Nevada Books

Loaded with helpful info for planning a family trip. Maps, phone numbers, drive times, etc.

If it had pictures I would have given it a 5.

I really liked the book, and the only reason I gave it 4 stars is because a good part of the book talks about hotel accomadations and booking flights, etc. and I had already done that by the time I bought the book. So half of the book was of no use to me, but the book had good recommendations.

This book really helped us decide what to do in Las Vegas. We do not gamble so we wanted "other" things to do. What we found is Las Vegas is not "family" friendly and you have to take your children into the gaming areas of most casinos to see the attractions. The book did offer suggestions that we did find helpful. Like how to avoid certain crowds and what shows are appropriate for kids. Much better than some of the other books out there.

This is an incredibly detailed book that has a huge amount of information on what to do, see, and avoid in Vegas if you are traveling with children. The section on which restaurants and buffets to eat at for families that are on a budget is more than worth the price of this book. This book, along with "The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas" by Bob Sehlinger will make planning your trip to Vegas fun and informative. Both are highly recommended!!

I highly recommend this book to anyone headed for Las Vegas with the kids in tow. It paints a very complete picture of the city and answers questions you'd never even think to ask.

This book was published just as we were planning a trip that includes a stop in Las Vegas. Our three kids (ages 10, 8, 6) love to travel, but we have learned that you can never do enough research when it comes to planning a trip with kids.

Having been to Vegas more than a few times without the kids, we have a pretty good feel for the place. Even so, a vacation with the kids along needs to be a very different type of trip, so we still found ourselves with many questions. Happily, this book answers them all!

Very specific information on everything from hotels, restaurants, and attractions (including which places are NOT kid-friendly). Also includes info on side trips, shopping, etc. Everything is broken down into price categories (from very expensive to inexpensive and everything between). Definitely written by someone who understands that kids are not just miniature adults.

I only wish I could get hold of such complete information for all our destinations!

This book is a great guide to Virginia City Ghosts. If you are planning to visit Virginia City and interested in ghost, I highly recommend this book. This book tells you the history of Virginia City and the Hotels name and room numbers in witch to stay in that has been known for hunting's. It's exactly what the title say it is a Ghosthunters Guide To Virginia City.
A+++ & 5 * * * * *

Janice Oberding writes the first ever published book on Nevada's most haunted city: Virginia City.

She is an expert on Nevada hauntings.

Superb pictures- highly researched.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I found this book to be very fun to read and easy to follow. Lots of interesting pictures. History lessons are very informative.

I have visited Virginia City a lot of times. When I saw this book at the book store last month I thought it was just another book about ghosts. I was wrong. This is about the best book I ever read about Virginia Citys ghosts. There were lots of places I didnt even know had ghosts in them. I would recomend it to anyone.

Books of this genre are always fun. Seldom are they so informative. We have been going to Virginia City for a number of years. Never really knew so much about the city until I read this book. Glad I purchased it.

A really fascinating little book, with a very rare quality... it's really the first time this story has been told. Other Vegas books are good, some are great, but most in one way or another repeat the stories we've read before (another exception: Fly on the Wall by Dick Odessky).

This is a sketchy at best account of a powerful man during his time. The book is short and did not give me enough details to his insight on Vegas except that he was a gambloholic. It left me wanting to know more about this man and his rise to power. Honestly I enjoyed more his accounts as the publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and the power he had there than his accounts of trying to build the Flamingo. I thought the book would give more insight on early Vegas but to me gave more to early Hollywood.

Whatta story! If Mr. Wilkerson only had control of his addiction there is no telling what he could have accomplished. This is a talented man who had half the world by the tail, but couldn't get that 2nd half. He was able to accomplish a lot and was the creator of modern casinos in Las Vegas. This is a short story, but filled with interesting information. Highly recommended.

This is a top notch read. It is hard to find books of this caliber about the mob. The research is scholarly but still accessible. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the birth of Las Vegas and the gritty details of Hollywood history in general.

One man's chronic gambling habit became the foundation for modern Las Vegas: The Man Who Invented Las Vegas documents his rags-to-riches story and his impact on building the casinos and hotels of Las Vegas. Black and white photos pepper an examination of publisher Wilkerson's life and investments in the Las Vegas image in a fascinating blend of local history and biography.

This book was rated as used...I could see NO signs that anyone had even opened it! I would have bought it at twice the price asked! The description was incredible, and I would buy from this seller again anytime!

Lots of great old pictures. It covers all of Nevada so it is not very detailed on specific sites.

Lots of great pictures. Gave it 4 stars because information of ghost towns is not very detailed.

