Nevada Books

Mr.Branon should be and could be a great writer, if he could improve his trivial and roaming writing style like James Joyce. His two books were both with hopeful stories but just failed to deliver clearly and conclusively. You could only absorb some of the scenes and plots in his two books, but just could not patiently read through. Such as DEVILS HOLE, for example, the 2nd Chapter should become the 1st Chapter, and the 1st chapter should be completely deleted and/or moved to the back with just several condensed short paragraphs in narration. Because if not doing so, it would turn off a prospective reader to drop the book after three minutes. The twin assassins as shooter/spotter are a very good design but failed to deliver again. Their acceptances and carrying out contracts for common people is but an idealistic poetic justice, but how they got such contracts and how regular people would know their existence and how they approach them for how much cost, Mr. Branon simply overlooked it. There are so many scenes totally unnecessarily probed but went nowhere, like chapter 14, from page 141 to 144,42-43, 66-67(two lines),151-152,181-198, 211(lowest part)-212, and etc, were totally waste of readers' time, and definitely should be deleted. Chapter 12, is alike Thomas Perry's BUTCHER'S BOY, the readers and the author should both be conscious! The whole chapter 7, is a long but tasteless going-no-where. Yet some of the Chapters and scenes were beautifully written and should be collected into some writing textbooks! Such as chapter 3,p.135-p.140. The worst problem of Mr. Branon's writing is the obscurity of his characters,especially the male characters and frog-leaping writing style with too many unnecessary flash-backs. No-big-deal characters doing no-big-deal jobs, making the readers going no-big-deal whereabouts. Like LET US PREY, same problems didn't improve but worsened in DEVILS HOLE. Lot of digressions, lot of blab,blabs,blabs! These are two books which should be rewritten, if possible. And the vertical stripes on every page should also be deleted, since they bothered the reading a lot!! Mr. Branon should write a book with clearer characters instead of vague personalities, it should developed like a tree grow into a forest, not a forest into a tree, especially, a rootless and fruitless tree

Even hitmen fall in love with women half their age, try to act like young studs, and embarrass themselves. That's the message of DEVIL'S HOLE, Bill Branon's second novel. It, too, is peopled with uninteresting characters, and you may find yourself hoping they die in inventive ways, just to hold your attention. If you like the "old goat with young doll" concept, pick up anything written in the '50s by John D. MacDonald. JDM had a lot more insight about men following their crotches than Mr. Branon. Better plots, too

I read this book on the beach in Ixtapa (along with about a dozen other books) and thought that the plot was OK, but the execution was iffy at best. He tends to dawdle a bit when exploring the sexual side of his heroes (darn near stops the book, in fact). He explains in excruciating detail what he is doing with his girl in bed (an embarassing look at his ideas about women and what he THINKS they want) while glossing over important plot details that would explain his protaginist's motivation and goals. If you enjoy the types of books that Bill Branon is trying to write, a better choice would be any of the books in the 'Bob the Nailer' series by Stephen Hunter. I will probably buy his next book, but if it has the same 'narrative stoppage' with his sex scenes that this book does, I will not buy any more.

I happened to run across this book knowing nothing about it, but the description on the jacket cover intrigued me so I picked it up. I had not heard of the author before, but after finishing it I can say that I was extremely impressed. He has a special talent for developing characters through subtle scenes, and I found myself really rooting for all of the characters. There is one chapter where Arthur and Melody go shooting in the desert which was one of the best chapters I've ever read in any book for the interaction, bonding and friendship between the characters. It helps to explain what would otherwise be an unlikely relationship between them. Unlike other customer reviewers, I thought that there weren't any unneeded scenes or chapters, and thought that the 1st chapter, although not really referenced later in the book, was an attention-grabbing opener. I'm really looking forward to reading his other books!

As an amateur geologist (minor in geology in college) I found this book to be very illuminating, clearly written and very useful as a field guide during my travels through Nevada. MacPhee is a poet of great power, who forunately turned his attention to geology and is a joy to read, but his books would never be as useful as this one for actual journeys when you might be trying to identify details in the landscape.

