Nevada Books

Really great book, the only problem, the pictures are all in black & white, its an overview of the Californian State, but if you want a more detailed focus on each city you may need additional guides.

This book is full of gems that I would never have found otherwise. Descriptions and prices listed are spot-on.

Just used this book for a two-week road trip through California. I also had a few other Cal guidebooks with me and this one was the best. It was well organized, in depth and consistently gave good recommendations.

1. I live in California and thus I'm familiar (at least) with the surrounding region I live in etc...

2. This book physically looks good, has a nice layout, but is relatively devoid of concrete data (ie places to eat, stay etc...). Furthermore, it reads as if it were written by some college political science major at USF...

3. It's tough to find a good travel book; Perhaps the Moon publication might be better. However one thing is sure--> if you want a book with actual good information--> forget this one. If you just want a book with very cursory info--> this might be ok in that it's fairly compact, it covers the entire state etc...

Most people can say they know San Francisco/Bay Area, Los Angeles/Orange County, or San Diego. These are the places people typically hit up when they plan a trip to CA. Having lived several years in SoCal, I found this book opened my eyes to all the state has to offer. It balances the sections on the large cities with other destinations and activities. You can easily stay with friends in LA or SFO and get a better tour of the town than the book can offer, but what about Death Valley or the Redwoods or PCH? This is where the book has been of great help to me.

Jeff German writes about the 1998 death (murder?) of casino owner Ted Binion and the ensuing murder trial. The victim was no innocent - Ted Binion was a heroin addict, and the prosecutor charged his ex-stripper girlfriend, Sandy Murphy, and *her* boyfriend, Rick Tabish, with the crime. What makes this more interesting than many books on the "true crime" shelf is that the reader is introduced to the rough and tumble world of a colorful casino mogul and his chaotic personal life. Even though Ted Binion was not the most sympathetic of victims, he did not deserve to die, and the author describes his death and the ensuing trial.

The defendants argued that Binion accidentally killed himself with a drug overdose, while the prosecutor's theory of the crime was complex, circumstantial, and yet convincing - at least the way Jeff German tells the story.

The two defendants were found guilty largely on the strength of forensic evidence from the autopsy. What the author does not report, because it occurred in 2004 after the book was published, is that an appeals court ordered a retrial, and in the second trial the defendants were found not guilty of murder because the jury placed little weight on the forensic evidence. It's hard to believe that justice was done.

This book is based on a stark real story, so you can't say that what happened to Sandy is fair or not because they never found anything against her except what the people said she said, and maybe two or three coincidences that happened the day of the murder. Nevertheless, everything written in the book you will read it at least twice and that makes the book boring, albeit you'll understand the plot perfectly is not the way to write a book. JG wrote too many technical terms and that made the story slow and heavy and I really don't agree that this was the murder of the century in Vegas.

what a story hard to believe people can be so ruthless all for the mighty dollar.i would recommand this book highly it really gets into the truth.the strange thing about reading the book is i went to junior high and high school with sandy murphy and it is sad to see how her life really turned out.

If you can stay awake while reading this boring tome of Ted Binion's demise, you will learn that the writer did little more than write what the prosecutors spoonfed to him. Also, the writer did not attend the trial, which is painfully obvious. He did no independent research. Instead, read Cathy Scott's colorful, in-depth account of the trial and events surrounding it in "Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case." There, you will get the true story of exactly what went down.

Where other 'true crime' books fall down is the old adage about "the devil is in the details." This is definitely NOT the case with 'Murder In Sin City' which really goes the distance in bringing the reader close to the case and it's many people, twists, and turns. Ted Binion was the mega-wealthy heir and executive of the 'Binion's Horshoe' casino fortune. He was also a colorful and eccentric heroin addict with a taste for strippers and fast-lane criminal friends. These shortcomings were all contributing causes of his untimely demise at the hands of his girlfriend Sandy Murphy and her new lover Rick Tabish. The book covers many aspects of their relationship and scheming plans to murder Binion so they could share in his wealth. Most of the other fascinating details of the case were simply not covered by programs like 'Dateline', '20/20', 'Court T.V.' etc which is what makes this book so thorough and interesting. Buried treasure, wild characters, sex, murder and betrayal --- this is one story that like it's unfortunate victim had it all. Interesting developments have happened since the book's release in late 2001. Namely, Tabish and Murphy's murder convictions were overturned due to a technicality involving a separate torture case for which Tabish is still serving time. Murphy is now free and both are awaiting a retrial set for sometime in October of '04. Additionally, the 'Binion's Horseshoe' casino a Las Vegas landmark for 50+ years, was recently closed down for violations involving owed back pay. I can only hope that author Jeff German will take up the pen again when the aftermath of the new trial has settled.

