The Confidence Game

Listener Reviews

1. 4.0(1)

   A Good Book

   This could have been a great book. However the stories were broken up and research findings (which are excellent in themselves) interspersed - or there was another aside. It took excellent materiel and broke it up into a bit of a rambling. Excellent narrator. Excellent materiel presented in a sub-optimal way. Perhaps the printed version is better.

   Giselle Burkett · June 23, 2023

2. 3.0(1)

   Well Researched, Story Bit Scattered, Narrator Sad

   Unfortunately Konnikova kills her own book by narrating it herself. Her style of speaking is sleepy, sad and almost distracted or vacant. As much as a I found the content fascinating I would get lost listening or even forget to listen. Her voice lacks variation in pitch and suggests she doesn't find the material interesting herself. Clearly she does find it interesting as do I but hiring a narrator who understands her voice but modulates it for audiences would be a more successful solution. Generally I enjoyed the writing, insight, links and research....especially the psychological insight. One quality in her writing i disliked was the jumping around from story to story...explaining a bit then transitioning. My suspicion is this was a tactic to allow it seem like a full "book" rather than a colleciton of essays. It works for sales I guess but does the reader little advantage especially for an audio book.

   Faith Kemp · May 17, 2022

3. 3.0(1)

   A Lot of Setup; Message gets Lost

   I really am interested in this topic and wanted to love this book, but the way it is presented irritates me. The author goes off to give too much detail and I am fast forwarding through most of it.. I think I am going to have to return this one; I won't ever be able to learn why we fall for the con every time because I can't stick with the narrative.

   Halie Reyna · December 29, 2021

4. 3.0(1)

   Voice Quality Unlistenable

   Whether or not this book is as insightful and entertaining as it is purported to be…. I will never know as a result of the harsh, brittle and over-compressed quality of the recording. I found the narration grating and irritating and ultimately unlistenable.

   Chantelle Carr · August 15, 2021

5. 3.0(1)

   Not as good as her poker book

   To me, this book seemed to wander, without any great organization or conclusions. Her poker book is much better.

   Angelique Travis · May 14, 2021

6. 5.0(1)

   Cons

   I loved this book. and enjoyed the writer reading it. it was interesting to me.

   Faith Brantley · April 24, 2021

7. 5.0(1)

   Required reading for all humans!

   This is the kind of book everyone should read at some point in their lives. We all fall victim to some kind of con at some point in our lives and understanding our weaknesses can help avoid them or at least extricate ourselves.

   Abby Lane · April 10, 2021

8. 3.0(1)

   Nothing really revolutionary here

   What did you like best about The Confidence Game? What did you like least?

   I enjoyed the investigation into the psychology of why we fall for con games and the ways in which everyone is susceptible. What I enjoy about a good con story is the "caper" aspects, though. I enjoy knowing the ins and outs of how someone actually games the system. This book was short on those kinds of stories and highlighted long cons that primarily relied on relationship building.

   Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

   The concepts here were not too technical. If anything, they were too simple. It basically boils down to the fact that we have high opinions of ourselves and therefore refuse to believe that we could get conned. That said, Konnikova does a nice job in outlining the major phases of the con (the put-up, the touch, etc.).

   What didn’t you like about Maria Konnikova’s performance?

   Whenever possible, I do like to hear the author read her own work, but in this case Ms. Konnikova's voice became enervating. Her voice is very breathy and she tends to over-pronounce "s" or "sh" sounds. Her voice also has a lot of vocal fry and tends to fall off at the end of sentences.

   Any additional comments?

   I look forward to listening to most of my raksBooks books, but this one really felt like a slog. I kept looking at how long I had left and wishing it was less. I was really excited to get into this book, but it just did not offer me much new insight.

   Katelynn Collier · January 7, 2020