I bought this but was disappointed. The writing was plain bad, like high school writing. Hard to get through it to the geology, which is boring and uninspired (like high school science?). Was this self published? An exciting topic like this deserves much better. See McPhee.

We wrote this book to let people know about a place we know well, a vast and beautiful landscape that lies hidden behind the clanging slot machines and roulette wheels that people associate with Nevada. This is a dynamic landscape created by glaciers, vast lakes, desert winds, and explosive volcanism. We lead you to active faults that have produced violent earthquakes, hot springs where steam escapes from far below, ghost towns where men once toiled for gold, and 10,000-year-old petroglyphs left behind by ancient inhabitants. We'd like to invite you on a trip that may change your mind about Nevada; we'll be your guides, but the land itself is the storyteller.

I bought this but was disappointed. The writing was plain bad, like high school writing. Hard to get through it to the geology, which is boring and uninspired (like high school science?). Was this self published? An exciting topic like this deserves much better. See McPhee.

True Yosemite Hikers know Mr. Schaffer's contribution
to the park. Try on-line search with keywords "Yosemite Schaffer". This book is based on his research at Berkeley.
Until I read this book, I thought "the Yosemite problem" was
solved. But seems like not as you see in the review below.
As John Muir was attacked by Whitney, Mr. Schaffer is also
under attack.

I will read his book every time I come back from Yosemite hiking. Also this book will give me an idea of where to go next.

People interested in purchasing this book should be aware that Schaffer's ideas presented here have yet to pass muster in scientific peer review (i.e., in a credible geologic journal), and that most past and active researchers in the Sierra Nevada do not support many of his conclusions. For a more detailed review, see P. W. Birkeland's review of the book in the journal Quaternary Research (Academic Press), v. 50, no. 2, p. 200-201. In essence, the abundance of qualitative observations and inferences presented in the book do not subsitute for calm, careful, directed research, field-based or otherwise. Also, there are too many straw men in the text, in which Schaffer misrepresents the works of other scientists before dismissing them. The highly negative references to other scientists are particularly inappropriate. Bottom line: the book covers a lot of ground, but the final conclusions remain scientifically hollow.

To address a few of the concerns of the review above, I am also a field-based geomorphologist (as are the other workers I refer to), and in no way am I "scared" of Schaffer's work. I am more than happy to entertain new and different ideas. Jeff's book, however, is prone to exaggeration and misrepresentation. If the ideas are valid, they should stand on their own merits, and pass scientific review, period. That is a fundamental tenet of the scientific method, and sets it apart from mere bluster. The fact that the ideas in Schaffer's book haven't passed this test does not mean they are invalid, but they should not be viewed as being scientifically rigorous.

Finally, the characterization of academic geologists as being "stultifying and dogmatic" bespeaks ignorance on the reviewer's part. A visit to any geologic convention will dispell that myth.

The other reviewer of this release (Clark, a glacial geologist) does not like the upstart attitude displayed by Schaffer and poops on his conclusions. Other than for Birkeland, I'd like to know from Clarke which members of the academic community (that need to be protected?)have problems with this book.
I found it refreshing to have an actual on-the-ground 'field' geomorphologist, rather than, for example, an aerial photo mapper, draw conclusions about Sierran alpine landforms and glaciers. So what if Schaffer may be pushing the envelope, and simultaneously, pushing some academic egos around? Who are these 'past and active researchers' that
Clark defends in his review? The challenge remains in the field, where I'd wager Schaffer's work WAS careful and directed, rather than the calm, stultifying and dogmatic halls of current geoscience academia. I bought this book (used, $10) because Clark sounded really scared and his review was more of a classic attack on the messenger rather than his message; after reading most of it, I can see why. This book and the Sierras would make a good combo.