Lots of great pictures. Gave it 4 stars because information of ghost towns is not very detailed.

For anyone who loves the history and romance of the west, this is an outstanding book that will help you understand more about the where & when of boomtowns in the OLD & the NEW west. It was mining that drove development in the western United States not the cowboy. The products of Nevada's mines was what held together the North during the Civil War, and it helped to sustain development of the west and the United States after the war.

Get lost with this book on a road trip through the dusty corners of Nevada! You will love it.

A fairly exhaustive set of monographs on ghost towns in Nevada. Read the background material by Dan DeQuille, Mark Twain and others to get a bigger picture.

Could make a great vacation theme with kids! Read them some of Twain's work!

NO CELL PHONE OR SERVICE AT MANY SITES COME PREPPARED!

I absolutely could not put this book down!!!! Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book!

Thomas Lakeman is an excellent writer. His characters come to life with ease and I feel as if I know Mike Yeager well. Although this is his first book, he is right up there with Lescroart, Baldacci, Patterson, etc. I'm looking forward to reading his second book, "Chillwater Cove."

Don't let those first few pages available on Amazon mislead you: Although the novel opens nicely with these hard-boiled words, the first couple of chapters don't fully prepare you for the humor, subtlety, and deep human insight that the rest of "The Shadow Catchers" has to offer. Detective Mike Yeager may on the surface be your archetypal FBI investigator with a troubled past, but that isn't just a brief backstory tacked on to a standard mystery plot (which in this case is about dead, missing, and secretive children in a small Nevada town ruled with an iron fist by a slightly corrupt sheriff). His character remains central to the story. He makes mistakes. His past never stops haunting him, and plays a crucial role in the mystery that unfurls around him.

Thomas Lakeman's debut is very impressive. He has a command over the English language that you don't see in most contemporary mystery writers. His prose is to the point, yet fluid. His observations on human behavior ring true - sometimes hilariously so. And even while "The Shadow Catchers" delivers the goods - cryptic clues, red herrings, an array of suspicious characters and a big finale - it dares to plumb the darkest depths of the human soul, not for shock value but to find the troubling real-world truths that lie at the heart of every murder. There is an authentic sadness that lurks in the corners of "The Shadow Catchers," and though it's thankfully not enough to derail the twist-filled storyline, it helps the novel linger in the mind long after it's over.

This is a fine, haunting book. Here's hoping Lakeman gets to write more novels and is allowed the freedom to explore his characters more in his future work, before those third act chase scenes set in. He tells a good story, and "The Shadow Catchers" is a great page-turner, but his real talents lie in the people he creates.

THE SHADOW CATCHERS is a very capable thriller novel. It's a fine choice if you're interested in a fast-paced suspense story with lots of clever dialogue. The quality of the prose in this book is very high, especially considering that this is Mr. Lakeman's first book.

My major qualm with THE SHADOW CATCHERS is the plot, which I think is a bit too convoluted for its own good. Toward the end, I found it somewhat confusing. There is also very little in this novel that I would describe as truly original; I have read many other thrillers with similar storylines and situations.

This book moves at a rapid-fire pace, and is dominated by many scenes of dialogue. As a result, character development suffers a bit. I felt that most of the characters in THE SHADOW CATCHERS were rather underdeveloped, including the square-jawed hero, who I did not find particularly distinctive or memorable.

All in all, though, THE SHADOW CATCHERS is a fine debut. It will be interesting to see what Mr. Lakeman writes next.

FBI agent Mike Yeager is devastated over a child kidnapping case that went bad. He's on a road trip to photograph the Nevada Mountains--and to heal from the mistakes he made on his last job.

In San Cristobal, Nevada he finds himself in the middle of a world of trouble. One child is dead, a man he had an altercation with is murdered, and a mother and her child are missing.

The last thing Mike wants to do is become involved in the problems of San Cristobal, but the local sheriff has other ideas. Mike races against time to find the child and prevent other kidnappings by the shadow catcher. It seems someone is trying to teach the local sheriff a lesson by killing the people closest to him. And it is all tied up in an old case from the sheriff's past.

Thomas Lakeman's debut novel, The Shadow Catchers, is a suspenseful and fast read that catches your attention and keeps it through the darkness that is the lives of the residents of San Cristobal.

Armchair Interviews says: We hope there is another Mike Yeager novel in the future.

