Ex-Texas Ranger (Johnny Canavan) versus the gunthrowers. Well-written fiction that's very easy to read. I grinned a few times with the subplot of the story: Canavan dealing with the demands of the female, Ardis Lundy. The paperback is worth your time, good way to spend a few relaxing hours.

Looks like interesting and informative book about Great Basin National Park. I will have to travel there when I'm finished with college and have vacation time

This book fills a void in the history of the state of Nevada. But the author spends much time blind to the factors that devealop the state as a whole and their impact on Nevada's hispanics, and rather focuses on how the hispanics were just sufferers of white majority's whims. Nevada has a rich history of many races (Including many Chinese) and the facts presented in the book are befitting of Nevada's Hispanics. But the writing is choppy at best, and a second edition is sorely needed. The book seems as if it was very rushed towards it's finishing pages.

I read the 2nd Edition, Revised, of this book and the account of Nevada from 1860 to 1900 was exciting because Nevada was a weird and exciting place during those years. but I did not find the account of 20th century Nevada too interesting, even tho the book devotes full attention to the political history of the state, which I would ordinarily have thought would guarantee my finding this a good book. For a really good state history, read History of North Dakota, by Elwyn B. Robinson. I found that state history (I am not from either Nev. or ND) unputdownable.

The City is grand. The book does an adequate job in describings sites and getting you around town. Was it the best book? It worked well for us although we were looking for more definitive 'must see's.

I picked this book up while I was in a museum in Reno. The author is the brother of the former U.S. Senator from Nevada, Paul Laxalt. I took a few tours while I was in Reno (along with some gambling)and when I later read this book, I knew what book my guides had read, prior to doing their job with the tourists. I doubt if any state's history can be made interesting, but Laxalt does a good job. Nevada is an interesting state compared to the rest of the nation, and the author relates why: precious metals, prize fighting, easy divorce, legal hooking and gambling. All in a state that is at heart very conservative.
This is a short read, and for those who travel to Vegas or Reno often, a necessary read. Why did Nevada become the way it did? The book answers this question and details some of the interesting characters of Nevada (Mark Twain, Bugsy Seigal, along with a number of politicos). At a little over 130 pages, this is a great read to take on the plane to Vegas.

While this book claims to be a history of gambling in American society it really is a history of organized gambling on the American frontier, whereever that may be. While the author presents the interesting idea that gambling has followed the frontier he fails to explain what is happening behind the frontier. Illegal gambling is hardly mentioned, possibily because it is harder to research. It's an interesting book and provides a good bibliography for those interested in pursuing the topic, but alone it is not a great resource.

This is a look at the life of lawyer Mead Dixon. His early work with gaming properties of Nevada is interesting, but his counsel to Bill Harrah's properties make the best reading. Some good tid-bits here that may not be know to the readers. More life history than gaming history, but R.T.King and Ken Adams present an enjoyable book.

Riders of the Silver Rim was entertaining and at some parts suspenseful, but i've also read Bodie Thoene's ZION COVENANT, ZION CHRONICLES, and SHILOH LEGACY. Riders of the Silver Rim could have been so much better if the plot had been more developed. The book seemed too rushed. One page something drastic happens and then you turn the page and it ends. The main plot was interesting to read, but(like i said)if it had been more developed it would have been a really great plot. Besides this, the book was fun to read and it makes you laugh and cry at the same time. Bodie Thoene you're doing an awesome job!

Mr. Howard's book concerns itself almost exclusively with the "who" "when" and "where" of efforts to cross the Sierras into or out of California -- just as the title suggests.

I have a couple of complaints about the book, one of which represents my own subjective preference about what I would have liked the book to cover, but the other represents a shortcoming I suspect most readers would regard as a serious oversight.

First, I would have liked the book to describe more about the "how" of crossing the Sierras. A few passages describe the efforts of early travelers who made their way up into and over the mountains, across streams, past boulders, up and down cliffs, and so on. But not many. I would have liked a fuller accounting of that process, as well as the mechanics, financing, and logistics of early road-building efforts. That was not, however, the purpose of Mr. Howard's book.

My other complaint is more general. Maps are almost non-existent in a book that relies upon knowing where geographic references are, both in an absolute sense and in relationship to one another. Some of the references are relatively obscure, even to native Californians. (Others have been obscured, literally, by subsequent development; towns and lakes have disappeared under man-made reservoirs.) The (two!) maps in the book are unhelpful; I was forced to keep a AAA map at hand for reference. Each chapter, discussing a different series of routes, really should have had a detailed map showing each geographic point mentioned in the text.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to the narrow audience interested in early California history, and who are likely to travel in and around the Sierras to follow some of these historic routes. The text is not as dry as it could be, and the material is presented in encyclopedic fashion, making it accessible when returning to it later for cross-reference.