Nevada Books

This book was so well written and actual events were woven into the storyline so believably that I was convinced until about half way through the book that it was a true story. It was also a reminder of how brutal the human race can be, no matter the nationality. The protaganist, Balthazar Wood is an irreverent but latterly idealistic computer programmer with a dry sense of humour and the story covers human smuggling, the fallout to people's lives and minds from war and relationship struggles. A great book.

In recent years it's seemed like a lot of the authors in the international crime or espionage genre never quite made it out of the Cold War. At best, we've had Eighties themes of Central American drug smuggling, or terrorist plots that seem tame if you've been watching the TV news. While I've got a soft spot for the Cold War genre myself, it's to be hoped that today's authors could write about today's 'theater'.

Evans' _Blood Price_ is so fresh you almost expect its events to show up in tomorrow's headlines. Readers don't get to shy away from today's ugly truths for much longer than protagonist Paul Balthazar Wood does, whether those truths are the aftermath of Sarajevo or the wreck that is Paul's relationship and career at the start of the book. Nor is Paul a former CIA agent or some other all-too-typical military hero; he's an out-of-work Canadian programmer, albeit with a few tours in the world backpacker and hiker scene, and the adventures from Evans' debut novel _Dark Places_.

From the Balkans to Burning Man, refugee smuggling to cyber-crime, _Blood Price_ spans the globe and an ever-widening range of topics that Evans clearly knows his way around. Despite brief digressions into the mechanics of computer programming in C, scuba, border crossings and even flamethrowers, Evans keeps the story moving without excessive technical lecturing - but also without tripping up on any details. (Unlike the average Hollywood movie, I can read Evans secure in the knowledge that Evans knows even more about how the Internet works than I do.)

The settings would make a Bond movie blush, and yet the action scenes come in realistically under budget. The characters are rounded and likeable - even when they shouldn't be; Evans has a genius for making you realize that the Bad Guys are, in fact, human. The heroes are human too, from moments of brutal suffering to unexpected comedy, tinged with adrenaline.

The novel's pace is engaging and interesting, maintaining a rate of tension even in the slower parts of the plot without seeming artificial. It's hard to say whether the very human drama of Evans' characters or the world-wide criminal empire's plans are more compelling; they are inevitably, inextricably linked.

If you're looking for hip, even savvy, current fiction without hipster pretension, Evans has it. If you'd rather have a fast-paced international crime thriller with a hero who's more brain than brawn, pick up _Blood Price_ for a satisfying read.

In the 2nd installment of the Evan Horne mysteries, Bill Moody sets his hero in the neon snakepit of Las Vegas, where an old friend sends Evan on a mission to solve a 37-year-old murder. But doing so peels back layers of Las Vegas history, opening old wounds that someone is willing to kill to keep covered... As in Solo Hand, Bill Moody assembles a vivid cast of characters and plays out a twisted story-line like a jazz virtuoso with murderous chops that include the fate of tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray and the real history of the Moulin Rouge, as well as a handful of subplots that Moody deftly ties together in a coolly musical climax. For all its brooding authenticity, regarding both jazz and Las Vegas, Death of a Tenor Man is a fast-paced and well-wrought mystery.

In the 2nd installment of the Evan Horne mysteries, Bill Moody sets his hero in the neon snakepit of Las Vegas, where an old friend sends Evan on a mission to solve a 37-year-old murder. But doing so peels back layers of Las Vegas history, opening old wounds that someone is willing to kill to keep covered... As in Solo Hand, Bill Moody assembles a vivid cast of characters and plays out a twisted story-line like a jazz virtuoso with murderous chops that include the fate of tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray and the real history of the Moulin Rouge, as well as a handful of subplots that Moody deftly ties together in a coolly musical climax. For all its brooding authenticity, regarding both jazz and Las Vegas, Death of a Tenor Man is a fast-paced and well-wrought mystery.

Considering what the book claims to cover, it is adequate. It has lots of pictures and brief descriptions of the eastern Sierras and the Owens Valley. Do not expect detailed descriptions of the natural history, geology, or history of this region.

If you're a fisherman, hiker or just someone who appreciates magnificent scenery, then the Sierra Nevada mountain range is the place for you. This book is a rewarding introduction to the splendors of this region. From Lone Pine to Bridgeport, this book covers most of the treasures in this area, easily accessed from Highway 395.

