Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History by Helene Stapinski | Book Review
Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History by Helene Stapinski Genres: Crime, Memoir, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 2001 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon With deadpan humor and obvious affection, Five-Finger Discount recounts the story of an unforgettable New Jersey family of swindlers, bookies, embezzlers, and mobster-wannabes. In the memoir, Mary Karr calls “a page-turner,” Helene Stapinski ingeniously weaves the checkered history of her hometown of Jersey City—a place known for its political corruption and industrial blight—with the tales that have swirled around her relatives for decades. Navigating a childhood of toxic waste and tough love, Stapinski tells an extraordinary tale at once heartbreaking…
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson | Book Review
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Narrator: Tony Goldwyn Genres: Crime, History, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 2003 (Audiobook 2006) Source: I purchased this audiobook. Goodreads Find the Author: Website, Blog, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon The 1893 World’s Fair was held in the “White City” of Chicago, Illinois. Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America’s rush toward the 20th century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair’s brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country’s most important structures, including the…
Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas (1983)| Book Review
Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas Genres: Crime, History, Non-Fiction Original Publication Date: 1983 Source: I purchased this book Goodreads Find the Author: Goodreads, Amazon Recounts the true experiences of Marie Ragghianti–former beauty queen, devout Catholic, and divorced working mother–and her courageous fight, in the face of disgrace and peril, against deep-seated political corruption in Tennessee. Marie: A True Story is about Marie Ragghianti, the woman who blew the whistle on the corrupt Tennessee government in the 1970s. Peter Maas was famous for his book on Frank Serpico, a whistleblower in the New York City Police Department. He also wrote other fine books about crime. But my favorite is…
