Nevada Books

I would have expected a place like Las Vegas to produce a ton of graphic material but I was disappointed to find so little inside this latest Taschen 'Icons' paperback. Basically there are too many tourist brochure photos rather than the printed ephemera I have found in other paperbacks in this excellent series.

Still, there is some interesting material, the intro essay by W R Wilkerson, the eight photos looking east and west along Fremont Street over the decades, the photos of the amazing neon signs, thanks to the leading Vegas sign maker, the Young Electric Company and the chapter dealing with gambling images.

For Vegas fans I can recommend an inexpensive hardback, 'Las Vegas: Then and Now' (ISBN 1571458530) by Su Kim Chung, 138 photos taken over the decades with the newer ones taken from the same place as the originals, the changes are amazing. Also worth a look is 'Faulous Las Vegas in the 50s' (ISBN 188331805x) by Fred Basten and Charles Phoenix, plenty of photos and graphic material presented in a book with a design as flamboyant as the place itself.

Written when author Laxalt was a young writer, these stories evoke the 1950s both in their subject matter and their attitude. These are not stories written for the little literary magazines but the popular publications of an earlier time, when TV was still something new and the movies were mostly family fare. Laxalt's audience would have found his stories in the Saturday Evening Posts and the men's magazines of the time, and his readers would have been well entertained.

The 16 stories in this collection are set chiefly in the author's home state, Nevada, but they show a wide range of interests, character types, and styles of storytelling. There is humor, sentiment, drama, action, and satire, often ending with an unexpected twist. A few are stories about hunting and pursuit. In one of these a prison guard apprehends an escaped convict and then finds himself in a helpless dilemma. There are two fascinating stories about gambling. In one of them, the title story of the collection, a rancher with a $3,000 check in his wallet finds himself fatally drawn into a Reno casino. In another, a man tries to catch a cheating blackjack dealer.

Most of these stories seem not to have been published before. The author's preface recalls a rejection letter for the story "The Snake Pen," from the editor of Esquire, who considered it not "digestible" by the magazine's readers. Describing a woman's marriage to a garage mechanic who has a curious way with rattlesnakes, it holds up fifty years later among the best of the whole bunch. As a companion volume to this book, I'd recommend Edward Abbey's "The Brave Cowboy," which evokes a similar time and place and style of storytelling.

In Legal Tender, former madam Laraine Russo Harper recounts the six years she spent running an unnamed Pahrump brothel. It's an often-amusing collection of anecdotes about her time in the sex business.

Harper was recruited to run the brothel by a friend who had been impressed by her tact and commitment as a casino host. After visiting the dingy trailers that comprised the sex palace, Harper accepted and began a thorough renovation, transforming the brothel into a full-service resort.

Most of Legal Tender revolves around Harper's struggle to bring class to the tacky brothel scene. One chapter recounts the eccentricities of various "ladies" employed in the brothel, while another discusses the foibles of the customers. It's told in a humorous vein that tends toward the sophomoric side. Also, much of the humor is at the expense of the customers, or at least their personal hygiene and fashion sense-not exactly a selling point to the potential patron.

The details of how the brothel works are interesting from many perspectives, but Harper isn't content to just tell us about life as a madam. Instead, she wants us to believe that brothels are beautiful, egalitarian oases of fulfillment: "The ladies," she writes, " did not judge a person based on their looks as we, as a society, tend to do. It was a business and everyone was a potential customer." Harper goes on about how it doesn't matter what kind of car you drive or what you do for a living: the brothel ladies are there to make you happy. Couldn't you say that about any business? I'm sure the folks at Trader Joe's don't ring up my order because they like the cut of my jib. They've got stuff to sell, and I've got money. If I didn't give them money, they wouldn't let me walk out of the store with my groceries. There's nothing noble about it.

There are certainly some interesting stories in here, but the writing style tends to drag the narrative down. Reading the book, you'll find out that brothels are businesses just like any other, with all the petty bickering and dickering that you'd see anywhere else. That may be Harper's most significant contribution to the debate about legalized prostitution.