This book will help the average person planning a Las Vegas experience avoid many of the usual overhype and embrace the real city. It covers the subjects that are usually taboo and is not scared to say if something is third rate. Get the new version June 2000 and go there and be a high roller. But keep the taxi fare home :-)))

To me, Time Out guides are the best you can buy. They are better than Lonely Planet and Frommers and anything else on the market. They are very in-depth, colorful, heaps of photos, so informative and often go the extra mile by adding bonus pages on either the history of the city, or the culture or anything of even minimal interest.
This 2007 edition is choc-full of anything you wanted to know for your vacation to Vegas and day trips to other places like Arizona, California and Utah. It even has a mini segment about gambling and lessons on how to play some of the more popular games in the casino. There are listings in the back for hospitals, websites for where to find dentists, list of radio stations, post offices and almost anything you could want to find. It covers where to stay from budget to grand opulence, what to do with or without kids, maps of the Strip and surrounding areas and of course my absolute favourite topics - food and shopping.
By the time you read this guide, you will be a novice of Vegas whether you've already been before or going for the first time. I'm about to go to Vegas for my 12th time and I still find this book of use. I highly highly recommend it and recommed their other guides for other great cities around the world.

Great Book! nice size, easy to carry with you when in Las Vegas. The best overview of Las Vegas I have found (I have them all). Lots of detail in this book that are not in the others, even includes a section on outside the Vegas area for day trips (Hover Dam, Area 51, Lake Mead, & many more). Great sections on Accommodations, Restaurants & Buffets, Night Life, Adult Entertainment, Art Culture, Gambling, History, Comps, Weddings, Casinos, & much more. Reads easy like a good magazine, lots of nice color pictures. Detailed maps also included. The only book you will need. I reccomend highly.

TIME OUT LAS VEGAS is a great book about all the pleasurable activities available in Las Vegas, as well as its seamier side. The book also discusses how segregated the city was racially until the 1960s, and how African-Americans were made to feel unwelcome there. Also, there is a discussion on the influence of the Mafia in what has become known as "Sin City." Finally, there are tips on how to avoid losing all of your money at the gaming tables, slot machines, sports books, and, if you're a horse-lover, horse-racing betting stations. This book is essential for keeping yourself healthy and safe in Las Vegas, and if you go there without it, you could be declared too mentally disturbed to manage your own affairs.

This book pretty much tells it like it is. It accurately describes the tacky and over-priced sights. It also tells where to find the good values and reasonably priced venues. There are sections on all the free goodies you can get and places to go when you get tired of the glitter of Las Vegas.

I agree with the other reviews in that this is a nice book to put on your coffee table and flip through. The photos are pretty nice, and the text descriptions make for a pretty entertaining read. However, if you are looking for a book with detailed logistics and good makes that will make for a practical companion on your hikes, this is NOT it. The maps are lacking (maps of the actual trails are decent, but there are no regional maps that aid you in finding the trail in the first place). Also, while the glossy paper makes for pretty photos, it's far too heavy for a practical guidebook that you'll want to carry with you.

This is an exceptionally well-designed book for hikers across the spectrum. Whether you're a neophyte or have climbed Denali, this book contains all the essential information you need to tackle the hikes listed. The photos are all in color and are breathtaking! You really get a sense of what each hike will look like before you undertake it. Every hike also has a color map to accompany the text description. The maps are easy to follow and instructive.

Equally pleasing is that the authors take the time to describe each hike in extensive detail, though they are never wordy. They list the elevation gains, give succinct but necessary directions to each trailhead and provide ample analysis of the strengths/weaknesses of each trek. The book is small and light enough to carry in your backpack, if you feel the need to consult it while on the trail.

I have over 50 hiking books in my library and it would be hard to imagine a more complete, more photographically stunning or better written guide. I enthusiastically recommend this gem!

I love this book. The photographs make me want to visit every place and hike every trail. I have several hiking books, and I enjoy them all, but I love this one. I am hoping that John and Mark Soares are working on hiking books for Oregon!

I just got this book. It is the most beautiful hiking guide I've ever seen. There are nearly a hundred full-color photos, and even the maps are creatively colored. We leave it on our coffee table for easy perusal. It's an updated edition of 100 Hikes in Northern California, and it has thorough descriptions of all my favorite hikes, and many others my wife and I are planning to do this winter (in the Bay Area) and next summer (in the Sierra Nevada and maybe in the Trinity Alps). We have two other hiking books on Northern California, but this one is definitely our favorite. If you are only getting one hiking guide for the north state, this is it.

This is a good "inspirational" book to look through, with great full-color photographs on at least every other page. It's great for planning a vacation around because it gives you a taste of what many different areas look like. The written information is equally good, with lots of great hikes with short, concise descriptions. With this and a local topo map, you're all set.

