University of Nevada Books

The photography is not crisp and there is no depth to the shots. A wonderful idea, not executed very well.

I had to read this book for my History of California class. I'm a freshman in college and I don't drink wine, because its illegal (duh!). So I read the whole book, intro, epilogue and all the chapters in between. I fell asleep many time reading this book and if you don't like wine and have no interest in the wine industry of santa barbara don't read this book. If you would to find out more of how the santa barbara wine industry got started by all means by this book and enjoy it becuase it right up your alley. I will say this if I was into wine and stuff I know I would have enjoyed reading this book, but since i don't like that kind of stuu, this book was a bore. i think that if you were doing a report on wine or an industry that has floursihed through the prohibition and politics this would be the main source of all your info if you did the report on the santa barbara wine industry. have fun reading wine lovers!!!

Maybe not a bad book, but close. There are much better histories of Nevada and even of Reno (William Rowley's, for instance). There is a map of the original town plan, or I would have given it but one star.

The authors seem to have based their research on a book they were too shy to include in their bibliography, Gilman Ostrander's "Nevada, the Great Rotten Borough." (Even when they take quotes from Ostrander, they get them wrong, such as Yerington's quote about horse thieves!)

They have photos from Don Dondero's Dateline Reno that aren't from that book. What a mess!

Nice idea to take a Look Magazine approach to Reno, but this is hollower than a gourd. UNR Press should recall it before someone gets injured reading it.

Scholarly yes, dry absolutely. I know the author is a Professor, but you need to appeal to your readers. There was some good research into this book, and it is obvious the author traversed some of the roads himself. However, why not elaborate on some of the tales of those emigrants coming into California. This was a relatively short book, but it took me nearly four days for me to read. That said, the author explores new ground on the hardships of people going overland to California. This is a story that needs telling.

This book is for those interested in California history. It is more focused toward the academic audience, and a general reader has to have a great desire to learn more about this subject.

Some of the insights seemed interesting, but the author seems to have difficulty focusing on what it is, he's actually doing/ writing about.
Book goes back and forth and never seems to develop a solid purpose. Plus it needed to be proofread and seriously edited.

I read this book and it was extremely boring. The author enjoys talking about himself, most of which is uninteresting. He enjoys talking about his swimming in the waters naked. Yuck!

This "work" done by Campbell is the poorest excuse for ecological literature, I have ever read. His idea of confronting real environmental issues concerning the Klamath Marshes amounts to his own unthoughtful, unpractical, and inane ramblings which he so inaccurately calls "meditations". I hope that this publication was funded by himself, because if it was financed by a publishing company they were greatly robbed.
Instead of producing a coherent work, the reader is forced to endure hearing about his (the author's) past. (This guy has a "Christ" complex.) I'd compare reading this book with the job of a pyschiatrist listening to their patient. Of course, the reader isn't being paid to hear this personal diatribe.
After I finished forcing myself to read this book, I felt that my time had been completely and utterly wasted. There was very little if anything valuable to extract from the "meditations". In actuality this book is a compilation of the thoughts from a no-body who has delusions of grandeur. I say this because he actually tries to credit himself with birthing some type of mystical and magical experience which has been done much better by other authors before him, and as future authors will far exceed. The only portions of this book worth reading were the quotations taken from other writers who actually are WORTH reading! Please don't waste your time on this dull, pseudo-religious "book". As for the author, I think time would be better-spent seeking psychiatric help or admitting himself into a mental institution. Too many skeletons in this guys closet! In the end this is just another European-Extract (with an identity crisis) who ignorantly & arrogantly believes that he can understand the spirituality behind lands that were stolen!
As I've seen in other critical reviews I'd ask amazon to include a scale that has degrees of positive AND negative stars. This would definately deserve a -5 rating. This book is sort of an attempt at an inept poet who's trying to wax theosophical and be poetic. Real poetry of this genre is found in the wonderous work of Whitman. The only practical use for this text? I'd recommend shredding it and using it in envelope padding, or the bottoms of hamster cages.

This is one book that can be judged by its cover: why on earth is there a Dickcissel of all things on the front of a book about the American Southwest? This sort of sloppiness recurs throughout, and is particularly irksome (and for new birders downright dangerous) in the many, many misidentified photos that illustrate the text. The bird-finding section is useless, and the author's coy suggestion that any errors in the directions given should be treated as "part of the adventure" is simply unacceptable. Keep this book out of the hands of beginners!

