Countess of Cons: The Story of a Gilded Age Grifter by Deborah S. Holman
Deborah Holman, the author of this book, posted in the Chicago Genealogy group on Facebook on August 23, 2026, that she was "looking for a few additional advance readers, particularly genealogists and readers interested in Chicago history," of this, her latest book, which she described as "narrative nonfiction."
The book is about the author's husband's great-great-grandmother, and she noted that "In Chicago, my research led me to newspaper accounts, court proceedings involving fourteen criminal counts, Bethany Home records, city directories, and her later appearance at the Palmer House under another identity." I was intrigued, and asked for the link to the review copy of the e-book.
First off, I think this book might fit the definition of true crime - a genre I don't typically read (or like). To someone outside her family (like me), Catherine Josephine Kenney Seeley Whitmer (aka Catherine Fitzallen, among many aliases) was not a particularly likeable woman. In fact, I was appalled by Catherine's operation of the (thankfully short-lived) "Bethany Home for Poor and Friendless Children" in Chicago, as well as some of her other grifts that involved babies.
And, probably because I'm not a true crime fan (nor of crime fiction, for that matter), Catherine's more moderate cons in multiple cities started feeling a bit repetitious. I totally understand wanting to reference all the finds from the research behind the book, but I felt that a) some of these could have been summarized with a sentence like "Catherine repeated the same actions in *place* and *place,*" and b) extensive detail on each and every bit of research fits better in a biography or a history nonfiction book.
I guess, as a family historian and researcher myself, I was hoping for a little more of the latter. I wanted to see all the research behind this - the actual documents, records, and newspaper articles - or at the very least, endnotes and a bibliography pointing me to the sources. Holman discusses some of her sources in a page at her author website, and I have a feeling I may find some of those documents / records / articles in her genealogy blog. A hint to the author: you need a "Countess of Cons" tag in the latter blog, to make it easier to find posts related to your book!
I still found Countess of Cons to be a good read. Although it bogged down a bit in the middle, with descriptions of repetitious grifting, the beginning hooked me, and I often found myself wondering what would happen to Catherine next. Was she finally going to be convicted and end up in jail for a long time?
Almost every family has a black sheep, and those do make for the best stories.
The Age of Cures: How American Scientists Saved Your Life by Barry Werth
I had a tough time keeping track of the dozen or so scientists that appear in this book - perhaps because I could only read it in half-hour increments. I did learn some things about the birth of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, but I'm probably not the best audience for an in-depth history of it. I have a brother-in-law who is a retired professor specializing in mushrooms (particularly new medical applications for them), and I think he will love this book.
Damages Carried Down by Michael Keefe
Part historical fiction, part mystery/thriller, I requested this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program because I was intrigued by the World War I journal written by one of the main characters that is at the heart of the story, and because of the intertwining of three families that overlapped into three timelines - 1914, 1939, and 1984. Because of the overlapping, there were a couple times when I wasn't initially clear on which timeline I was in - adding the year at the beginning of the chapter would have helped me.
The prologue of the book sets up the mystery/thriller aspect, and kept me reading. The 1914 chapters are all from the World War I journal kept by Josef Müller - aka Joseph Moore - while the 1939 chapters are narrated by his daughter Kate, and 1984 by his granddaughter Maggie - who has been translating the journal from its original German. I enjoyed this novel and appreciated the flawed characters and the fact that not everything turns out perfectly at the end.
The prologue of the book sets up the mystery/thriller aspect, and kept me reading. The 1914 chapters are all from the World War I journal kept by Josef Müller - aka Joseph Moore - while the 1939 chapters are narrated by his daughter Kate, and 1984 by his granddaughter Maggie - who has been translating the journal from its original German. I enjoyed this novel and appreciated the flawed characters and the fact that not everything turns out perfectly at the end.
Eon: My Pet Tardigrade by Cybèle Young with Nell Jocelyn
This picture book is about a microscopic animal called a tardigrade. They're also known as water bears or moss piglets, and it can be seen why from photographs of them as well as the author's anthropomorphized version of them. The story is about a little girl who spots a tardigrade while looking through a microscope, and decides to make it a pet by naming it Eon and creating - with paper and scissors - multiple environments, some diorama-like, for it to explore. Along the way, the reader learns a lot about these interesting creatures.
On the verso, it says "Cybèle's artwork in this book was rendered in graphite pencil and sculptures made with Japanese papers, and Nell's sculptures were made with a variety of western papers." These miniature sculptures and cut-paper art were the main reason I requested to review this book for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. They are gorgeous and beautifully detailed. With a magnifying glass, you might spot Eon in some of them.
In an afterword, award-winning author and artist Cybèle Young explains her own encounter with a tardigrade inspired the book, and that "as it developed it became clear that I needed to find a special collaborator." Nell Jocelyn is actually Young's niece-in-law, and has worked on other books with her mother, Marthe Jocelyn.
I will be passing this book on to one of my great-grandchildren.