Schaffer's book is a fresh look at one of the paradigms of glacial geomorphology - that mountain glaciers are capable of large-scale erosion and create the valleys that they lie in. He concludes that they generally do not. He based this on more than a decade of field work in the Sierra Nevadas (more field work in this range that any other geologist - dead or alive). Dr. Clark is wrong. Shaffer's work is not a failed dissertation. Instead, it has been rumored that a geologist from a well known governement organization wrote a letter to Schaffer's dissertation committee asking that they stop Schaffer's work (his work was stepping on to many toes). Apparently, Shaffer could have received his PhD if he had re-written his conclusions to conform to the party line (the ideas put forth by previous workers). Schaffer has done the one thing that many workers have not done. He has gone in the field and let the data control the theory rather than let the theory control the data (this problem is not confined to geologists). I am a working California geologist and have been in the field with Schaffer. It is quite interesting to stand at a rest stop on I-80 and have Schaffer point out ridge tops and mountain peaks and give specific information as to the presence or absence of glacial information at those sites. You really get a feel for the level of work he has done after his arm has pointed out every ridge and peak over a 120 degree arc. If Schaffer is wrong, it would be a simple task to demonstrate it. He has documented so much specific data that all any geologist would have to do is go to the locations descriped by Schaffer and shown that his data is wrong or distorted (disprove the data and you disprove Schaffer's theory). Curiously, there is no indication that this has happened at all (Schaffer has contacted several geologists and offered to go in the field with them and look at the data - not one has accepted). All that has occurred is that professional geologists sit in their offices and snipe. Dr. Clark should read the more recent(2005) review by Dr. R. Dorn (available on the web). Yes, Mr. Shaffer's book has its problems, but it is a must read book for anyone interested in the developement of the Sierras.

A friend of mine was reading Johnstone, and I decided to try one of his books. I don't think I'll be trying a second.

Power of the Mountain Man is about Smoke Jensen ("the last mountain man," as we are reminded ad nauseam) and his New Orleans buddy Louis Longmont, who easily dispose of some crooked businessmen trying to take over San Francisco, about the year 1880.

And right in that word "easily" is the key to the book's failure. Jensen and Longmont are so far superior to their opponents with gun, tomahawk, and trailsmanship, that I never felt any suspense or excitement over the outcome of their constant fights with the Forces of Evil. By page 50, when yet another chapter ends with Jensen's opponents filling their hands with guns or knives, I had stopped mentally crying out to Jensen, "Watch out!" and instead found myself addressing his enemies: "Oh God, you poor suckers are in for it now."

Alfred Hitchcock once said that a movie is only as good as its villain. Johnstone misses that lesson. Cyrus Murchison is apparently based on corrupt Central Pacific railroad baron Collis Huntingdon, even down to the sound of his name, but he lacks Huntingdon's criminal genius. With a spark of intelligence, Murchison could easily have defeated Jensen in the second half of the book; he finds himself fleeing in a train from Jensen, who is following in another train more than 45 minutes behind. All Murchison needs to do is stop and disconnect the rails behind him, and the Last Mountain Man will be road pizza. But no, Murchison stupidly insists he will beat Jensen "at his own game," and predictably doesn't even come close.

The hero has several points in his favor. To start with, he has a great name: "Smoke Jensen" is a ringing, almost poetic moniker for a gunfighter. He has several appealing character attributes: he is faithful to his wife, loves nature, stays cool under fire, and has compassion for his animals. His best moment occurs (in a flashback, oddly enough), when Jensen is trying to evade some Snake Indians in a storm. His faithful horse breaks its leg, and Jensen, at great risk to himself, stays with the animal until the rain stops, so he can put dry powder in his gun and kill the horse humanely. It's a nice vignette, more revealing of Jensen's character than anything that happens in the actual narrative.

One of Jensen's character flaws, his poor judgment of people, is an appealing one, humanizing him without making him dislikeable. He demonstrates it in this book by hiring two saddle tramps whose motives he should have suspected. But Jensen has a far worse drawback: he's a bully. He has no compunction about pushing people weaker than himself (which is just about everybody) around to get what he wants. Worse yet, Johnstone doesn't seem to realize that Jensen is a bully; none of the other characters resent or even question Jensen's behavior, and he never pays any price for it.

The book is crowded with action scenes, which get tedious quickly. Although I mentioned the main problem above, the lack of suspense, that's not all. The violent passages are also cluttered with the make, model and caliber of just about every firearm that comes into play. If Smith & Wesson and Colt's Manufacturing Company weren't paying product placement fees to Johnstone, they certainly should have been. In the heat of combat, it's ridiculous to focus the reader's (and by implication, the characters') attention on whether the opponent's six-gun is a 10mm Mauser or a .44 Dance, rather than on more pressing matters such as where it is pointed at the moment and how many shots it has left. Worse, unless you're intimately familiar with the firearms of the period, the gun names won't even help you visualize the scene. I finally took to reading the book while seated at the computer, so I could look up the firearms as I read their names.