Judith Freeman's "A Desert of Pure Feeling" is a contemporary love story that portrays a western woman with depth and dimension in her most intimate roles--as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, and lover. This compelling novel looks at the ways one extraordinary woman faces the task of gathering the evidence of the past into a meaningful awareness of the present. With honesty and courage, this woman searches her relationships and comes to know the secrets of her own heart. This is a western story, with a ranch in Idaho, the desert spaces of Utah, and the lure of Las Vegas. But the geography is not limited to the west. The sotry's primary setting is Las Vegas, in a motel called the Tally Ho, where Lucy, the main character and a writer, is speaking at a conference. Las Vegas was a familiar place to Lucy not only throughout her childhood vacations traveling through this city but because it was originally settled by her people and is symbolic to her of her Mormon upbringing. Lucy has traveled to Las Vegas from her home on an isolated ranch in the mountains of Idaho. At this conference she agrees to travel across the Atlantic on a ship in exchange for giving a reading during the voyage. "What I could not have known was how this decision would lead me back along the path of my own life, how it would open up old wounds and lay them bare and create new ones I hadn't expected" (13). On board she is shocked when she encounters Dr. Carlos Cabrera, the surgeon who many years ago had saved her son's life, the man to whom she had given her heart, and with whom she had hoped to share her life. The shipboard journey takes Lucy across the Atlantic Ocean and to London, filling in the crucial gaps in her relationship with Cabrera, helping her to understand the forces that have shaped this man. The ship encounters a violent storm at sea, and the motion is reflected in dangerous waves of another form. Traveling on to Cornwall, Lucy wrestles the demons from her past that threaten her hold on life. This is not a one-time reckoning, but as Lucy discovers, a process requiring both a yielding and a resistance. Judith Freeman has given us a novel that speaks to the challenge women face today in coming to terms with their own identities as revealed in their most intimate relationships. The author looks unflinchingly at the contradictions and complexity of human relationships as the character faces her role as a mother, a wife, a lover, a writer, and a human being struggling with loss. Once Lucy made choices that protected her heart; now life offers her the chance to risk loving with all her heart. To embrace love is to embrace loss, and Freeman traces Lucy's path to self-knowledge with strokes that resonate with the human yearning for meaning within ourselves and with others.

Morgan Braucht ENG 272 April 7, 1998 "A Desert of Pure Feeling: The Story of People's pasts" With her book, A Desert of Pure Feeling, Judith Freeman invites us to read a story of people who are running away from the past. One thing that you are forced to think about while reading this book is that to people who don't know their pasts these appear to be average, everyday human beings like you and me. It's not until you hear their stories that you can differentiate their lifestyles from that of the average person. Personally, I didn't agree with some of the issues that Freeman dealt with (i.e. adultery, homosexuality, etc.), but it does help the reader realize that every person in the world has their own story to tell and their own way of telling it. Las Vegas, "in the heart of the Mojave", as the author puts it, is the central setting for most of the story. Lucy, the person telling the story, is drawn to Las Vegas because of beautiful childhood memories and the fact that Las Vegas was settled by "her people". Another setting is a cruise boat where Lucy is doing a literary reading of one of her works. Here she is re-introduced to Dr. Carlos Cabrera who saved the life of her son and whom she had an affair with. This take us to Minnesota where we revisit Justin, Lucy's son, and his fight for life and the introduction of Dr. Cabrera into Lucy's life. Like the classic Westerns depicted by John Wayne or Louis L'Amour, A Desert of Pure Feeling contains many themes parallel to that of the frontier. Religion is a major part of Western America and it fills a role in this story as well. Although her father used to be the bishop of the local church, Lucy had "stopped believing in religion years ago". "Why should I believe if he doesn't", was Lucy's opinion on religion after she noticed a bit of hypocrisy on her father's part. Where as religion is usually seen as a vital part of the West, Lucy shows that one can live without it. Just like the hero that saves the day in a cowboy movie, Carlos fills the role of the strong, western male stereotype. "He was tall and rather thin and had aristocratic features - an aquiline nose and high cheekbones and a clear, straight brow." This, in similar words, is what the typical hero is pictured as. Carlos rescues Lucy from two things: her marriage and the immediate death of her young son. As it turns out, Justin brought Carlos and Lucy together not by just needing surgery, but Justin is eventually killed in Guatemala. Guatemala happens to be Carlos's native land. There are also quite a few examples of symbolism in this story. However, there were two examples that really caught my attention. Placing part of the story on a ship was very crucial. Here everyone aboard was forced to deal with the past. Since they were surrounded by nothing but water, no one could run from the past. Also, the wave that hits the boat simulates Mr. Himmelfarb showing up and bringing the past to the forefront. As stated earlier, Judith Freeman brings up many very controversial subjects. While I wasn't personally offended by any of this, it is possible for the reader to become uncomfortable reading such material. I definitely think that there is a little too much detail in some situations and this is the major drawback of the book. This book probably shouldn't be recommended to anyone that's not mature enough to handle the content. Other than that I thought the book was enjoyable reading.

