Nevada Books

When the Mob Ran Vegas: Stories of Money, Mayhem and Murder

Steve Fischer

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Vegas like you've never seen, tales you've never heard -- until now. Sizzing, behind-the-scenes stories about the men, the Mob, movie stars, and missing money that made '50s and '60s Vegas such a hot spot in the Nevada desert. “On opening night at the Cal-Neva Lodge, Sinatra's guests included Marilyn Monroe, Joe Kennedy and his son, John F. Kennedy. Also there that weekend were Johnny Roselli and Sam "Momo" Giancana. Uninvited and hiding up in the hills around the casino lodge was an FBI surveillance team with long-range lenses . . . From the chapter Frank Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Lodge "On Sept 22, 1953, the Riviera Hotel was approved, the name was changed from the Casa Blanca to the Riviera just before this meeting . . . and the list of newly approved owners included Harpo (Arthur) Marx, movie star, comedian; his brother, Gummo (Milton) Marx, comedian" . . . From the chapter Does the Riviera Still Kill Its Executives? ”The Tropicana partners included Rosselli’s bosses in Chicago: Sam Giancana, Paul Rica, Camel Humphries, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Carlos Marcello . . . Fronting for the Chicago Outfit was Ben Jaffe. He owned the giant Fountainbleu Hotel in Miami, and also owned a little insurance company in Indiana” . . . From the chapter Frank Costello Builds the Tropicana "In every showroom in Las Vegas, there are certain inviolate rules. Rule Number One – the headliners go for 60 minutes. Not 64. Those extra 4 minutes represent 4 minutes of lost revenue on the casino floor . . . Then Deano came out on stage with his signature, "Who are all you people, and what are you doing in my room?"– and so started the two and a half hours of the Rat Pack Show!" From the chapter Coffee Shop Stories: Rat Pack and the Sands 21 stories packed with intrigue and mystery, a thoroughly research book, vintage photos.

The Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada (California Academy of Sciences) (California Academy of Sciences) (California Academy of Sciences)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Sierra field guide 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I have at least 10 books specifically on Sierra wildflowers and several field guides. This is the best all-in-one book. It's not too heavy for me to carry on a day hike.

Janice
in the Sierra

A perfect book for exploring 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The detail drawing make it easy to identify the plants and wild life.
A great way to learn.

Fun family resource 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

We purchased this field guide to take on dayhikes and camping trips in the Sierra's with our 5 yr old daughter. We have thoroughly enjoyed it! It is very easy to use. I looked at many field guides and this one is by far the easiest to use. Small children can become bored easily on a hike. The field guide has made hiking more interesting for our 5 yr old. She finds it great fun to identify new flowers,plants,birds,ect. It delays the inevitable, "Are we there yet?" !

Editorial Review:

With more than 2,800 original watercolor illustrations, John Muir Laws has masterfully catalogued over 1,700 species of Sierra trees, wildflowers, ferns, fungi, lichens, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, insects, and other small animals. The guide is designed for quick and easy use in the field. Color tabs and a unique system of keys and organization assist in the quick identification of the living things encountered along the trail, while Laws s illustrations capture the feeling of plants and animals with detail critical for their classification.

Winner Takes All: Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman, and the Race to Own Las Vegas

Christina Binkley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Five-star narrative cheapened by gratuitous slams of Sheldon Adelson 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The Wall Street Journal reporter Christina Binkley was that paper's lead reporter in Las Vegas for 10 years. In "Winner Takes All" she pulls together that experience - both the knowledge and her contacts - and delivers a compelling, enthralling narrative of Vegas' transformation over that period.