The last problem with the action scenes is that they never convey the awful arbitrariness and unpredictability of real violence, the feeling that nobody is in full control of the situation. The best battle scenes have a sense of Clausewitzian friction, the difficulty of doing even the simplest thing under conditions of tremendous stress, fear, and urgency. Johnstone's scenes have more of the flavor of a boy's fantasy of what we would like violence to be: a simple, low-cost, triumphant assertion of our superiority and power over our enemies.

Johnstone does appear to have a good grasp of American Western history. Egregious anachronisms are avoided, and the flavor of rawhide seeps through the everyday scenes. You get a good sense of the ethnic mishmash and tensions that pervaded a young nation. The one place where Johnstone goes wrong is in his adventure into San Francisco's Chinatown; he imports pinyin spellings from the 1950s, like "Xiang" and cluelessly mashes them together with old Wade-Giles transliterations like "Lee" and "kung fu," and even throws in Japanese weapon names like "bo." Anyone familiar with Chinese culture will find this jarring, but I don't want to be too hard on Johnstone. Becoming an expert on American Western history must be difficult enough; it would be too much to ask him to become an expert on a four thousand year old civilization too.

So overall, despite a fairly appealing hero and a reasonable grasp of history, Johnstone is disappointingly shallow and juvenile. I would recommend old hands like Louis L'Amour, or even Zane Grey, over him.

I like Smoke Jenson; he is strong and stands for good and right, but after reading other Last Mountain Man stories I could pretty much tell you what was going to happen around each bend in the trail. Smoke leaves his Wife on the ranch in the High Lonesome to save someone from bad guys. He kills many who don't backdown, lets the ones go who turn chicken, and turns very few over to the "Law". The same thing happens in other stories with different characters. This series needs some imagination and creativity or I may stop reading it.

Smoke Jensen gets a cripted letter. After interpreting it he gathers what he needs for the journy to San Fransico. Smoke finds his only acquaintance has been killed. Then he learns of a dangerous plot to take over all of the regions wealth. Smoke beats a trail back to the Sierras and gathers angry prospectors, ranchers, and farmers for the showdown in Frisco....

Gabriela Zim's editors did her a disservice by allowing this DRAFT to be released as a final book. Reading between the lines the chapters' concepts are apparent, but they are not brought to fruition, and after a few chapters I was parched for some substance. I sensed a talented writer. But, really, I read this book and felt like I was reading Beverly Johnson's daytimer. Places and people are not well developed.

I thought this was a very well written book. The grammatical/spelling errors aside, I like the style of the book. The author uses mostly Beverly's letters to her parents to tell her story. Beverly wrote some truly amazing letters. Her sense of humor, fun and outlook toward life comes thorough. Some interviews with friends after her death are also included. The author only touches on Beverly's life as a climber; after reading this book you can see was only one aspect of her life. Beverly comes across as a amazing woman someone whos lifestyle many can admire. I think a must read for any woman in a male dominating sport or activity.

A glowing, praise-filled biography of someone everybody seems to have loved, probably with good cause. If you were looking for details about Johnson's stellar climbing career, however, you will be disappointed: the author is clearly not a climber and seems to have little interest in that aspect of her subject's life. Also, the editing job on this book is terrible; it's full of misspellings and grammatical errors. I'd get it from the library.

Without a doubt, this book is a big undertaking and doing it well has to be very difficult. There were a number of interesting chapters, but the style of writing, compound sentences combined with hyphenated phrases that went on for line upon line, made it very difficult to read and follow. This was probably the most frustrating book I've ever read, and I only finished it as a matter or principle.

This book gives alot of good information about the settling of the west and about many key figures who influenced the settlement of what was a vast wilderness area. The writing style is sometimes a bit too pedantic and this is not light reading that you'll go through quickly. However, the volume of information makes this book worth it. The closing of the American frontier and the settlement of the west are interesting subjects and this book does a good job of covering them.