I spend most of my summers in the Sierra Nevada and this book helps me pass the winter months in anticipation of hitting the trails again when the snow melts off. The photos make you feel as if you're there, they are high quality and beautifully reproduced. If you've never made a trip to this area, this book is the perfect introduction. If you're someone who knows the Sierra's like the back of your hand, it's still an excellent coffee table book.

I hope the authors tackle another photographic challenge: publish a book specifically on the magical John Muir Trail. The opportunities for great photos there are endless! In any case, this book is a welcome addition to anyone with an interest in one of the most scenic areas in America.

I made the trip to Bodie and bought the book at the museum. There are many interesting stories that are touched upon, but with few details. If you are interested in an overview this is an excellent source. The Author has written several other books on various aspects of life in Bodie and I intend to buy them to broaden my knowledge. I wish the pictures were of better quality. They are ok considering the paper quality but the half toning and resolution could be improved.

Bodie State Historic Park, off of Highway 395 in the High Sierras between Bishop, California and the California/Nevada state line, is a place where spirits still wander the dusty streets and abandoned buildings. There are no ice cream parlors, souvenir shops or video game arcades occupying what were once historic buildings. A boomtown, most of Bodie's buildings were hastily erected wooden structures barely capable of surviving the punishing winters. The few buildings still standing serve as park rangers' quarters and a museum that sells books and video tapes about Bodie and other ghost towns. The only creature comforts are restrooms and a drinking fountain.

Bodie is best visited in the summer, when even the warmest days are more like spring at lower altitudes. The journey begins on a paved road that seems to be leading to nowhere. The last 3 miles of the road leading to Bodie are unpaved but still navigable without the benefit of all-wheel drive. I made my first trip in a Renault Alliance, a dicey form of transportation at best. Once the pavement ends, you are now travelling on the same dusty stagecoach trail that brought hopeful miners and their families to Bodie while providing escape for those whose dreams were shattered there.

After paying a small entrance fee to the park, the first stop for many is the Bodie cemetery. A stone angel with downcast eyes marks the grave of a young girl named Evelyn. Its base is often ringed with flowers, toys, balloons and tiny stuffed animals. Another resting place sought out by visitors is that of prostitute Rosa May, whose life was chronicled after years of relentless research by author/publisher George Williams III (See "Rosa May: The Search for a Mining Camp Legend", also available from Amazon.com).

Small groups are given tours of the Standard Mill works. The park rangers who escort these tours plunge right into the history of the place, playing the role of the mill manager or his wife welcoming newly hired workers to the rigors of life in Bodie.

For the princely sum of $4.00 a day, you could work the bottomless shafts of the mines or accept a starting position scraping accumulated mercury out of the settling pans in the mill. Chances are, since either occupation meant a short life, you'd spend that $4.00 as quickly as you earned it, gladly paying a quarter for a lavish meal at one of the hotels and blowing some more on a few belts of whiskey in the saloons that outnumbered the general stores and churches. If you had the presence of mind to save up five of those dollars, you'd head down to Bonanza Street, just behind Bodie's Chinatown where those $5 bought a night's companionship.

A trip to Bodie leaves a lasting impression. It calls you back. It might even haunt your dreams. As you walk Bodie's streets and try to locate landmarks in this book, a breeze will kick up. It strikes the back of your neck and you feel a chill, even though it's the middle of summer. For a few fleeting moments, you sense what life might have been like when 12,000 men, women and children roamed these streets and called this place home. And as the breeze passes on and this mysterious feeling subsides, you wonder if you had only imagined it or if someone from another time whispered it in your ear.

If you're planning a trip to Bodie, or if you never make it there, George Williams's book is the closest you will come to walking the streets of a true ghost town.

Well I would say this is a basic overview of Nevada... Not really super detailed to any one particular area, but a good general description of some key hikes in the great state of nevada. If you buy enjoy it....

Bruce Grubbs is the author of a very good hiking guide to Great Basin National Park, so one might expect that his guide to hiking the whole state of Nevada would also be a gem. And indeed, this book does list some nice hikes throughout the state ranging from short day hikes to multi-day backpack trips. Directions to trailheads, route descriptions, hypsometric maps (where appropriate) and such useful information as "canine compatibility" (ie. where you can walk with your dog) are all more than adequate. In addition, the second edition features a little more than a dozen new hikes in the Silver State.