Judith Freeman writes a revised western text with western themes included in "A Desert of Pure Feeling." This is a modern western with Las Vegas as a place to escape instead of the Rocky Mountains or the outback of California as seen in traditional westerns. Freeman tells how Lucy Patterson finds herself, but she has to go through many heartaches before she comes to any conclusions. This is a very emotional text that portrays the mysteries of love throughout the book, beginning with the love Lucy has for her son Justin, to the romantic love she has for Carlos Cabrera, to finally the "love" she has for Joycelle Johnson. This book speaks to the heart of anyone who has ever lost a person so close to them that it is hard to live a day without them. The book is set with three different story lines. At one point of the story, Lucy is at a hospial in St.Paul, MN with her young son Justin who has heart problems. The next chapter may have Lucy on a cruise where she runs into Carlos Cabrera, the man from her past. The present is when she is with Joycelle Johnson in a Las Vegas motel. Freeman interlaces these threee stories to tell the life of Lucy Patterson. One may say the reasoning behind using three different stories is to tell the life of Lucy Patterson. but not in sequence. One may also say the use is to tell how Lucy matured from a young adult into a mature woman. Freeman could have usedn these different stories together to suggest how these three times in her life were similiar in many ways. Lucy is a woman who goes on with her life after she loses her son and the man whom she would love for all time to certain circumstances. She is basically lost in a very big world that she claims she needs no one to survive. But she gives into these feelings with regards to "I wanted to think that there was one person on earth in whom I could confide,and who would hold me and comfort me and tell me things I wanted to hear in order to be relieved of the burden of carrying on alone..." She does encounter loss and the power to attempt to overcome it. She does make a rather bold statement with "Why had the two people I had loved most in my life both simply disappeared?" This quote makes the reader think and hopefully appreciate their loved ones. An open mind must be kept while reading this book. Many characters have to come to some type of truth and realization about their homosexual feelings. For some it is easier then others. The theme of adultery is seen also in the book at the very beginning. Freeman makes her readers come to some sort of insight about this subject. She claims that all adults do this act or wished that they did. Is that true?? Only you yourself knows if that is true. Like I said in the beginning, this text is not a traditional western. There is no gun sling, violence or cowboy rescuing a pretty little girl. This book includes the trials and tribulations of a young girl who becomes a woman. This book needs to be approached with an open mind concerning sexuality, adultery and loss. Overall, it is very moving book. If you are looking for an awe inspiring text, this book would be for you.

This book is terrible. Freeman's writing is flat, her characters are weak, and the plot is bizarre in the extreme, particularly--but certainly not limited to--the weird teenage homosexual Nazi death camp circumcision riff at the end. I paid $1 for it on remainder and I was robbed. I don't care how many college students from Illinois post their book reports here (and who's going to tell their professor her favorite book should be composted?), this is still a truly terrible book, and refering to it as a "Modern Western" is laughable. Stop Ms. Freeman before she writes again!

In A Desert of Pure Feeling, Judith Freeman's character, Lucy, explores the worlds of being a mother, lover, and companion in the west. Freeman delves into the mind of Lucy, a now middle-aged woman, who has played all these roles and is striving to move on with her life while struggling to make sense of a tragic past. Freeman intermingles the past with the present, allowing the reader to fully understand what makes Lucy the woman she is. As a mother Lucy Patterson struggles with a sick infant son with a heart defect. After her son's death in Guatemala (he is a Mormon missionary who disappears after the bombing of the home of the missionaries) she is plagued by the past of being an unstable mother since giving birth to him at the young age of 19. She battles with the regret of being a self centered mother unable to focus time on her son. It was not until after he was gone that she realized how badly he needed it. Lucy's voyage through her past love life begins when she leaves her home on an Idaho ranch as a fiction writer to be the guest writer on an all expense paid trip on the Oceanus, an ocean liner aimed for shores of England. The Oceanus is the beginning of Lucy's trek back in time with the reunion of her love, Dr. Carlos Cabrera. Carlos is a well known surgeon who operated on Lucy's two-year-old son years earlier. Soon after the operation the two become lovers despite the gab in age. Their love for each other is strong, but their dedication to their separate families proves to be stronger. The lovers quickly lose contact with each other, but will never escape each other's thoughts. Their reunion aboard the Oceanus gives them a new start together. After twenty years it appears nothing has changed between them, and their love for each other proves to be as strong as ever, as they console each other after their losses: the disappearance of her son and the death of Carlos' wife. The affair again comes to a halt when Carlos' dark past of being a member of Hitler's Youth during the war comes out. Unable to face his past Carlos flings himself over the edge of the ocean liner to his death, leaving Lucy once again alone. Lucy flees to Las Vegas to the Tally Ho Inn in an attempt to make sense of her life and begin writing once again. Here Lucy meets Joycelle, a young hooker who has just discovered that she is HIV-positive and soon becomes Lucy's companion. Lucy forms a close bond with Joycelle and becomes her primary caretaker after her disease sets in. In a seeming attempt to make up for the lost time with her son, Lucy retreats to her Idaho ranch with Joycelle and spends Joycelle's last days together in the solitude of the west. Freeman's writing is surprisingly refreshing. It allows the readers to become the female character and play out her fantasies alongside her. Her description of Lucy's surroundings becomes tangible and real for the readers and lets them become emotionally attached to Lucy's lost son, Carlos, and Joycelle. By forming these attachments to the characters the readers can come to a deeper understanding of how Lucy has become the mature woman she is through dealing with a hard past and allowing herself to look toward what appears to be a hard future with the lose on another love, Joycelle. Freeman leaves Lucy as the last survivor in her world suggesting that she has conquered the harshness of life by moving on after the loss of the people who have made her who she is: a mother, lover, and companion.

i have loved looking through this book and cant wait to go out and see some of the territory it covers

Are you a technical climber going to or dreaming about the High Sierra? If so, this book is for you with plenty of details on mountain ascents. But, peruse another book if you a hiker, wanting to know in advance the sights to see, altitude to gain and miles to cover on the passes and trails of the HIgh Sierra.