Reviewed by Danelle Drake for Reader Views (11/08)

Okay, I admit it; I have always been somewhat fascinated with how people go from "point A" to "point B" in life. I have seen families who were ripped apart from unthinkable events and watched the children grow into adults. How could one child in this family of three children grow into a positive being while the other two continue down the path of destruction? There are many different ways to describe success; personal, financial, or having what everyone thinks you need. Regardless of how you view it, you will have to agree "Legal Tender" is about one woman's success that enabled others to succeed and have some incredible and compassionate journeys from "point A" to "point B."

Being right smack here in the middle of the "Bible belt" I have heard many views of people opposing legal prostitution. Here in North Carolina, prostitution is illegal -- like teen pregnancy, there are those caught and those not-caught, but more than likely more than you think are participating. Life would be much more peaceful and the crime-rate lower if many of the things that are considered illegal for moral opinion be accepted and monitored.

"Legal Tender" opens your eyes and fills you in a sometimes-comical, in-your-face, way with information you have probably always wondered about but really had nobody to ask. Written in a matter-of-fact way "Legal Tender" is a great first effort, and a gutsy one, by Laraine Russo Harper. Those who know her would expect nothing else. Her willingness to take the risk and jump in there dedicating herself to building a great brothel from a trashy group of trailers will inspire you to live the dream you believe you were meant to live.

One could encompass this work, "Legal Tender," as a how-to, inspirational, self-help, money management, "unthinkable" book all rolled up into a story about a brothel. I, for one, sure did learn a few things I didn't know....but will not soon forget!

Rare research into the use of the bow and arrow by native americans, from arrow wounds to the use of the bow and arrow, how it was constructed, from various bands use of different designs etc. I think this is a good book to have in your library if you are interested in NA archery, and stoneage bow and arrow warfare. Made me wonder if Ben Franklin wasn't on to something when he suggested the colonial army use the bow and arrow against the british during the revolutionary war.

Anne Martin's story is of interest to anyone who enjoys reading of history or politics, particularly of Nevada's history, or of women's struggle to gain suffrage rights. Anne Martin grew up in Nevada in the late 1800's and came of age in the early 1900's. She attended Stanford University, and then worked in England, Washington D.C., and throughout Nevada to attain voting rights for women. (Nevada women gained the right to vote in 1914.) After attaining that goal, Ms. Martin ran for Senate, traveling through the rough countryside to various mining camps and small railroad towns -- a daring feat for a women at that time. After abandoning her own political career, she became active in the peace and equal rights movements on a global scale, decades ahead of the 1960's peace movement. This book is somewhat cumbersome to read, since every fact and reference is painstakingly documented in detail, but the effort is worthwhile.

A lot of people are getting murdered out Nevada way;so Billy Vail sends his best Deputy Marshal to get to the bottom of it, and bring the killer or killers to justice.
The saga has a pretty good storyline,but it is overshadowed by a greenhorn Deputy who has been hired through a family connection. Longarm is not happy in having to take this kid with him and while trying to solve a difficult case,he must act as a nursemaid and is worried that the kid will screw up things at best ,or get himself killed at worst.
It is a pretty good episode,with lots of action packed scenes.

The author of MALIBU DIARY, Penelope O'Malley, moved to that beach town in 1986, an urban refugee from deeper inside the Los Angeles city sprawl, and stayed until the late 90s. The book wouldn't have caught my eye or caused me to crack open my wallet except that I lived my formative years in Malibu - Zuma Canyon to be exact - from 1957 at age 8 to my departure thirteen years later, about the same length of time as Penelope's residence on Point Dume just across the Pacific Coast Highway. Despite her relatively late arrival, I hoped she'd tell me something I'd missed during the flood of teenage hormones.

Five years after O'Malley's arrival, Malibu removed itself from the governance of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and incorporated. Thus enabled, the citizenry began a period - still continuing to the present, I presume - of interminable tiffs, which is the subject of Penelope's "diary".

There is some useful historical perspective to be derived from the narrative, specifically a thumbnail history of the 17,000-acre Rancho Malibu Topanga y Sequit, one of the last intact Spanish land grants, as purchased by Frederick Hastings Rindge in 1892 and lost piecemeal by his descendents until only 4,000 acres remained under family control in 1961. Also, Malibu's unfortunate and regular association with major wildfires is briefly recounted, including the author's first-hand experiences with such in 1993 and 1996. (In 1958, I watched as the Liberty fire crested the mountains at the north end of Zuma Canyon. My Dad spent a good part of that night's wee hours serving refreshments to fire crews parked on the canyon's access road awaiting the blaze's expected approach. It never happened; the wind shifted.)