I welcome feedback on this and all reviews at wstrnlibwarrior@yahoo.com

Mrs. Davis has been a friend of our family for nearly 50 years. As a child, I heard many stories about her upbringing in Battle Mountain, NV and the challenges and hardships she faced as a child. I also heard more than a few stories about her fabulous cooking. Only now, as a middle-aged man do I get to experience some of her cuisine outside of an all-too-rare visit to her kitchen.

I have only recently received my copy, but the two selections I have tried so far have been unique and mouth watering. I can heartily recommend this book, both as a lover of food and as one who appreciates the stories, anecdotes, and vignettes included in this unique work.

I guarantee you'll like it.

Chorizos in an Iron Skillet is a disspointing cook book. I know and am very familiar with Basque cooking, therefore, the recipes here are a big let down. I had heard so much about this book before its publication and had great expectations. Mrs. Davis presents a mix of recipes of (what she refers to as) 1.old world, 2. new world adaptations, and 3.American recipes. At best there are maybe 4 or 5 recipes in the entire book that prompted any interest. It is not clear why she would even include American recipes (they're out of place in this book). There are some truly weird recipes, such as Sangria made with Fresca, and orange soda? Just because they may be serving this in some tapa bar in Bilbao or San Sebastian does not make it Basque nor does it make it good! It is very sweet that Mrs. Davis has all these wonderful memories of her childhood in Nevada but her recounting of them is rather boring and uninspired. Please skip this book.

This is the 1995 edition which, while useful in showing how Slot Clubs work, is hopelessly outdated in its particulars. I had understood that there would be a 1998 edition which would have been more useful. None of the newer casinos is listed here because of the book's age. I also know for fact that the club at MGM Grand has changed its modus operandi since this book was written. If you want an overview of how slot clubs work, this book could be for you. I cannot recommend it for current information.

I am heading for Las Vegas again very soon and am going through this book very carefully to decide where I will do most of my playing. This is the 3rd time I am using this book as a reference to guide me to the best places to play slots and video poker. I had hoped a newer edition would be out by now, hence the 4 rating rather than a 5, but don't let that stop you from buying this book. The am't of info
contained in this book will guide the new and the veteran
Las Vegas gambler alike. I won't leave home without it!

It would seem that this book has not been updated in some time since The Blue Man Group hasn't been performing at Luxor for over a year.

I recently took my family to Las Vegas. With young children we were not able to spend time in the casinos. I bought this guide and it helped me to plan the vacation which included details on nightlife, shows, and celebrity restaurants. The guide was easy to carry around and offered options that could fit into any budget. We found out that there was more to do in Vegas than gamble!

Very highly recommended, Magpies And Mayflies: An Introduction To Plants And Animals Of The Central Valley And Sierra Foothills is knowledgeably co-authored by Derek Madden, Ken Charters and Cathy Snyder. An invaluable resource for ecological explorers of (and casual visitors to) the central valley and Sierra Foothills. Magpies And Mayflies is a perfectly "user friendly", informed and informative guide to flora and fauna of the fields and hills of the beautiful and endless Sierra area.

Magpies and Mayflies is written by three scientists which implies the writing is factual and trustworthy. I happen to be a bat specialist so naturally turned first to the chapter on bats and was amazed by the innaccuracies and plain heresey. The authors make the claim that "airborne droplets of urine loosed by bats inside of houses have infected humans with rabies". This is an absolute fairy tale unsupported by any evidence what-so-ever and perpetuates the myth that bats are dangerous and scary creatures.

The ONLY case where humans may have contracted rabies through areoslized virus was two spelunkers in prolonged and inimate contact with MILLIONS of bats in a New Mexico cave in the 1950's - and the validity of even these cases is seriously questioned by the CDC.

By chance I flipped to page 121 where the authors claim the red legged frog is "only found in the Coast Range and Golden Gate Park". In fact, colonies of red legged frogs have been under long term study across the Sierra foothills.

For a natural science book to be so laced with serious errors does a disservice to any reader who cannot separate the fact from the fiction. I would suggest spending the time reading a few field guides rather than Magpies and Mayflies.