"The Master of Monterey" is coming in April 2004. You can pre-order it now.

This book has won the fiction category for the year 2000.

I thought the author did a wonderful job of developing his characters. My only dissapointment is that the ending felt a bit rushed, especially given the thorough treatment of events throughout the rest of the novel.

I enjoyed this book so much! Couldn't put it down. I felt like I completely understood the characters, feeling the emotions right along with them. Anxiously awaiting another Lawrence Coates novel!

Reading The Blossom Festival is almost meditative. It is niether exciting nor sad, but un-put-down-ably interesting in its characterization, historical content and detail. L. Coates is a remarkable technician.

If you are interested in the history of the forests in the Sierras and also how past practices managed the forests better than we are doing now, this is a book of photographs for you. It is a basis for the new proposed forest practice of letting the fires burn to get rid of the underbrush and fire ladders. It also benefits the animals.

I found this book most interesting just because of the old photos. While you do look at the then and now shots and see how much has changed, it seems like most of the changes don't have a lot to do with fire. Most of the old photos were taking from development locations, be they mining operations, railroad construction, or town development. So when compared to the current photos the manmade destruction of the land is long gone. It is amaizng to see how the land will return to its wilderness origins once the hands of man are taken away.

Forest ecology is in its infancy. Since humans have been messing with forests by chopping trees since their evolutionary arrival on the planet, it is rare to have any forest available to serve as a "before and after" example of human impact. With the Sierra Nevada, we do have photographic data available on the impact of European man on them thanks to those early pioneers of photography who hiked the mountains and photographed them.

George Gruell has done a lot of leg work here to bring many examples of Sierra Nevada forests in photographs from the past 150 years or so of human impact, and compared them to recent shots he took from as close to the origial location of the shot taken by the original photographer. These are presented side by side to give the reader a nice comparision. In this way, one is able to visually compare the forest from say 100 years ago to today. The images are startling.

For example; his photos prove that there really are a lot more trees living today than there were when Europeans first entered the Sierra Nevada. Probably, this is because of fire suppression as well as early loggers having removed a lot of the big old growth stands. Even the famed floor of Yosemite is now mostly forested with conifers. I myself love conifers but George makes an interesting point that these forests are "man made" and in many ways are unhealthy from the standpoint that they lead to canopy firestorms that normally don't exsist when fires are allowed to naturally burn themselves out. Fire ecology is important and our fear of forest fires has led to an ever worsening situation in the Sierra Nevada.

I recommend a quick read through this book for anyone interested in Sierra Nevada forest ecology.

With Bush touring the West talking about logging as the solution to preventing ever larger forest fires, this book provides ample documentation that FIRE SUPRESSION and MONOCULTURE REPLANTING are the real causes of the current explosive environment.

I first saw this book at the top of Mt. Harkness. The fire watchman there pointed it out to me, as we both struggled to peer at Mt. Shasta through the smoky haze created by the Biscuit and Fremont fires.

The differences in the trees and ground cover between now and the last century is striking. Most of the photos taken in the late 1800's show trees devoid of branches below 20 feet, and very little ground cover. Photos of the same area taken recently show thickly limbed trees down to ground level, with dense underbrush. Without hundreds of little fires to regularly clear out the low limbs and undergrowth, the forests become dense tinderboxes. When a fire finally breaks through fire suppression, it kills the trees instead of burning their limbs.

This unusual photographic interpretation of ecological changes brought about by forest fires in the Sierra Nevada since 1849 will provide a guide which should intrigue both California residents and any interested in forestry issues, park management or ecosystems. Chapters use historical photographs to document changes which have taken place over the past 150 years, from early settlements to modern times. Fire In Sierra Nevada Forests will add fuel to debates over prescribed fires and logging issues.

Mr. Lane put everything in perspective with his down to Earth angle on life. He lives by what he learned from boxing and the marines. It's an inspiring book and a real kick in the butt! It's a pep talk on life and inside look at the world of boxing. Thank you Mr. Lane.

an excellent book from a man whose had a vantage point few in life ever have. what's the saying..."all the worlds a stage." just a phenomenal book. i could not put it down. i read nearly 80 pages at the book store and before i knew it i had been there nearly 1 hour.

I was greatly surprised and pleased by what an engaging and interesting book this is. Mills Lane is not just a boxing referee, but a judge in Nevada and a former professional boxer. He is also one of the most outspoken, to-the-point people I've encountered in print or real life in some time. He talks not only about major fights he's officiated, but also about his philosophy, his time in the Marine Corps, his view of being a judge, boxing generally, and his own boxing experiences. This is also something of a "personal motivation/inspiration" book. This is boxing through the eyes of a very insightful, interesting man.

