best lines in the book is when the wanna-be don tells Geeta's husband Ramesh "killing people makes me a don; shooting a dog just makes me a psychopath. Great cover, too.  Recommended.

Phoolan Devi, the Bandit Queen who exacted revenge on the men who abused her and later was elected to Parliament (she was assassinated at the age of 39)