The book's sub-title says "Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, Gary Loveman and the Race to Own Las Vegas." Binkley posits that a series of mega-deals have apportioned Vegas into three controlling companies: MGM Mirage (headed by Kirkorian); Wynn (Steve Wynn's eponymous new post-Mirage venture); and Harrah's (helmed by ex-Harvard prof Loveman). Binkley appears to have had little access to Kerkorian, (no one does, but read Bill Vlasic's classic Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off With Chrysler for a better peek at him) but ample access to his lieutenants. She obviously had developed a cordial relationship with Loveman. What stands out is her relationship with Wynn and wife Elaine. It's extensive, to say the least. She's clearly enchanted with the guy.

In fact, that relationship leads me to my major problem with the book - it simply lacks credibility to leave Sheldon Adelson - Chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sand Corporation (Venetian, Sands Convention Center, Palazzo) - out of the story. He, as much as anyone, set the pace for Vegas during Binkley's years of coverage. And, he made the leap to Macao ahead of any of his Vegas peers. It's blatantly obvious from the text that Ms. Binkley has a history with Adelson. Yes, he's famously dyspeptic and probably has little use for her. But Adelson has also feuded publicly and nastily with Steve Wynn. Wynn uses Binkley here quite transparently to take a number of gratuitous slams at Adelson. She's little more than a water-carrier in that regard. That's sad because it detracts from the overall excellence of the book in a very distracting way.

A tale of the tape:

p. 89 - Adelson described as a "would-be mogul" who "irked Wynn"

p. 93 - Adelson is "warring with Wynn"

p. 209 - Adelson described as Wynn's "nemesis and neighbor"

p. 250 - The "eccentric" Adelson takes Sands public and is "catapulted from obscurity to number 19 on the Forbes 400" (Hello?? COMDEX, anyone? This guy was hardly obscure pre-Sands; his success was far from the luck and accident implied here).

p. 271 - 272 - Wynn takes a moment to "pity" Adelson...'It's too bad he's not in better health and able to enjoy it more. He's in a wheelchair.' That's cold, man.

p. 276 - "Loveman lost the Singapore bid to Sheldon Adelson." Adelson didn't win it, right? Loveman lost it. It's like Adelson and team had no role and won by default. Hardly.

I've not cherry-picked the negative references - those are the ONLY references! Juvenile stuff. What a shame.

Editorial Review:

Wall Street Journal columnist Christina Binkley takes an up-close-and-personal look at how Steve Wynn, Kirk Kerkorian, and Dr. Gary Loveman are building a bigger and better Las Vegas and how their influence is spreading beyond the city's borders.

Las Vegas Then and Now (Then & Now Thunder Bay)

Su Kim Chung

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Once upon a time, ‘Sin City’ attracted a different sort of visitor. Spanish explorers were the first to come to this desert oasis to enjoy its natural hot springs and named the spot Las Vegas, or ‘the meadows.’ Now just a century after it was founded in 1905, Las Vegas is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the US. See just how much has changed in Las Vegas Then & Now. Fascinating then-and-now photographs capture the city’s evolution from desert railroad outpost to the gambling and entertainment capital of the world.
Las Vegas remained a quiet, small town until 1931 when two events forever changed its course: the building of Hoover Dam and the legalization of gambling.
Photos from the 1940s illustrate the most dramatic development in the city with resort-style hotels and casinos popping up on the strip, including Bugsy Siegel’s Flamingo.
Fans of neon will enjoy views of “Glitter Gulch” — Fremont Street’s famed stretch — as it was in the glory years of the 50s and as it is today.
Includes ‘now’ photos taken in September 2006 and the most up-to-date information about casino closures and new projects slated for 2006/2007.

Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra

Jordan Fisher Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good book for the plane 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I don't really have much to say about Nature Noir. I read it on the plane out to Denver. It was recommended to me by a non-fiction writer and I heard part of an interview with the author on the radio. I confess that I have not read a great deal of non-fiction aside from personal essays. "Nature Noir" read much like a long personal essay, interspersed with the customary commentary on landscape necessary in all nature writing. Smith's narrative seeks to dispel the idyllic image of wilderness and the life of the Forest Ranger. And I imagine for many people, particularly people who do not spend much time in the Western backcountry, Smith's reports of meth-labs, poachers, suicides, and predator attacks contrast their image of wilderness. But it's something most people who spend time in the backcournty have know about for some time. Ultimately I found his tales and observations somewhat pedestrian. The reviewer on the inside cover compared the work to Edward Abbey, Gary Snyder, and Aldo Leopold. Such comparisons are far too generous for this particular work.