This is THE guide to mountaineering and peak-bagging in the High Sierra. All others pale in comparison.

Some here seem to bemoan the fact that topos and route information are not included for each of the hundreds of peaks in this book. No one guide could possibly do that, and if you're going to climb a peak, I'd really hope you'd do a little more research than just the write-up from just one book anyway.

This guide is a perfect starting point for any of the thousands of peaks up there and is probably the only place where peaks other than the 14ers and homes of classical technical routes get mentioned.

Secor's Tome really is a wonderful book for experienced hikers with routefinding and rock scrambling skills. I can sit for hours with topo maps and his book, looking up peaks and routes. But be careful if you're a beginner (or experienced only on-trail) when reading the reviews that say this is the "Bible" for the Sierra or "the book to own if you're only going to own one". Beginners could easily get themselves into more than they bargained for.

This massive tome is oriented to those who really want to stray from the beaten path and adventure the Sierra Nevada. The book covers the Sequoia/Kings Canyon region to realms north of Yosemite. Trails, cross-country treks, mountain passes and peaks not found in other guides receive mention here. The comprehensiveness of this makes it a singular achievement that stands out from the many other books on this region. Be forewarned though, because of the sheer scope here, a great deal of information can not be listed for each topic. If you plan to hike an established trail, you would be better served by any number of other guides out there. Secor's text is oriented more for the Sierra veteran, particularly the climber, and mountain peaks seem to get a bit more space here. Nonetheless, there is still plenty here for the non-technical backcountry adventurer. Despite the encyclopedic style of this thing, it's not altogether dry. Sample text: "The only thing 'enchanted' about Enchanted Gorge is its name. This is a difficult cross-country route..."

One clearly needs good topographic maps handy to make use of this book. Even so, the book could stand to have a few more maps. Furthermore, the text descriptions ought do a better job telling one where a particular entry would be located on a map (abbreviated UTM coordinates are sometimes as good as it gets). Nonetheless, this is the only widely-available book that describes so many remote corners of the Sierra. This book is kind of an updated and far expanded version of Steve Roper's classic "Climber's Guide To The High Sierra", whose "Sierra High Route" book is a great source as well.

Gretel Ehrlich provides the introduction. It is noted that John Muir walked first, wrote later. In 1868 he was thirty years old and had walked a thousand miles. He was a seeker in self-exile such as D.H. Lawrence, Rockwell Kent, and Basho. Muir chronicles a rite of passage. The summer described began in June, 1869. Forty-one years later the account was pieced together.

Muir worked for Mr. Delaney as a sheepherder. He had a St. Bernard dog as a companion. Mr. Delaney encouraged Muir to sketch and pursue his naturalist studies. He was to learn that sheep cannot be governed when hungry. Bushes are stripped. The sheep resemble locusts in their destructive potential.

Two kinds of squirrels are evident, the Douglas and the California Gray. The wood rat is more like a squirrel than a rat. He bulds large striking looking houses. Sheep camp bread is baked in Dutch ovens. Descriptions of silver firs, Sierra juniper, yellow and sugar pines, Douglas spruce, sequoia, hemlock, and dwarf pines appear in the account of the summer. Nature is extravagant. The group follows the Yosemite trail.

Mules flee from bears, and dogs want to. Bears are very shy. Indian patience is required to see them. Making sheep cross a stream is a challenge. Once one goes in, the others push in pell-mell. Lake Tenaya was named for one of the chiefs of the Yosemite tribe. Sierra mosquitoes are nearly an inch long. Sierra chipmunks are arboreal and squirrel-like. Grouse and woodpeckers are abundant in the vicinity of Mount Hoffman.

On August third Muir found Professor Butler, his teacher at the University of Wisconsin, because, sensing his presence, John Muir made inquiries at the only hotel in the area and was directed to go to the Vernal Falls. Professor Butler and his party were astonished that John Muir found them.

In times of hunger the dogs, men, and sheep are confronted with lions, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and panthers. The names of places are exciting and descriptive--Moraine Lake, Mono Desert, Soda Springs, Unicorn Peak, Cathedral Range, Tuolumne, Hetch-Hetchy Valley. Muir's self-directed studies in botany clearly account for some of the strengths of this nature narrative. In the end Mr. Delaney tells Muir he will be famous some day.The author describes himself as an incredible wilderness lover. September twenty second ended Muir's first excursion.

The book is a marvel. Sketches and photographs are included and enhance the work.

I am going to resign from critiquing this book on a literary scale, and just say that I didn't enjoy this book for the same reason a couple others mentioned - its boring and repetitive. Maybe its because I'm not used to aimless - albeit eloquent -landscape descriptions, or maybe it's the fact that NOTHING happens for 264 pages, but reading this book felt more like a chore than an enjoyable reading experience. Case in point: Casual readers beware!

This is an excellent, honest write. Muir reluctantly dictated this book while walking around a northern California estate. The wealthy owner of the estate loaned his secretary while Muir walked and talked and the secretary took dictation. Muir had the benefit of good editors. It is a great read because Muir is walking through forests while he recounts his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. We feel it through his eyes.

