Nevada Books

OK, let's fact it. You know the minute you pick up one of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon park ranger mysteries that at some point in the narrative, our intrepid heroine is going to get herself into a life-threatening situation and you are going to be sitting on the edge of your seat unable to put stop listening to the CD.

However, in Blind Descent, Nevada Barr outdoes herself, because the suspense is as thick as the impenetrable darkness Anna Pigeon descends into when she joins a rescue team to bring out an injured park employee from a miles-long mostly unmapped cave in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. The injured caver whispered Anna's name during a brief moment of consciousness, and so, battling claustrophobia Anna squeezes through tunnels and rappels down rock faces to the side of the injured woman, who confides to Anna, during another moment of lucidity, that she was pushed. Her injury was not an accident. Which one of the handful of people deep in the bowels of this inhospitable underworld did it? And why? Will they kill the injured caver before she can be brought to the surface? And, anyway, what was that sound? A cave creature?

One of the many charms of the Anna Pigeon mystery series is that the novels are all set in a different National Park, giving the reader an education in, for example, the behind-the-scenes workings of well-known locations such as Yosemite National Park as described in High Country, the civil war background of the less-known ramparts ruins on the island Dry Tortugas National Park at the tip of the Florida Keys, and the intriguing feeding habits of Glacier National Park grizzly bears in Blood Lure.

Therefore, I expected that the almost totally underground setting of Blind Descent would be without charm until I began to read the book. That's when I discovered that, au contraire, underground caving, the creation of immense underground caverns, and their discovery is a fascinating subject.

And then there's our beloved Anna Pigeon, dashing and swash-buckling, at a time in her life when most people are contemplating early retirement, she continues to pull off deeds of daring-do in spite of aching joints and fatigue. I can't help myself. I love Anna Pigeon. When I grow up I want to be just like her, except that, uh oh, I am already grown up. OK, so I love to pretend I am her, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, flying faster than a jet plane . . . no, wait a minute, that's another super hero. In any case, Anna is as close to a real down-to-earth super heroine as you can get and I love her.

I also love narrator Barbara Rosenblat's wonderful performances throughout the Anna Pigeon series. How can she possibly sound like so many different people including men, women, and children of all ages? Her range, tone, cadence, and rhythm change so effortlessly. I've also enjoyed listening to Barbara Rosenblatt in the caterer/sleuth Goldy Schulz mystery series by Diane Mott Davidson, and the Egyptologist mystery series, by Elizabeth Peters (in which I'm absolutely in love with Ramses), and which Rosenblat narrates entirely in a British accent. Amazing!

OK, let's fact it. You know the minute you pick up one of Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon park ranger mysteries that at some point in the narrative, our intrepid heroine is going to get herself into a life-threatening situation and you are going to be sitting on the edge of your seat unable to turn your CD player off.

However, in Blind Descent, Nevada Barr outdoes herself, because the suspense is as thick as the impenetrable darkness Anna Pigeon descends into when she joins a rescue team to bring out an injured park employee from a miles-long mostly unmapped cave in New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns. The injured caver whispered Anna's name during a brief moment of consciousness, and so, battling claustrophobia Anna squeezes through tunnels and rappels down rock faces to the side of the injured woman, who confides to Anna, during another moment of lucidity, that she was pushed. Her injury was not an accident. Which one of the handful of people deep in the bowels of this inhospitable underworld did it? And why? Will they kill the injured caver before she can be brought to the surface? And, anyway, what was that sound? A cave creature?

One of the many charms of the Anna Pigeon mystery series is that the novels are all set in a different National Park, giving the reader an education in, for example, the behind-the-scenes workings of well-known locations such as Yosemite National Park as described in High Country, the civil war background of the less-known ramparts ruins on the island Dry Tortugas National Park at the tip of the Florida Keys, and the intriguing feeding habits of Glacier National Park grizzly bears in Blood Lure.

However, I expected that the almost totally underground setting of Blind Descent would be without charm until I began to read the book. That's when I discovered that, au contraire, underground caving, the creation of immense underground caverns, and their discovery is a fascinating subject.

And then there's our beloved Anna Pigeon, dashing and swash-buckling, at a time in her life when most people are contemplating early retirement, she continues to pull off deeds of daring-do in spite of aching joints and fatigue. I can't help myself. I love Anna Pigeon. When I grow up I want to be just like her, except that, uh oh, I am already grown up. OK, so I love to pretend I am her, leaping tall buildings in a single bound, flying faster than a jet plane . . . no, wait a minute, that's another super hero. In any case, Anna is as close to a real down-to-earth super heroine as you can get and I love her.