Editorial Review:

A nature book unlike any other, Jordan Fisher Smith's startling account of fourteen years as a park ranger thoroughly dispels our idealized visions of life in the great outdoors. Instead of scout troops and placid birdwatchers, Smith's beat -- a stretch of land that has been officially condemned to be flooded -- brings him into contact with drug users tweaked out to the point of violence, obsessed miners, and other dangerous creatures. In unflinchingly honest prose, he reveals the unexpectedly dark underbelly of patrolling and protecting public lands.

Super Casino: Inside the "New" Las Vegas

Pete Earley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley, whose several books include a study of Leavenworth Prison, turns his meticulous journalistic eye on yet another notorious venue: Las Vegas. Don't expect him to unearth a spate of scandalous doings, though: Sin City isn't quite what it used to be. "Howard Hughes is now only a historical footnote," Earley writes. "Liberace's trademark candelabra sits in a museum. Elvis has been gone so long that tourists often think his impersonators look more like the King than he did. The old Las Vegas is dead."

The new Vegas, however, is very much alive. In two years of visits, with particular access to the Egyptian-themed Luxor Hotel, Earley gathers a comprehensive history of the city's "gaming" industry, including the biographies of such important figures as the Bellagio's Steve Wynn. He also takes a firsthand look into the lives of several Vegas residents and regulars. The book's chapters, often dense with historical fact, are neatly interrupted by fascinating first-person accounts: an old-time dealer talks about being threatened by Frank Sinatra, a hotel manager at a casino gets chewed out by her boss for renting out a $5,000 room to movie stars, and a cab driver talks about falling out of love with this high-rolling town, though he still tries to get his cut of the money. "The money," he says. "There is so much of it in this town that you learn to close your eyes. I hate it but I can't walk away. Who can?" Perhaps the readers of Super Casino will be able to restrain themselves after they read Earley's explanation of how clearly casino odds are stacked against them. --Maria Dolan

Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man

Jessica Bruder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It all began in 1986 when a pair of friends burned an eight-foot-tall effigy on Baker Beach in San Francisco in front of an impromptu audience of twenty. Two decades later Burning Man has evolved intoa dazzling annual extravaganza dedicated to radical self-reliance and radical self-expression, attracting nearly forty thousand people. These revelers -- an eclectic mix of punks, geeks, families, ravers, grad students, gearheads, hippies, and tourists -- turn the ancient lakebed of Nevada's Black Rock Desert into a bustling city that exists for one glorious week before disappearing in a cloud of ashes and dust.

Burning Book is both a loving commemoration of the event's storied history and an enlightening companion for festivalgoers. Bruder explores the unique ethos and breathtaking art installations that have shaped the event, along with Black Rock City's distinctive landmarks, pranks, lore, and gift-based economy. Illustrated with more than three hundred stunning photographs, Burning Book is a striking tribute to an extraordinary cultural phenomenon for the legions who participate in Burning Man every year, and for those who haven't become part of this unforgettable celebration -- yet.

Sharks in the Desert

John L. Smith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

It delivers on the title but in a less than thrilling way 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is a fun read if you are someone who is familiar with Las Vegas. The book indeed delivers on what the subtitle, "..The Founding Fathers and Current Kings of Las Vegas" states. Each chapter is more or less devoted to discussing a specific person and the impact they had on setting the stage for the evolution of Las Vegas. I imagine those of you who have never been infatuated with Las Vegas will want to pass on this one.