Muir's later writing efforts came hard, with much editing and rewrites. He worked in his "scribble den" in Martinez with "lateral, terminal and medial moraines of paper arranged about the room ready to cascade forth and bury him."

The original manuscripts show much of the book was written in pencil, with at least five editings (Muir made corrections and alterations). Graham cracker crumbs are embedded in the paper (Muir ate while he worked. Eating graham crackers is a carry over from his student days at the University of Wisconsin).

This is the genuine John Muir, fresh, crisp, articulate (okay, his descriptions can be a bit wordy at times) and alive with a child-like fascintation for learning and inspiration.

I own an original first edition copy with the dust cover and gold leaf on the hard bound cover. I reread the book from time to time. What a great story.

John Muir might be the finest author of the "naturalist" genre there ever was. This book is based on his field notes he wrote while he spent his first summer in the Sierra Nevada as a shepherd. He always seems to find the perfect words to describe all that he sees. He was the consumate observer of the natural world and this book is all that. It is a must read for anyone who ever wondered what his life was like, how the Sierra Nevada appeared in the late 1800s, and how he became America's savior of public lands.

John Muir was born in 1838 and at a young age emigrated from Scotland with his family to a Wisconsin farm. He escaped the hard labor of the farm and his father's backward Biblical obsessions by displaying great powers of visualization. From principles learned from books, he whittled and fashioned barometers, thermometers, clocks and other marvels from the barest of materials. But he repudiated his inventive genius, which could have made him rich, after an industrial accident left him temporarily blinded; and he took off for the wilderness to discover plants and the natural world.

This book is a journal account of Muir's finding a place for himself in Yosemite after some dangerous wandering through the hazards of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. It's a book of discovery. Although flocks of sheep like Muir's employer's were allowed to overrun backcountry meadows, and gold miners had ripped apart the lower river beds, the Sierras then were still a place that had many aspects that had not yet been explored or understood. The backcountry was much more vulnerable to exploitation (though in many ways less endangered) than today, but there was freer and unfettered access for one who sought out it's mysteries and wanted to learn. This book shows Muir's powers of visualization in his beginning to formulate the role that glaciers play in the formation of the landscape. No one at that time had come to a solid understanding of what had made Yosemite Valley. And, although it might seem quite clear in retrospect, it took a strong mind of one who up until that time had been adrift in the world, a wanderer who studied plants, to visualize his theories and make them known to the world.

Anyone who has not experienced the Sierra first hand cannot really appreciate this book. There are lengthy and numerous descriptions of plants and animals, loving descriptions in Muir's fashion, that can only be understood by one who has reveled in the same places and likewise wants to examine all the details. It's not a purely intellectual appreciation. It's something felt with the whole body, with all the senses alive. Muir always writes of being drawn into Nature, of never turning back, as in the case of his foolhardy venture to the brink of Yosemite Falls, "I therefore concluded not to venture farther, but did nevertheless". There's also this kind of breathless anticipation of tomorrow- if only I will be given a chance to explore its fountains...

As a casual visitor to the Las Vegas strip, I found myself wondering what was going on behind all the glitz of the casino hotels. I wanted to understand the cost of the fantasy. After reading Rothman's book, I feel like I have a better grasp. It answered a lot of questions I had as I was cruising down Las Vegas Boulevard. Where does all the money come from? Where does it go? What is the environmental cost of all the water in the fountains? How well are all these blackjack dealers, cocktail waitresses, cooks and housekeepers treated?

More of a historical and geographical chronicle than a sociological report, the book tries to present a very organic view of the city by following the history of its growth. I want to make it clear that this is a book with a very specific topic: how Las Vegas became a tumbleweed railroad town to a metropolis with a culture and economy rivaling Phoenix and even L.A. There are about 60 pages devoted to the casino strip, its former mob days and its modern showiness, but the vast majority of the book is devoted to the more mundane but crucial issues that prove that Las Vegas is a real urban center.

The book is divided into three sections: a section about the economic, cultural and political incentives for people to move to Las Vegas, a section about the types of people who have moved to Las Vegas by the tens of thousands each year in the 1990s, and a final section devoted to the environmental, geographical and social impact that Las Vegas's hyperactive growth has caused. Chief topics are the casino economy, libertarian politics, labor unions, retirement communities, illegal immigrants, water rights, highways and homeowners associations.

If the whole picture of Las Vegas is what interests you, not just the intrigue and vice, you will find this book both informative and pleasant to read. Though some of the topics I listed seem pretty mundane, they are presented with a lot of emotional investment. Rothman compares in this way to the pop sociology writers, like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Keep in mind, though, that one of the reasons that this book is so entertaining is that it is just an overview; you might feel that it doesn't go quite as much into detail as you would like at some points. But that's the case with any 320 page book dealing with such a vast topic.

I would agree with another reviewer in saying that a major flaw in this book is its writing. While it's clear that Rothman writes in plain, understandable English and writes with much better-than-average energy, zest and emotional insight, the book is plagued with missing words, awkward phrasings and the occasional completely incomprehensible sentence. It could have stood to be edited a bit more.