Nonetheless, I cannot give this book more than 3 stars, and this despite the fact that it has very few competitors in the market. In the first instance, I don't really like the format which, like the first edition, is more a work of compilation than a work of authorship. In many cases, Grubbs simply prints comments from brochures (or other sources) by Nevada Parks, the Forest Service, or the Bureau of Land Management. I prefer authors write their own trail descriptions. It helps assure me that they have personally hiked (and rechecked) the trails. Beyond that, I still wonder about some of his trail selections. Red Rock Canyon, outside Las Vegas, gets a lot of (well deserved) attention, but Mt. Charleston Recreation Area has only 1 trail listed. Insofar as this recreation area offers some of the premier hiking in the southern portion of Nevada, I'm curious why a guide to the state would mention so little in this region. On the other hand, some of the "trails" listed, especially in northern Nevada, have long dirt roads for access and offer little in the way of such amenities as trail tread. After reading this book, I certainly don't feel much desire to go explore the area around Winnemucca and Denio.

So in the final analysis, I think this book could offer more in terms of really scenic hikes and drop some of the long desert washes. Still, you can find some neat little out of the way trails with it. Last winter, my wife and I explored the Grimes Point Archeological Area, a short leg stretcher just off our route from California to Boise, Idaho and really enjoyed the place. We would never have found it without this guide, so until something better comes along, this is the book to get for Nevada outdoor recreation.

THE INSIDERS' GUIDE TO RENO AND LAKE TAHOE is a great book about Northern Nevada and California that shows the Reno-Lake Tahoe area to be a region of great wealth and expensive homes. The book also proves that Reno is more ethnically diverse than you'd expect for a city of its size, and there is plenty of wonderful information about outdoor activities in the area. This is a book that you must own if you're planning to relocate to the Reno area, or even just to vacation there.

I purchased this book for a vacation to Lake Tahoe. While it is well-organized and provides a broad overview of the Reno/Tahoe region, it lacked really good, in-depth info on restaurants and attractions. I would recommend this book only if coupled with a more detailed book on the specific activities you want to pursue. We had a hiking guide (Afoot and Afeild in Reno/Tahoe, which was excellent), and I wish we had also had a restaurant guide.

I purchased this book last summer as part of a planning effort for hiking the trail in September. Even though I was quite familiar with the Sierra, I had no idea on how to plan the trip out as far as legs and campsites. I found this book to be invaluable as far as proposing a reasonable itinerary and giving the person a good idea of what to expect on each leg and where to find campsites. Castle first gives an overview of what should be done before the trip, and then breaks it out into a very doable 21-day itinerary (with 2 layover days) that range from 10-15 miles per day. He gives you a quick-hit overview of elevation gains and mileage and then a more detailed description of the day's hike. Also, he does a good job of planning the days so that you start with a climb and end with a descent. The one unfortunate is that the book is a bit heavy, though compact in size to actually carry with you -- the person I hiked with did carry it though and we enjoyed reading it along the trail as well as at night. I suppose one might xerox the pages you found necessary. By the way, I also had the Winnett book and found that far less helpful, and less organized as far as actually planning the trip. This is an awesome trip, and I strongly recommend both the book as well as doing the JMT -- it is a life-changing experience!

Just finished the JMT. The book was useful for planning my trek since the book is organized into a 22 day hike and I planned our hike for 20 days, so I would recommend it for that purpose. Having it on the hike itself wasn't very rewarding. The distance and altitude change intervals were somewhat useful, although the numbers don't necessarily mesh with the Harrison topo maps. What was disappointing was the lack of detail about campsite locations. The author basically indicates where they camped, but provides little information about where other campsites are located or their quality. Not a problem if you follow his itinerary, but if you're like us (and most of the other JMT hikers) it doesn't help when it's late in the day and you're trying to figure out how much further you need to go to get to a decent campsite. I basically stopped referring to the book after the first week and relied on the other guide I had which had much more detailed information on the trail and camping. I would have burned the Cicerone guide except we couldn't have fires most of the way and one of my friends wanted to carry it for reading material. The maps it contains were fairly worthless, so you'll definitely want topos. The author also comes across a bit snobbish at times, which certainly allowed my friends and I to poke fun at him and added to our entertainment. Logistical informtation on getting to the trailhead and dropping a vehicle at the end of the trail is also incomplete. YARTS only serves Merced to Mammoth, so getting from Whitney Portal to Mammoth requires a hitch, getting a local to shuttle you, or paying high dollars for a commercial shuttle. Bottom line is this is a decent book for planning a 3 week trek on the JMT, but it's not worth the weight to carry it. The Winsett guide was much more valuable on the trail, although it also has it's flaws.