I also love narrator Barbara Rosenblat's wonderful performances throughout the Anna Pigeon series. How can she possibly sound like so many different people including men, women, and children of all ages? Her range, tone, cadence, and rhythm change so effortlessly. I've also enjoyed listening to Barbara Rosenblatt in the Egyptologist mystery series, by Elizabeth Peters (in which I'm absolutely in love with Ramses) and which Rosenblat narrates entirely in a British accent. Amazing!

Bringing Down The House, written by Ben Mezrich, is a non-fiction action with the unexpected drops and sudden plot twists of a smoothly written fiction. From the perspective of a high school freshman, card counting seems more like an urban legend than a high-stakes, play-for-keeps gambling obsession; could anybody really keep track of the cards flickering past? In bringing down the house, card counting comes to life, complete with an intense plot line that makes the words seem to pop off the page. Ben Mezrich does am excellent job of relating the story of a team of M.I.T. whiz-kids who card count black-jack tables and run Vegas into the ground. Merzrich's cunning use of vocabulary portrays this story properly; without his ability to make the action come to life, the story would be cheated out of its well-earned bravado and glory. In this story, the main character, Kevin, gets invited to a rather shady club at M.I.T.-the black-jack club. Through Kevin's perspective, Mezrich reveals the mystery behind card counting and unravels the story of the team's exploits in Vegas. Mezrich does a great job of unfolding the drama of this thrilling adventure. Throughout the story the team runs into problems, whether it's a boxing match gone wrong or an insane group of private investigators who will stop at nothing to track down "cheaters" as long as the casinos pay them. Mezrich's great use of language made my heart race during some of the more intense parts of the book. If you're looking for a well written story with an intricate plot line and heart-racing adventure, then this book is for you. I highly recommend it to all readers of any skill level and all interests.

This 95-page publication is an informative and fascinating catalogue book published in conjunction with a Smithsonian exhibition at the National Museum of History and Technology in 1980-81. Its subject is ranchlife in Paradise Valley, Nevada, north of Winnemucca and near the Oregon border. First settled by California farmer/ranchers in the 1860s, the region's development was influenced by the Spanish colonial agricultural practices of California, and its "cowboys" have traditionally been known as "buckaroos," an anglicized rendering of the Spanish "vaquero."

Contents of the book are based on field research by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. It covers history of the region and then focuses on cowboy life and culture, including clothing, bunkhouses, and branding irons. The book contains many black and white photographs, both vintage and contemporary. Several are two-page spreads. There is also a list of 244 artifacts from the exhibition, with photos of many of them....

As of this writing...this wonderful book is out of print. If you can find a copy, it's well worth having.

I just got back from Las Vegas and used this guide as a reference. It helped me save a fortune, plus helped me improve every aspect of my trip. I had never been to Las vegas before and went to attend a convention. This book offered great advice about where to stay, where to eat, what shows to see and how to navigate around the convention center. I highly recommend this book to all business travelers!!! It's a valuable resource and trip planning tool.

This is a great great book, you forget your reading a historical novel, a record of actual occurences you think that what your reading is a story book the way Barrett puts the facts together to make a truely compelling story out of the resources of history. Great book, Great Great book, well done, Barrett.

This is a great guide to the abandoned mining towns littering the outback of Nevada and
California. There's more towns dead than alive out there! Modern cities and highways are shown
in black ink, and the ghost towns and historic places in red, complete with anecdotes
documenting their significance and the years they existed. Useful in combination with Delorme's
Nevada and California atlases (which you might need to actually find these towns, given the small scale of the ghost town maps).

An excellent value. Beautiful photographs, with concise text on natural history, including geologic formation, human history, ecology, climate, and flora and fauna. A well balanced, informative introduction to the region. I plan on buying more from Wuerthner.

A gentle tale, with spirit and chutzpah, like its characters, Call it a Gift charms with its unlikely plot twists, details such as an octagenarian "escaping" down a bedroom ladder with her new boyfriend, and deep, honest emotion.
The web of characters, some of whom you never meet, sparkles with believable middle-aged children, remembered friends and family. Though there is a strongly bitter-sweet flavor to much of the story, which centers around the protagonists coming to grips with loss, it is neither maudlin nor overly sentimental, and in fact shows a great deal of sensitive humor in the telling. A fine story, with memorable characters.

For those daring enought to enter the world of casino operations, this book is a must read. It is filled with a carefully laid out analysis and explanation of the casino operations. This is a subject that is extremely difficult to find actual documentation regarding such simple things as net win. A first rate choice for the casino operator.