swindlers and swindling

"Javier Perez is a hustler from a family of hustlers. He learns from an early age how to play the game to his own advantage, how his background--murdered drug dealer dad, single cash-strapped mom, best friend [Gio] serving time for gang activity--can be a key to doors he didn't even know existed. This kind of story, molded in the right way, is just what college admissions committees are looking for, and a full academic scholarship to a prestigious university brings Javi one step closer to his dream of becoming a famous writer. ... Soon after Javi graduates, a viral essay transforms him from a writer on the rise to a journalist at a legendary magazine where the editors applaud his 'unique perspective.' But Gio more than anyone knows who Javi really is, and sees through his game. Once Gio's released from prison and Javi offers to cut him in on the deal, will he play along with Javi's charade, or will it all come crumbling down?"--.

"When seventeen-year-old Nora O'Malley, the daughter of a con artist, is taken hostage in a bank heist, every secret she is keeping close begins to unravel"--OCLC.

"Summer is coming to a close on the East End of Long Island, and Alex is no longer welcome. A misstep at a dinner party, and the older man she's been staying with dismisses her with a ride to the train station and a ticket back to the city. With few resources and a waterlogged phone, but gifted with an ability to navigate the desires of others, Alex stays on Long Island and drifts like a ghost through the hedged lanes, gated driveways, and sun-blasted dunes of a rarified world that is, at first, closed to her. Propelled by desperation and a mutable sense of morality, she spends the week leading up to Labor Day moving from one place to the next, a cipher leaving destruction in her wake. Taut, propulsive, and impossible to look away from, Emma Cline's The Guest is a spellbinding literary achievement"--Provided by publisher.

When Mrs. Third Floor visits and reports paranormal activity on the fifth floor, Butterbean and the other pets set out to find the truth and save Mrs. Third Floor from being scammed by professional ghost hunters.

"Avery Lawrence thought she had it all--a charming fianc(c), a Broadway-themed star-studded engagement, and a picture-perfect life. But when her fraudster of a fianc(c)'s true identity is exposed and he's hauled away in handcuffs, Avery's world comes crashing down faster than the chandelier in Phantom of the Opera. Left stranded on Christmas Day outside the federal prison without her cell phone or wallet, Avery stumbles out of the cold and into the last phone booth in Manhattan. With nothing left to lose, Avery is directed by a mysterious voice on the line to the doorstep of the college boyfriend she thought she'd moved on from over six years ago. When a second encounter with the phone booth leads Avery to a life-changing audition for Marley Is Dead, a new musical based on Dickens's A Christmas Carol, Avery is blown away by the striking similarities between the show and her own life. Convinced the phone booth is somehow responsible for reuniting her with 'the one that got away' and reigniting her acting career, maybe she will finally have the chance to rewrite her future. But as she grapples with the ghosts of her past and the uncertainty of her present, Avery must decide whether to follow her heart or pursue her dream."--Back cover.

"Trey knows the drill: His dad gets him into a school full of kids with rich parents. Trey makes friends, and his dad makes connections. Soon, there's the con, where Trey's dad suckers the other parents into investing in one of his schemes. Once the money's in the bank, Trey, his sister, and their dad are on the run... until they set up somewhere else and start again. Trey believes his father when he says no one's getting hurt. After all, these parents have money to spare. But Trey's starting to get tired of running... and lying... and never having a friend for longer than a few months. But how do you get your family to stop lying when your lives depend on it?"--Provided by publisher.

"A sharp-witted teenage thief leads a team of skilled misfits in a dangerous and daring heist for fortune, freedom and revenge against a corrupt Pope in Renaissance Italy"--Provided by publisher.

Sixteen-year-old Kat's con-artist mom takes on one last heist before going straight for good, but the job takes a deadly turn.

Sixteen-year-old Kat's con-artist mom takes on one last heist before going straight for good, but the job takes a deadly turn.

"From phishing scams to pyramid schemes, our world is filled with people who want to fool us. In [this book, the authors] . . . break down the science behind deception to pull back the curtain on how we can all avoid being scammed--or even scam the scammers in return . . . identif[ies] ten specific features of our psychology that make us vulnerable to being tricked, from our innate tendency to treat all new information--not to mention anything that seems familiar or consistent!--as though it were true, to our failure to consider the important information that we're not receiving, to our tendency to be wary of randomness when in fact it's a sign of authenticity . . . providing concrete ways that readers can build up their resistance to deception and revealing the crucial questions we should ask even before something starts to look suspicious"--Provided by publisher.