Based on some of the anecdotes, it seems amazing that some of the Vegas hotels are still open today. The mobsters and the so called "straight laced" owners who ran (or still run) the hotels come off as either extremely brilliant or totally incompetent. It is no wonder that most of the Strip hotels have all been swallowed up by one or two companies. The author also seems to question if some hotels are completely honest when it comes to gaming.

The problem I had with the book was perhaps I was expecting something more chronological and dramatic. Instead, the book is like a compilation of old newpaper columns that are all put together in one place(of course, maybe that is not a surprise since the author is a newspaper reporter). Much like other books of that nature, the reading becomes almost repetitive and seems easier to take over a long haul rather than a week or two of reading cover to cover. Also note that there are a few typos and errors that make it seem like someone did a spellcheck with a computer rather than really proofreading it.

If you can stick with this type of book, you will probably enjoy it. Now this is the first book about Las Vegas I have read so I can not compare it to anything but I've got to believe there is probably something a bit more compelling.

Editorial Review:

The story of the evolution of the gambling racket from mobbed-up vice to corporate success story as told through the biographies of the men who made it happen.

The Good Fight

Harry Reid, Mark Warren

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

One of the remarkable books of this season— a tough, plainspoken, deeply passionate narrative by one of our most important national figures.

We all know them: politicians’ books that read as if they’ve been cobbled together from old speeches. The Good Fight is as far from that as it is possible to get.

In a voice that is flinty, real, and passion-filled, Senator Harry Reid tells the tale of two places, intertwining his own story, particularly his early life of deep poverty in the tiny mining town of Searchlight, Nevada—“a place that boasted of thirteen brothels and no churches”—with the cautionary tale of Washington, D.C.: “If I can do nothing greater in this book than explain those two places to each other, then I will have done something important.”

Reid is inspired by obstacles. Brought up in a cabin without indoor plumbing, he hitchhiked forty-five miles across open desert to high school. He worked full-time as a Capitol Hill policeman to get through law school, after the school refused him financial aid, telling him he wasn’t cut out to be a lawyer. As head of the Nevada Gaming Commission, he led an unrelenting fight to clean up Las Vegas, despite four years of death threats —and much worse. And in Congress, Reid’s spent more than twenty-five years battling those who would take the country in the wrong direction: “The radical ideologues degrade our government, so much so that when they are in charge of it, they do not know how to run it.”

And, always, it all comes back to Searchlight: “Who I am now, and what I am doing now, began in that town, with those people, in those mines.” This book is the story of a man who knows what a good fight is, because he has had to fight like hell for everything his whole life. It is populated by a rich and raucous cast of great and failed men, eccentrics, visionaries, gangsters, and presidents who make up his life and times. And it is for all those who not only like a good story, but wonder what we should do now in America.

The Money and the Power: The Making of Las Vegas and Its Hold on America

Sally Denton, Roger Morris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"There is no place like it. It is literally a beacon of Civilization.... Only Mecca inspires as many pilgrims." So write Sally Denton and Roger Morris about Las Vegas, Nevada, which emerged in the last years of the 20th century as America's fastest-growing city, and in the process, a family-entertainment and cultural center. But underlying that Las Vegas--and underlying the authors' fine narrative--is an older, decidedly less friendly city, one shaped by an "alliance of gamblers, gangsters, and government" to cater to every kind of human weakness. This Las Vegas, populated by notorious criminals, dangerous eccentrics, and ambitious empire-builders, exercised an extraordinary influence on the nation's politics and economy. Few presidents elected in the last century did not come calling on the desert city to secure funds and favors, even as Las Vegas's thriving economy came under the control of a handful of powerful men.

Full of strange episodes and characters, the history of Las Vegas is too little known. Denton and Morris's revisionist, past-as-prologue look at how Las Vegas came to be is a startling, original work that adds much to our understanding of recent American history. --Gregory McNamee