On page 216, Mills Lane says of his wife, "She knew that I am consumed by my job, referee prizefights as a hobby, and am hardheaded and highly opinionated." Is he ever! And that is what makes this book so refreshing. Here is a man who says we are all responsible for our own actions. Imagine that. Judge Mills Lane and writer Jedwin Smith have combined their experience and talents to give us a glimpse of a human being we see all too rarely: a man of great honor. By the time you finish this book, you will know who puts the grit in integrity.

Here's a quick review of Mills Lane's new book "Let's Get It On":

(Let me cut right to the chase and point out the abundant inaccuracies that I ran across.)

1-(page 29)- Lane credits Oliver McCall with a First round KO of Lennox Lewis. It was the 2nd round.

2-(page 97)- Lane states that Bobby Chacon became the Super Flyweight Champ with a 15 round decision over Bazooka Limon. That was Super Featherweight/Jr. Lightweight.

3-(page 99)- Lane states that the second Livingstone Bramble-Ray Mancini fight was for the Welterweight title. It was the Lightweight title.

4-(page 101)- Lane states that Iran Barkley "TWICE knocked Thomas Hearns unconscious". Barkley Ko'd Hearns in the first fight, he decisioned him in the second. It should be noted that Barkley did knock Tommy down in the second fight though.

5-(page 122)- Lane states that the common opponent between Erbito Salavarria and Betulio Gonzales was San Sacristan. It was not. It was Natalio Jimenez. (No, I did not know that one off the top of my head. But guess what? I looked it up. Novel idea.)

6-(page 172)- Lane states that Octavio Meyran held his ground and his integrity, in the Douglas-Tyson fight, by (Meyran) insisting that he did nothing wrong with regards to the bogus "Long Count" in the 8th round, in which Douglas hit the canvas from a Tyson uppercut. In fact, in a press conference right after a meeting involving Don King and the heads from the WBC & WBA (Suliaman and Mendoza), Meyran said the following: "I don't know why I start my count and make my mistake. Yes, he (Douglas) was down longer than 10 seconds". This followed a comment by Don King stating that the "first knockout obliterates the second one". After that comment King turned directly to Meyran, who then showed the world he had no backbone. Note: Before this "meeting", Meyran defended his actions. After the meeting, it was a different story.

7-(page 179)- Lane states that Chavez retained his Jr. Welterweight title after his controversial Draw with Pernell Whitaker. The fight was for Whitaker's Welterweight title.

8-(page 182)- Lane refers to Matt Fleischer, as opposed to Nat Fleischer. Come on now.

9-(page 189)- In a fight that Lane refereed, he states that Gerry Cooney was knocked down by Larry Holmes in the "third or fourth round". It was the Second round.

10-(page 246)- In another fight that Lane refereed, he states that "Donald Curry hit Milton McCrory with a tremendous right hand early in the third round and McCrory went down". He goes on to state that Milton was kayoed with another right hand, after he got up. Curry kayoed McCrory in the Second round. And the first knockdown was with a Left Hook.

11-(picture between 118 & 119)- Lane states Mike Tyson retained his WBC title against Trevor Berbick. Tyson Won the title from Berbick.

12-(picture between 118 & 119)- Lane states that: "Once he was released from prison, heavyweight contender Mike Tyson had all he could handle from Razor Ruddock,winning a 12-round decision on June 28, 1991. Tyson faced Ruddock BEFORE he went to prison.

Lane is brutally honest and the book reads like a friendly conversation that you might have with him over a beer and a stogie. He tells it like it is and I find it refreshing to read a book when I know that no punches are being pulled. But Jesus! The inaccuracies fly off the pages like crazy. And I'll guarantee that I didn't even catch all of them.

I respect Mills and think he is one of the best refs in the business. And I was eagerly anticipating his book. But if I read something that I am familiar with and find the information to be inaccurate, when I read something new, how am I to know if what is said it is true or not?

As you can probably guess, I am a stickler for detail. The correct information for the "flubs" that I listed, is easily accessible. And the fact that this book was written by a former D.A. and Judge, professions where detail is a critical part of the job, makes these inaccuracies even more infuriating. I find the laziness as it pertains to this book, totally inexcusable. What could have been a very good read, turned out to be very disappointing.

If it sounds like I'm being too harsh, well, I'm merely echoing the tone of Mills' book. I'm sure he'd find the seemingly half-assed approach to the research done in this book as annoying as I did. I'm just here to point it out to him. He'd do the same to us.