At a quick glance this book appears to be worthy of reading, and to be fair the hardrock mining sections are interesting, but the first 138 pages are filled with blatent political correctness and some misinformation that tarnishes the overall quality of the book. The authors claim that Alfred Doten (The Journals of Alfred Doten, University of Nevada Press. 1975) owned a "store" in Volcano, California. He never owned a store at Volcano nor anywhere else. The authors repeatedly make use of Doten to exemplify an untenable and skewed position of political correctness: "He "politely courted white women but was lusty and wanton around...women of color." What is their purpose in a hardrock mining text since Doten only placer mined? I'm not sure. So one must be left to infer that Doten was impolitely lusty around women who were not white? Could this be a metaphor about hardrock mining that I was not able to grasp? Anyone who has read Doten's diaries knows that he had no scruples about any woman period! Doten is also quoted for writing angry words in his diary having caught "two Mexicans" trespassing and working his claim. During Doten's time (1850s) sifting through dirt on another's claim was illegal; taking any gold that was found on another's claim was stealing. Doten would have been upset regardless of who jumped his claim. Doten is also described as "relishing" a vigilante justice occurance--sounds a little PC to me; Doten thought it was horrible. The authors also perpetuate the Joaquin (Murieta) myth that "gringos" raped his wife and murdered his brother--both never happened ("Joaquin" wasn't even the gang leader, his brother-in-law was). Should a myth justify the indiscriminate murders and robberies that the avenging Robinhood and his gang performed without mercy until his life was taken away, as the author's state, by "Euro-Americans" ? I PC think so. These authors should have stuck with hardrock mining instead of veering off in an attempt to integrate societal mechanisms of the mid nineteenth century with today's hindsight--risky and revisionist at best, but not historically accurate. If one is going to write history, fine--the reader will analyze the facts, albiet having the facts and context of the period incorporated coherently. But these "historians" use the first 138 pages of their book to shape their opinions and unabashed biases into a pseudo-scholarly text that takes away from the overall quality of an otherwise interesting book that excells with regard to hardrock mining and its impact within Calaveras County; it just happens a little too late in the book.

I think the title of my review says it all...unfortunately, no one in my book club had any interest in it.

I am very disappointed in this book.

From the Introduction: "Common names for plants can be misleading and do not always distinguish among the species. Additionally a plant known by a common name in one region may have another common name elsewhere, leading to further confusion. However, common names have been retained because they are generally of more interest." Then the book presents the plants alphabetically by common name. Of course this presumes that I even *know* common names for plants I know by botanical nomenclature.

Clearly I was wearing botany blinders when I read the description, saw, "an essential guide for botanists" and thought it might be a good addition to my library. It should be called "Eating the Plants of the Sierra" because it is all about the ethno botany, hardly bothering to offer more than a few one-line descriptions of a "key characteristic" to help you realize that out of a particular group of related plants, some are edible, some are not.

It's ironic that Amazon is pairing this book with Weedon's "Sierra Nevada Flora"; while "Wild Plants" acknowledges that "various keys are adapted from several sources, including ...Weedon.", what the book does NOT report is that there are direct remarks in "Wild Plants" that are almost identical to remarks made by Weedon; about Snowplant (Sarcodes sanguinea): Weedon says, "Stalks edible when cooked like asparagus; however this plant is rare and protected by law."; "Wild Plants" says: This fleshy plant is edible when prepared like asparagus. However, this is a protected and rare plant..." adding that you should only eat one in a emergency! I'm still trying to imagine being stuck in a bad situation with only my stove, a steamer and some hollandaise!

IF your primary interest is in learning about native uses of plants, this might be a better book than I realize. Aside from just about everything seeming to be a cure for toothaches or some sort of bleeding, I also learned this "Interesting fact: Small-flowered collinsia was used to make a horse run fast and was used externally for sore flesh." So I guess if you are on a slow horse, bleeding, and happen to ride by some small-flowered collinsia (and recognize it), you are going to be in luck.

Ready to snack on something from the carrot family? Cautiously go through the ways to prepare delicious Lomatium ("Caution: SOME species were too resinous to enjoy") but don't stop short of reading about Poison Hemlock (described but not illustrated) which is described as "a painless way to die!"

The book actually mentions that some plants are rare, then goes on to suggest that if you want to try eating them you should do so with moderation. "If you decide to harvest plants, it is important to harvest them with wisdom and respect."

Bottom line: this book, with misspelled plant names (a few found so far), minimal identification information, and that odd common-name thing, is not worth $40 unless you are a pharmacist.