Otherwise, MALIBU DIARY is a narrative about disputes: residents sniping at the county fire department for it's handling of brushfires; a home builder locked in a legal battle with two competing and mutually antagonistic representatives of the Chumash Indian tribe over potential artifacts to be found on his construction site; the City of Malibu's stubborn row with L.A. County on which government entity should repair and reopen Kanan Dume Road, a major trans-mountain artery to the San Fernando Valley, after it was blocked by a landslide; the grotty warfare between adherents of the existing septic tank method of waste disposal and proponents of a new, city-wide sewer system. And perhaps the most rancorous and intractable of them all, the feud between wannabe developers of condominiums and apartment buildings, who cloak themselves in the sacred banner of "individual property rights", and the entrenched "slow growth" advocates of single-family dwellings that occupy the local high ground.

Such is this particular piece of Paradise at the rural/(sub)urban interface. It brings to mind the volume by social commentator and essayist Barbara Holland, Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: Rediscovering Life in an American Village, in which she describes taking up residence in an inherited cabin in the Appalachian mountains of northern Virginia only just now coming within reach of the westwardly spreading tentacles of the Washington, DC burbs. However, Barbara is, above all, a wry and gifted humorist. Conversely, Penelope O'Malley, a practicing journalist, reports with virtually no levity at all, and her book suffers for it; there's so much here to be gently ridiculed, but isn't. And, at times, she takes herself a little too seriously, as at the conclusion:

"I went to Malibu a white-robed ascetic, feet shod in sandals, so rawboned at first I never thought to pay homage. Gradually I transformed myself from a bruised and battered pilgrim to a creature tentatively on the wing. Although envisioning the grace of an egret, I was more like a ratty eagle with torn feathers, too long shut in the zoo. Suddenly free, navigating on faulty instincts, I needed not only practice but a flight plan. Today, offerings made, I am more sure of my mecca, bells and cymbals clanging."

Jeez, snap out of it already!

In any case, as a former Malibu inhabitant, I'm awarding four stars, both for the happy memories of the place of my youth MALIBU DIARY brought back and for the value the book might have for anyone considering a move into the line of fire, figuratively and literally. Otherwise, unless the reader is generally interested in the sorts of hot buttons that ignite the combative instincts within any village, town or city, pass on by.

This is a well written look at 8 artists in Nevada. Most interesting is how these artists and their work reflects and interacts with the desert landscape in a variety of ways.The artists respond in a variety of ways using abstraction, collage, installation and mixed media. The book is well illustrated and shows examples of the artists' work. Fox has an obvious affection for the artists in this book and strikes a tone that is balanced and enthusiastic. It is an interesting look at 8 specific artists but also delves into the creative process, culture in the Western US and how the landscape impacts all of that. Definitely worth the time!

This is a nice, little (191 p.) abridged version of Twain's longer work, Roughing It, which focuses just on his experiences in Nevada. It begins with his journey to Carson City accompanying his brother who has come to work in the new territorial government and goes on to recount his first days there and numerous adventures to surrounding mining areas, including a fascinating description of a 'virgin' Mono Lake. The latter part of the book is devoted to his time in Virginia City as a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper and his accounts of life in that rough and tumble boomtown.

I give the book a blended rating of 4: the narrative and writing is typical Twain -- superb and a solid 5; however the production quality of the book is mediocre, no better than a 2 or 3. It appears to be a reproduction (read copy) of an old 1800's era printing; the text quality is poor with some missing or blurred characters. These flaws are partially redeemed by the inclusion of numerous (almost one every other page) pen and ink drawings depicting scenes and characters from the book. Overall this is an entertaining recollection of old West life from a master storyteller and enough towhet one's appetite for the lengthier original.

This is a poetic, wise book. Short chapters distill aspects of a long, rich life. Worth it alone for describing one man's experience of World War II years in three spare pages.