Nevada Books

When you think of Montana, perhaps you think of the Wild West. Then the book's subtitle about Montana literature could evoke images of trashy western pulps. However Egan deals with serious literature, prose and poetry. Some of it does hail from frontier days, often dealing with the relations between settlers and natives. A literal cultural clash.

Plus, there are more modern themes. Of a still sparsely settled region, imbued with class struggles between workers and big business. The writers look at such issues thru a Montana perspective. Quite different from accounts set in large industrial and urban centers.

The book is a useful summary of Montana writers of the past century. Many are perhaps not prominently known, which in part is why Egan's monograph is instructive.

People familiar with Laxalt's work know that he mostly writes about the Basques, which is his own heritage. This book is a moist, sincere, heart-warming ramble around the Basque countryside, based on Laxalt's stay in Basque country in the early seventies. It is not a novel; it is rather a series of vignettes of traditional Basque life, with an eye toward revealing something of the Basque character. Sometimes Laxalt himself is a character in the action, such as at the slaughter of a pig or when some French bikers create a stir in a Basque tavern; more often he is an anonymous observer, such as in the singing contest or the meeting of the three poets. Some of the chapters are less than a page long, and might be described as prose poems.

The book is disarmingly short; I think I read it in two hours. But you can't resist how it makes you feel good, and makes you want to spend your next vacation in the Pyrenees. If you're a Basque enthusiast, it's a must read.

Las Vegas is a unique city in the history of the world in that it was founded by those seeking escape, and exists as a place for those seeking to escape. The latter has created a city built on catering to the desires of other people, which is the topic of this short book. Whether it be gambling, shows, sex, or exotic animals, no other city in human history has so excelled at providing entertainment of so many forms and types in one place at one time. The book examines the different spectacles offered by Las Vegas, with a close eye on the appropriate history, business aspects, and ironies. Each chapter focuses on one specific spectacle; such as art, wildlife, and dance shows. In each, the author traces the development of that spectacle from its origins in Western history to its growth in American culture, and final establishment in Vegas. For each, the author also shows how private and public actors interact to create the final product seen by tourists. All in all, a very interesting and good work. This reviewer has visited Las Vegas twice, and after reading this book, I more fully understand it now and appreciate when went into creating it.

I love the fold out maps in this guy. Also cool that it comes with a mini ink pen and a mini guide book. This is a multipurpose item.

Or numerous other natural phenomena? Come browse Muir's collection of books. Yes, browse the 1,030 pages which comprise his writings. This book is excellent for the student of nature because his descriptive writing takes you to the high Sierra, the redwood forests, the 1,000 mile trek through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. You are there and you want to be THERE! While much of the description was written over 100 years ago, the magnificence of a Sequoia, the humidity of a Florida swamp and the curiosity of a Douglas squirrel is still REAL today. A true travelogue for nature lovers and mountainmen wannabes alike

All of Eyewitness top 10 guides are great and this one is no exception. It clearly lays out great places to eat and shop. I do disagree with some of the choices and as a person who goes to Vegas many times a year I would do a few things different. Despite that it is still worth its four stars.

This book is very informative and really tells a lot about the total history of Vegas. Different parts are more interesting than others based upon interests. Overall a good book.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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