I haven't seen the PBS documentary that spawned this companion book, but the book is worth reading and having if you're interested in the history of Las Vegas.

The book covers the founding of Vegas as a town, the construction of Hoover Dam, the flourishing of the Mob, the testing of the atom bomb (120 detonations around 65 miles of Vegas throughout the 1950s!), the Rat Pack, the Howard Hughes period and the Disney-fication of Sin City.

The obligatory PBS Politically Correct chapter on African Americans in Vegas was actually very fascinating. I knew that Sammy Davis Jr. wasn't allowed to stay in the hotels where he performed in the '50s--which was shameful enough--but to read that the Flamingo drained the pool after the gorgeous Dorothy Dandridge swam in it and Lena Horne's sheets were burned rather than put in the laundry ("We don't want to offend the Texans," was the hotel's lame excuse) is shocking and disgraceful.

Definitely a coffe table book with great photos and thick pages. I wish there had been more photos though. As a regular Vegas visitor, I know that town could provide many, many more.

"Las Vegas" provides interesting photos and verbiage covering Las Vegas from its initial start, through the building of Boulder/Hoover Dam, establishment as a "suburb" of L.A., attraction for "quickie" (6 week) divorces, the mob's influx, atomic testing, the "Rat Pack," attraction as a "marriage mill," Howard Hughes, Steven Wynn, imploding old landmarks, and finally the building of new hotels with unique tourist attractions (eg. volcano, pirate ship, art displays, fountains).

Ives also provides several interesting statistical tidbits - Las Vegas slot machines have paid out as much as $40 million to a single winner, and by '04 provided about 2/3 of Las Vegas casino revenue; in '76 nearly half the gross revenue of the 163-hotel Hilton chain came from its 2 L.V. properties; L.V. has 20 of the world's largest 23 hotels; and during the '90s non-gambling revenues began exceeding gambling revenues in Las Vegas.

FROM THE PUBLISHER
He Thought He'd Left the Past Behind. Yet One Terrible Tragedy Brings It All Back ...

The year is 1863. In the East, the Civil War rages on. The mountains of California seem remote and untouched by the struggle of the young nation. Tom Dawson has found a refuge from the political and social conflicts running a small ranch with his brother beneath Shadow Ridge.

This man with a restless past, his "rugged, sun-browned face creviced from the weather like a landscape," discovers some measure of peace and happiness at Shadow Ridge with his brother's little family. Then comes the news that the stagecoach has been robbed and six people murdered by a gang of rebel sympathizers stealing Union gold for the South. Without warning, the turmoil of Dawson's past returns.

As he moves toward a final confrontation, the Dawson home is shattered by a second tragedy. Where will he find the courage and faith to continue?

I don't generally like Christian fiction much. Too often authors use their "Christian" audience to justify banality or just plain inferior work. A lot of Christian books can't compete on sheer entertainment value. Happily, Bodie & Brock Thoenes work is some of the best fiction I've ever read. It's unnecessary to qualify that by stating it's some of the best "Christian fiction". It's good fiction plain and simple.

This is the companion volume to Paher's Atlas of ghost towns in northern Nevada. Again, there are numerous very good and detailed maps, many excellent if dated photos (they seem to have been largely shot in the 1950s or later, but not recently), and very little text. As such, these atlases are themselves companions to Paher's larger book on ghost towns, and the maps themselves include page references to where to find more information in the larger book on a given town.

Visitors to Vegas expecting to trip all over nearby ghost towns will be disappointed; there are fewer decent and interesting sites in the south than in the north. Still, the interested reader needs both atlases and Paher's full study as well.

Compared to its sister volume, which covers the northern half of the state, this atlas is a disappointment. I've spent quite a bit of time plotting all of the ghost town and mining camp sites from both atlases onto DeLorme topo maps, and felt I was really able to pinpoint sites in the northern book, whereas in this one there just wasn't as detailed enough information to confidently do the same. Distances, for example, were given in the northern book, but are missing here; likewise other identifying features like canyon names and smaller streams. It's still an excellent source, and the two atlases together locate all the sites detailed in Paher's classic NEVADA GHOST TOWNS AND MINING CAMPS. The atlases also contain quite a few photographs.