Confident Women audiobook

Why do we always hear about the “con men?" There have been some doozies who happen who were women! I recently watched a 20/20 about Elizabeth Holmes. My interest was piqued, and this book fulfilled that. I love that it’s a historic look back, so there are women in the 17, 18, and 1900s featured. You will not believe what these confident women were able to accomplish, while also cringing and shaking your head! Also, I have to mention, this true crime book is edgy with dark humor, too. It’s just plain fun!I received a gifted copy. Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader

If you've had access to cable news for the past half-century or so, you're probably familiar with the names and crimes of all kinds of famous con-men. You've heard of Jordan Belfort, Bernie Madoff, Charles Ponzi, and dozens of others over the years. But what about the con-women? What part do they play in history? Just how many fast ones have they pulled on victims on not only an individual scale, but on a national and even international scale? Those are the questions Tori Telfer sets out to answer in Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion. Opening with the wild story of Jeanne De Saint-Rémy in 1700s France, and how her long list of cons actually was a catalyst of the French Revolution and execution of Marie Antoinette, Telfer goes on to cover the glitz, greed, and gall of about a dozen lady con artists over centuries and continents. These stories were totally mind-blowing and I somehow hadn't ever heard about almost all of them prior to reading this book! From famed 19th century swindler Cassie Chadwick's elaborate lies about her relation to Andrew Carnegie, to Wang Ti's complicated web of real estate and financial deceptions in the glamorous world of Chinese Olympic athletes, to Sante Kimes' weirdly murderous relationship with her son, there are a lot of really fun and at times extremely troubling true crime stories jam-packed into this compendium. This book was a total blast to read! The narration made it even more fun, with lots of hints of sarcasm and the outlandishness that compliments these bold women's chaotic life stories. Tori Telfer did a great job of making what could have been a very heavy subject feel light and silly, and managed to maintain a respectability towards the victims that were swindled and occasionally completely offed by these selfish creatures. I think there may have been a bit of a missed opportunity here to dive a little bit deeper into the psychology of these women, the sociological implications of their crimes and how they were able to often get away with them, but overall I just had so much fun listening to this that I can't really complain about it. Highly recommended to fans of true crime that are in need of some lighter fare—it doesn't always have to be tragic murder stories! We can read about these women that were often extremely brilliant but had a dark side that pushed them to act in unthinkable ways, and have fun while doing it!

Absolutely adored this!

These confident women used their confidence to con others. With all the glitz and glamor, who wouldn't take them at their word. What I liked about this book is that it looked at con women from all different places and time periods. It is broken into sections with women who had similar cons. It was interesting to hear about the detail these women paid attention to to get away with their con whether it be fortune telling, impersonating a princess, or bank fraud. An impressive amount of research went into this to bring these women to life!

As Telfer points out in this book, "we" are fascinated by con artists - and when it's a female con artist? Well, all the more. This was a quick breezy listen on audio and features profiles of several con artists grouped by type (like the fake mediums, fake Anastasia Romanovs, and the women faking being survivors of horrific, tragic events "The Tragediennes.") Recommended for those who like True Crime but don't want a bunch of gore.

I wanted to focus on women’s stories specifically for Women’s History month and this surprisingly took me the entire month to read despite how short it is. The first story on Jeanne de Saint-Rémy was my favorite, which I think made it hard to concentrate on the rest of the book because her section is completely bonkers from start to finish; I kept thinking about how she literally jumped out a window at the end.There are a lot of other gems in here, and many are more recent than you would think. While the section on mediums was probably my least favorite, I do think it had some of the best quotes such as “the spirit insisted that Mary Ann was supposed to marry the local priest’s hot nephew.”Definitely a must read for anyone who loves to read wild stories.See more of my reviews: Instagram

I loved Tori Telfer's first book "Lady Killers" and this one was just as amazing! Telfer covers a variety of cases involving women from the 1700s to just a few years ago. There’s a chapter on the real story of Anastasia (including those who pretended to be her), a woman who faked being a 9/11 survivor, and an entire section on women pretending to be fortune tellers/mediums. I was shocked by how common the female con-artist is and the author does a brilliant job of weaving each story seamlessly into the next. I highly recommend this true crime book if you have an interest in notorious female cons! Thank you so much to Harper Perennial for my gifted copy!

This was highly entertaining. Somehow I didn’t know much about the other Anastasia impersonator, only the infamous one in Berlin (whose story got so much weirder at the end than what you usually hear!) In that one she also gave some intriguing context, about the tough state most of the world was in and how much people wanted to believe in a happy, fairytale ending to what actually turned out to be a brutal and awful story.I also liked the one where the lady peed on the floor during a fight as a “preemptive strike”. This author really has a way of writing some of the especially hilarious descriptive details. Elsewhere the humor was a bit repetitive, but this thing just keeps moving so you’re never really bugged for long.The psychics were another favorite, she even made the Fox sisters story, which I’ve read a million other places by now, interesting again. The whole extent of the con around novelist Jude Deveraux is completely heartbreaking though. That’s the downside to these con artist stories, much as I *love* them - the victims of some of these grifts and scams were often broken people by the time the con artist got to them, and the state they’re left in is devastating. But it’s better to know these things, really - so many people are still losing money to these unscrupulous fraud monsters. Walk through Manhattan or Queens, there are still psychic storefronts everywhere.So yes, so very amusing if light on the social and historical context and also sometimes sad.

This was sooooo good. More please🤗

** spoiler alert ** lots of fun, interesting, highly readable. given the premise (and as a reader for feminist book club), I would’ve appreciated more discussion of why women, specifically, are able and/or forced to con — there was some mention in the Spiritualists chapter, but I’d be interested in the author’s thoughts more broadly (especially given the role of marriage in so many of the stories)

in another life, i am one of these women.

Fascinating! That's the first word that comes to my mind when I think of this book. As you read about all these con-women from different times, their crafty schemes, and luck, you get through a rollercoaster of feelings. Curiosity, hate, surprise, excitement. This could be an ocean of inspiration for moviemakers and fiction writers!For free self-help books, I recommend this list: https://alexamood.com/list-of-free-se...

I really enjoyed this! I was a bit skeptical bc I didn’t love Lady Killers. Confident Women takes on infamous con women throughout History & I found it fascinating. My favorite was Roxie Ann Rice. If you like true crime I highly recommend!

SO FUN! Picked up the book thinking it was self help, kept the book for all the future individual-chapter-adventures of terribly terrific con women. This book came with me on subways, to the beach, to work, to the couch. Delight is the right word, I think. Highly recommend :)