On the other hand, these mistakes, though more frequent than in most books I have read, are not frequent enough to really make that much of a difference. They're more a noticeable curiosity than they are anything frustrating.

To sum up:
I give this book 4/5 as a history and urban studies book, for being both a pleasure to read (a huge challenge for history books) and informative. It is recommended for those who are questing for true insight into the realities of modern Las Vegas and the American city. If you're only interested in reading about the city's gambling, mobsters, burlesque shows and buffets, either borrow the book to read only the first 60 pages, or look elsewhere.

Rothman does a nice job pointing out what has proven to be the very effective economic engine of the modern American service industry. When organized labor meets the lucrative tourist industry, wages for folks with a high school education can indeed be quite solid. For those here that doubt the role of organized, unionized labor, simply compare the economy of southern Nevada to southern Louisiana. While New Orleans has a strong gaming industry, wages are bad, and poverty profoundly rampant. On this point, Professor Rothman is correct: Las Vegas, with it's robust mix of service economy and unionizatin, could point the way to the future.

Professor Rothman does, however, tend to gloss over the nagging social ills inherent with the gaming industry. In particular, Nevada has spectacular suicide and divorce rates, sky-high spousal abuse and very, very high teenage dropout rates (comparable to inner city neighborhoods in east coast cities). He also misses the biggest problem of all: chronic gambling addiction among many casino workers and the wholesale, even arrogant, failure of the gaming industry to address the problem.

It is somewhat ironic that Rothman, who does indeed have a background in environmental history, ignores many of Las Vegas' environmental issues. The vast sprawl of Las Vegas may well NOT be sustainable in an age of skyrocketing oil prices; a large percentage of Las Vegas visitors still arrive by car from Southern California, relying on an increasingly clogged 4 lane interstate (I-15). The city itself relies on just one pipeline to bring gasoline to the valley from southern California and local fuel prices are threatening to reach dangerously historic highs this year.

Rothman is also blithely unconcerned about water. Climate Change is predicted to make the US southwest far drier than it is today. Indeed, the region is currently suffering under a years-long drought that has taken reservoirs to insidiously low levels. Both Lake Meade, just an hour's drive south of the city, and Lake Powell, between central Arizona and central Utah, are at dangerous, historically low levels. Despite extremely strict residential water usage restrictions in southern Nevada, lack of water could well derail growth in the Las Vegas metropolitan area within the next decade, particularly if the current drought persists.

Rothman's anecdotes often miss serious underlying sociological issues. Sure, you can find stories of community in virtually any city or neighborhood, but Rothman's often cutsy anecodotes miss the big picture. The state suffers an intense brain drain. Many of it's young residents leave state to attend college and if they receive a master's degree or higher, very few will ever return. The city is profoundly transient, and the exaggerated suburban sprawl of the new "instant city" variety has its drawbacks.

The average tenure of home ownership is very brief in Las Vegas: even residents who live their entire lives in the city tend to move once or twice to flee declining neighborhoods. Shiny new (but rapidly and poorly constructed) suburban tracts fall from middle to working class and even into crime-ridden lower working class neighborhoods in 25 years or less. Rings of impoverished, aging inner suburbs are causing grief for city planners as the middle class flees a growing core of decaying housing for newer digs in the outer sprawl. In eastern cities, historic buildings and brownstones in the inner core drew a new generation of college educated adults willing to restore and rediscover neighborhoods. Cookie-cutter, cinder block nightmare neighborhoods, thrown together by careless contractors in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are less easily renovated or rediscovered.

Finally, Rothman misses the macro-economic taxation issues. Because Nevada relies almost solely on the gaming and sales taxes to run the state, the state is extremely vulnerable should a real recession hit.

Rothman, ultimately, misses as much as he hits. The landbreaking sociological study of the modern gaming town, sadly, remains to be written.

I like the way Rothman writes. I also recognize that this is one man's view of how Las Vegas became what it is. I think anyone asking what happened to unions should read this book.

Overall, Neon Metropolis presents an overview of the history and sociology of modern Las Vegas. Rothman's focus is on modern Las Vegas, so readers looking for more of a straightforward history starting before the twentieth century may be disappointed. This book is best for readers looking to understand the development of the modern casino and entertainment industry or for readers looking to understand how Las Vegas functions behind-the-scenes as a modern city.

The book not only describes the development of gambling and entertainment along the Las Vegas Strip but also describes the immigration of people to Las Vegas and the problems caused by Las Vegas's high growth rate and desert location. Special attention is given to such simple things as the development of city infrastructure and the use of Hispanic immigrant labor, things that would otherwise be ignored in the history of any other city. Rothman thereby gives his readers a pespective into how both the casino industry developed and how the city as a whole developed. Rothman is also unafraid to critically analyze the problems facing Las Vegas as a modern day city, although his positions on some issues (such as labor unions) are clearly biased.

Aside from questionable biased viewpoints on some issues, Neon Metropolis suffers from being written with poor English. Rothman's largest problem is that he writes sentences that are too long to be readable. It is sometimes difficult to determine what some sentences are trying to say. Rothman also likes to use very bad metaphors and cliches. It seems as though he is trying to be funny or clever, but instead he simply sounds trite. Additional organizational problems and grammatical errors further hinder this book's readability.

