Nevada Books

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 story was ok but I have listened to better romance stories and the characters the guy named Nevada and the lady named Cherish Blassingame are ok. It was ok to listen to once but it's not an audio cassette recording I would listen to again and so it wasn't a keeper.

I just want to order the sequal to "NEVADA NIGHTS" WOULD SOMEONE EMAIL ME WITH THAT ANSWER?

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.

TEXAS TOMBOY
When feisty Dallas Durango couldn't bear the stuffy Boston girls' school a minute longer, she fled as far West as her money would take her: to St. Joe, Missouri. There the runaway heiress discovered that women earned mere pennies and, dressing herself as a boy, signed on with the Pony Express. But what the defiant female never counted on was meeting horse breeder Quint Randolph, whose glance made her want to shuck her disguise... and whose touch made her want to beg for more!

KENTUCKY GENT
Feeling guilty over his wife's death the year before, handsome Quint Randolph had sworn off women and now pursued only stallions that could improve his thoroughbreds. But when he first gazed at the tall, slender Pony Express rider, he knew right away that was no lanky lad... and his virile body responded as never before. Hating her for making him break his vow, loving her for reawakening his desire, Quint chased her along the dangerous trail, intent on making her share his bedroll during the long, hot NEVADA NIGHTS

What a story. Cheyenne Warrior & Kentucky Cowboy both love a Texas girl, who's posing as a boy to ride for the pony express. Cheyenne Brave takes Texas girl hostage, which Torments Kentucky Cowboy. Real Historical battles are the backdrop for this war to win her heart. The ending of this book is exciting, but what is possible becomes reality in the next book, Apache Caress, as an underlying plot. Your just so happy to hear more of this story, like they are friends you have not heard from in a long time.

Michael C. White's guide to the Nevada backcountry is absolutely excellent. Those looking for backcountry fishing opportunities will really appreciate the info provided in addition to the wealth of detailed insight White lends on backpacking routes. The topo map section is a huge plus! I have dozens of guide books on backpacking and this is one of the finest I have run across. Friends agree.

The subtitle to this book should read "A TRAIL Hiking and TRAIL Backpacking Guide." If there's no official BLM, USFS, or Park Service trail to a peak, this book won't be much help. As an illustration, the section on the Charleston Peak Wilderness Area--probably the most visited in Nevada--includes a detailed description of the Mummy Spring TRAIL but nothing at all about what I found to be a well-marked use trail to the summit (the "Mummy's Tummy") of Mummy Mountain, probably the most geologically interesting of the area's peaks.

But that's more clarification than criticism. There is enough useful info, like Ranger Station phone numbers, relevant USGS topo map titles, and access mileages, to make the book worth having. Some of the mileages are off enough to confuse readers, and there are other inaccuracies (the appendix of the top 25 peaks in the state, for example--Why isn't 11,253' Mt. Silliman in the Rubies on this list?), but White's book is worth having along with John Hart's Hiking the Great Basin and the Sierra Club Desert Peaks Section's Peaks Guide.

I really liked hearing about the Korean War from a Korean's perspective. I just thought it was too short. It is worth reading though. If you want to buy this book, I would buy it used and save some money.

I thoroughly enjoyed this moving story of a boy removed suddenly and without ceremony from high school and thrown at an all-to-early age into combat and all variety of other circumstances of war.

While we in the USA have a tendancy to dwell on the impact to the USA and our soldiers, here is a local perspective. Ironically, in addition to seeing Korea through the eyes of this young soldier, we see the UN troops from his perspective and so get an additional point of reference on ourselves.

In addition to being a great, fresh perspective, what happens to Private Shin is incredible. It is a laugh, cry and be moved type of adventure that compells you to read it in one sitting.

This is a pretty good guidebook. The publisher (Chockstone Press) is the best I have used, and the durability of construction is second to none. The book contains a nice history, as well as some other essentials for the climber interested in visiting this area. I was disappointed with the topographic climbing maps (some routes have them, some do not), as they are not very detailed or easy to read, however, they are adequate and there is nothing better on this area out there (that I have seen). The text route descriptions are good enough to use with the topo's to find your way up and down. Overall, I think this is a good guidebook, yet it needs to be updated perhaps to include better climbing topo maps as well as one for each route listed. azdz@mindspring.com

The excellence of this book is due to three things, in addition to the fine quality of the writing.

First, by concentrating on an arguably "100 best climbs", not only does the reader learn useful route information but the authors have distilled here some of the best climbs the Sierra has to offer. Second, the format of a single page of route description and history, faced with a (usually outstanding) photograph of the mountain, really whets one's appetite for the climb! Third, most route descriptions are obviously left a little vague on purpose, leaving you some thrill of discovery if you attempt the climb.

I am familiar with a number of the routes described in the book, and the authors have done a fine job of selection. There are many excellent ones to choose from, no matter what your taste.