In summary, I would recommend this book to readers who seriously wants to understand Las Vegas. For casual readers, however, I would recommend passing on this book unless the author produces a new version that includes some serious revisions.

Boy, I'll tell you: there's nothing worse than a reviewer who either didn't read or can't understand a book. Neon Metroplis does not argue that Las Vegas is economically malleable at all. It says that Las Vegas thrives as a tourist town because the image it presents is malleable - that it can change to meet the trends. All you have to do is remember the so-called family era - with theme parks etc. - of a decade ago and look at the ads today: "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," to see that this is true.

Neon Metropolis also says that Las Vegas is the one horse in a one-horse state; as anyone who followed 2003's tax debacle in Nevada could see, this is ever more true.

Las Vegas' problems are real and Neon Metropolis is a lot more conversant with them than these two reviews suggest. This is by far the best book on Las Vegas.

In "Blackjack Autumn," well-known horse race handicapper, Barry Meadows, recounts his adventures on a tour of Nevada casinos playing Blackjack. This book is a very enjoyable "read," and the author reveals himself as an excellent writer with a great sense of humour. I'd recommend it to anyone... especially someone heading for a casino, but by no means limited to "gambler types."
K. Steele

Blackjack Autumn covered some interesting stories of the ups and downs of blackjack, I play alot of blackjack and know the highs and lows. Barry kind of over kills the cliches though. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy blackjack stories but may not appeal to the casual reader.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. However, the author's attempts at making witty jokes throughout the novel really grow old. There's a couple on every page, and they're not good. Even the stories he had to write weren't exactly gripping.

I much prefer the dated "Ken Uston on Blackjack" if you want to read about high-stakes, professional Blackjack play.

This guy is pretty funny. As other's have mentioned, he really overdoes the metaphors, and it gets tiresome. "As (blank) as" is written probably a hundred times in this book. Or, in the writer's parlance, "the author uses this same joke form about as often as guppies ovulate." Or, "the author pulls out this joke form faster than than Pee Wee Herman would go down boxing Mike Tyson." When he's not using those lines though, he can be LOL funny. And of course, for any blackjack player, stories like his are pretty much irresistable. If you have ever fantasized about making money as a card counter, buy it.

I loved this book. It isn't the one to read if you want to learn to count cards at blackjack, but really gives a wonderful description of what casinos are like. Barry Meadows isn't Paul Theroux, but he is a lot funnier and sounds like a much nicer guy. Anyone who loves visiting Nevada will love this one. If you haven't visited Nevada, you will want to after you read this book.

Like most books on the casino business, The Seven Sins falls far short of reality. Michael Tirrano, the CEO of King Midas Resorts, has somehow hidden his connections to a Sicilian Cosa Nostra family (which would never be possible in real life) and built one of the most elaborate casinos in Las Vegas, which he acquired by blowing up a competitor's ready-to-open casino. If the gaming commission weren't blind, deaf and dumb, and the FBI so totally incompetent, Tirrano would be a hero. But his shallow characterization and his totally unbelievable rise to power are dead giveaways of a lazy plotline.

No, The Seven Sins isn't even good drama. The fast-paced action is, well, too fast. His miraculous escapes from death, the jarring trips back and forth through time, and a nebulous connection to someone who has the audacity to believe he actually IS Tirrano, someone named Fabrizio Boccardi, make The Seven Sins a real joke. It's good for a few laughs, but that's about it.

Orphaned boy makes good
Jon Land's The Seven Sins is an entertaining read that appears to set the stage for a series involving Michael "The Tyrant" Tiranno, an extremely brilliant and wealthy business entrepreneur. During his family's grisly murder, Michael escaped with his father's prized possession-an ancient gold medallion that supposedly has magical powers. Orphaned at a young age, Michael is all but adopted by the local Mafia Don and raised as a son. Michael soon shows a strong proclivity for business and high finance and eventually builds his surrogate father's illegal Mafia holdings into a legal world of high finance, trade and commodity speculation. Unfortunately, a split in the "family" forces Michael out on his own where he builds an entrepreneurial empire in the gaming world of Las Vegas, eventually building the world's grandest casino: The Seven Sins. But all is not right in the town that never sleeps, as a several different factions try and destroy various casinos of which The Seven Sins is one. The Plot then takes off as Michael hunts down the perpetrators only to find out that not all is what it seems.
All in all a fun read with many twists and turns. Numerous plots and sub-plots demand the reader pay attention to keep things straight. Flash backs contribute to the complexity of the story and help tie up loose ends. There are many characters which at times is confusing.
Character development was OK for the protagonist Michael but was rather shallow for most of the supporting characters. Again, it appears that this book is a setup for future Michael Tiranno adventures.
No gratuitous sex, violence, or language.
Entertaining story. Recommended, especially when trapped in the airport or visiting relatives.

See storyline above.
This was one of my favorite thrillers of the year. When you're talking adrenaline, you're talking Jon Land. There wasn't much lacking in this novel. When you throw in Sicilian mobs, Pirates of the high seas, Middle East terrorists, along with international finance, high-stakes gambling, ancient history, and much more, you'll get the escape you won't soon forget. Great entertainment!
Highly recommended for thriller fans.

More is not necessarily better, and this book is proof of that.

Land has mixed together a hodge podge that includes Julius Caesar, the Mafia, Great White Sharks, ancient pirates, the historical King Midas and a mythic Islamic terrorist sect, and yet the end result is a strangely linear, predictable action story which really lacks any suspense, an amazing feat considering an apocalypse is threatening Las Vegas from almost the first page to the last.

The characters are pretty much cartoonlike, with no real depth. The main character suffers a horrible tragedy as a boy which the author rehashes every few pages or so in an attempt to give psychological underpinning to his actions, and yet by the middle of the book I found myself thinking enough already, we get it.

And while the author does try to create some shocking "revelations" as to the true identities of several of the characters, every one of these was so obvious that "ho-hum" seems to be the operative word in regard to them.

So why did I give this book 3 stars? I could say it was to reward it for its grasp, even if that did exceed it's reach (by a lot!), but the truth is that sometimes all you want is a pretty much mindless diversion that allows you to escape reality for a little while, like a "B" movie. The Seven Sins is just such a harmless excursion.

The star of this story is Michael Tiranno(Nunziato). As a child living on a farm in Sicily his parents are murdered as well as his sister. The
local Mafia kingpin Don Luciano Scaglione takes him to raise.The don pays
for Michael to go to the top business school in Monte Carlo. Here he makes
the acquaintenance of Amir Pharon a billionaire arms. With the help of
Pharon and Don Luciano Michael founds World Trade Agricola. He first gains the market for coffee in Kenya. He then gains the market for sugar cane futures in Cuba and Honduras. By reaping tremendous profits from this
company he moves to America. In America he founds King Midas World with the lavish casino the Seven Sins. Four suicide bombers explode car bombs
at the Seven Sins,Mirage,Treasure Island, and the Venetian. A terrorist
named Jafir Sari Bayrak and his group Al Altar take credit. The group is wiped out in a Tiranno sponsored raid. To his horror Michael Tiranno
discovers that an ancient clan of assassins called Hashishin is the real
culprit. The actual culprit behind the plot is a person from his past.
This book is a page turner that will keep you guessing. Be sure to read it.

It is never easy to identify yourself with a serial killer but at the same time you want to read about their escapades in an attempt to find some understanding on why they may have turned to such a life of violence. The story of a husband and wife serial killer team is most horrifying and not in the least something you can identify with. The brutality is full of rage and the sexual torture is something beyond belief. As a reader, I was just horrified at what these people did but at the same time, I wanted to remind myself that some element of society or nature creates these beings and turns them into monsters. So I'm not sure if reading this book educated me or sickened me in a way. Maybe a combination of both.

I have never read a book in this particular genre, i.e. true crime, so I have absolutely nothing to compare it to. I must say though, I did enjoy it at a certain level. The language is vivid and, to be quite frank, crude, but that was part of the appeal. The author's style was much like that of the old dime novel and tabloid type and I rather enjoyed that. This is the story of a (the only one the book tells us) husband and wife serial killing/raping/kidnapping team in California. As I said, the language is graphic and the story rather sickening, but it does hold your interest and is rather fascinating at a certain level. The book is a rather quick read, and even if you do not like it, not much time is lost. The work did seem to be quite well researched, as far as I could tell and the author certainly did not pull any punches in his vivid descriptions. I suspect that if you are into this particular genre of literature, this would be an excellent read and I do recommend it. I doubt if I will be seeking out further examples of this type of literature, but that is due purely to personal taste...I simply am not all that interested. On the other hand, I am glad I read it.

A VENOM IN THE BLOOD by Eric van Hoffmann is a shocking and gruesome true story about Gerald and Charlene Gallego, the husband and wife serial killer team who kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered teenage girls throughout the American Southwest. A well-written true story that had me spellbound throughout!

John Savoy
Savoy International
Motion Pictures Inc.
California

Gerald and Charlene showed no remorse during the tial and Charlene only gets 16 years for killing 11 people. she needs to still be locked up. What about Kippi Vaught, Rhonda Scheffler and the rest of the victims. one of my friends was Kippi's cousin and was supposed to go shopping with her that day. why would they let Charlene out? Gerald had no remorse about killing the victims as Charlene did. So she needs to go back to prison.

Gerald Armond Gallego and his young wife Charlene shocked the world with the sexual serial murders of many young women. This book captured the grizzly details of the murders and makes you wish they would've gotten more of a punishment than they did. Truly a well thought out book.

I bought this book for just that purpose, and it works very well.

If you like Burning Man and like photography.....you're going to LOVE this book!

The book is great - you should check Roddie's website, too www.webbery.com - he's been working for a while on burners' body details (hips, but also hands, feet) and the guy rocks!!!

(like pretty much everybody else in Black Rock City).

Beautiful photos of an oft-overlooked part of the body that is -- now that I think about it -- a stunning intersection of the functional and the sensual. Great conversation/titillation piece for the coffee table.

patrick is one of the most well-respected photographers at burningman. hips will give you a genuine feel for burningman, while also expressing the creativity and identity of each burner. a wonderful showcase of genuine love for burningman and the individuals who make up our diverse community.