Download or read book Literary Las Vegas written by Mike Tronnes and published by Holt Paperbacks. This book was released on 1995-08-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Literary Las Vegas brings together the best writings from this neon outpost in the desert. Ranging from the hilarious to the tragic, these pieces provide what Nick Tosches calls a "Baedecker to the bizarre, a Virgil in shades, not only to the holy city but to the off-the-rack soul that we, one nation under Frankie's toup, so strangely and fatally share." Incisive, entertaining, and highly readable, Literary Las Vegas creates a unique anecdotal history about this one-of-a-kind place.
Download or read book Literary Las Vegas written by Mike Tronnes and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Leaving Las Vegas written by John O'Brien and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “brutal and unflinching” novel of fleeting love in Sin City inspired the film starring Nicholas Cage and Elizabeth Shue (Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City). John O’Brien’s debut novel, Leaving Las Vegas, is an emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it; a powerful tale of hard luck, hard drinking, and a relationship of tenderness and destruction. An avowed alcoholic, Ben drinks away his family, friends, and, finally, his job. With deliberate resolve, he burns the remnants of his life and heads for Las Vegas to end it all in the last great binge of his hopeless life. On the Strip, he picks up Sera, a prostitute, in what might have become another excess in his self-destructive jag. Instead, their chance meeting becomes a respite on the road to oblivion as they form a bond that is as mysterious as it is immutable.
Download or read book Literary Las Vegas written by Mike Tronnes and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Strip written by Stefan Al and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2017-03-03 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The transformations of the Strip—from the fake Wild West to neon signs twenty stories high to “starchitecture”—and how they mirror America itself. The Las Vegas Strip has impersonated the Wild West, with saloon doors and wagon wheels; it has decked itself out in midcentury modern sleekness. It has illuminated itself with twenty-story-high neon signs, then junked them. After that came Disney-like theme parks featuring castles and pirates, followed by replicas of Venetian canals, New York skyscrapers, and the Eiffel Tower. (It might be noted that forty-two million people visited Las Vegas in 2015—ten million more than visited the real Paris.) More recently, the Strip decided to get classy, with casinos designed by famous architects and zillion-dollar collections of art. Las Vegas became the “implosion capital of the world” as developers, driven by competition, got rid of the old to make way for the new—offering a non-metaphorical definition of “creative destruction.” In The Strip, Stefan Al examines the many transformations of the Las Vegas Strip, arguing that they mirror transformations in America itself. The Strip is not, as popularly supposed, a display of architectural freaks but representative of architectural trends and a record of social, cultural, and economic change. Al tells two parallel stories. He describes the feverish competition of Las Vegas developers to build the snazziest, most tourist-grabbing casinos and resorts—with a cast of characters including the mobster Bugsy Siegel, the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and the would-be political kingmaker Sheldon Adelson. And he views the Strip in a larger social context, showing that it has not only reflected trends but also magnified them and sometimes even initiated them. Generously illustrated with stunning color images throughout, The Strip traces the many metamorphoses of a city that offers a vivid projection of the American dream.
Download or read book The Secret History of Las Vegas written by Chris Abani and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gritty, riveting, and wholly original murder mystery from PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author and 2015 Edgar Awards winner Chris Abani Before he can retire, Las Vegas detective Salazar is determined to solve a recent spate of murders. When he encounters a pair of conjoined twins with a container of blood near their car, he’s sure he has apprehended the killers, and enlists the help of Dr. Sunil Singh, a South African transplant who specializes in the study of psychopaths. As Sunil tries to crack the twins, the implications of his research grow darker. Haunted by his betrayal of loved ones back home during apartheid, he seeks solace in the love of Asia, a prostitute with hopes of escaping that life. But Sunil’s own troubled past is fast on his heels in the form of a would-be assassin. Suspenseful through the last page, The Secret History of Las Vegas is Chris Abani’s most accomplished work to date, with his trademark visionary prose and a striking compassion for the inner lives of outsiders.
Download or read book Las Vegas Noir written by Jarret Keene and published by Akashic Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Launched by the summer '04 award-winning bestseller Brooklyn Noir, Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies. Each book is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. In this chilling portrait of America's Sin City, lady luck is just as likely to dispense cold hard cash as a cold-hearted killing. Brand-new stories by: John O'Brien, David Corbett, Scott Phillips, Nora Pierce, Bliss Esposito, Felicia Campbell, Jaq Greenspon, Jos Skinner, Pablo Medina, Christine McKellar, Lori Kozlowski, Vu Tran, Celeste Starr, Preston L. Allen, Tod Goldberg, and Janet Berliner. Las Vegas provides the classic sophistication and darkness necessary for a deadly noir story. Stylish, sultry, brimming with ambition and greed, the characters that populate this literary Las Vegas are pushed to the extremes of human experience. From the neon glitter of the Strip to the treacherous views of Red Rock Canyon and Boulder City, from the desperation of Naked City to the racial tensions of the Westside, no other location offers so many different avenues leading to serious trouble. Many legendary authors have turned their attention to Vegas to investigate the city's moods and mysteries. Now, the most recent crop of acclaimed writers explore the secret neighborhoods and byways of America's most sinful city, offering readers not only compelling noir tales but also an insider's understanding of this steamy oasis. These authors take readers beneath the surface flash of Freemont Street and the Strip and into the gritty multicultural environs of underground Vegas. Jarret Keene is author/editor of three books, including the poetry collection Monster Fashion, the alt-travel tome The Underground Guide to Las Vegas, and the unauthorized rock bio The Killers: Destiny Is Calling Me. He lives in Las Vegas. Todd James Pierce is the author of three books, including the novel A Woman of Stone and the short story collection Newsworld, which won the 2006 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. He is an assistant professor of English at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo, California.
Download or read book Beneath the Neon written by Matthew O'Brien and published by Huntington Press Inc. This book was released on 2007-03-07 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the Neon: Life and Death in the Tunnels of Las Vegas chronicles O’Brien’s adventures in subterranean Las Vegas. He follows the footsteps of a psycho killer. He braces against a raging flood. He parties with naked crackheads. He learns how to make meth, that art is most beautiful where it’s least expected, that in many ways, he prefers underground Las Vegas to aboveground Las Vegas, and that there are no pots of gold under the neon rainbow.
Download or read book About a Mountain written by John D'Agata and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-02-07 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named One of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books Written by the New York Times Magazine, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and a New York Times Editors' Choice. When John D'Agata helps his mother move to Las Vegas one summer, he begins to follow a story about the federal government's plan to store nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain; the result is a startling portrait that compels a reexamination of the future of human life.
Download or read book A Short History of Las Vegas written by Barbara Land and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2004-03-01 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today’s Las Vegas welcomes 35 million visitors a year and reigns as the world’s premier gaming mecca. But it is much more than a gambling paradise. In A Short History of Las Vegas, Barbara and Myrick Land reveal a fascinating history beyond the mobsters, casinos, and showgirls. The authors present a complete story, beginning with southern Nevada’s indigenous peoples and the earliest explorers to the first pioneers to settle in the area; from the importance of the railroad and the construction of Hoover Dam to the arrival of the Mob after World War II; from the first isolated resorts to appear in the dusty desert to the upscale, extravagant theme resorts of today. Las Vegas—and its history—is full of surprises. The second edition of this lively history includes details of the latest developments and describes the growing anticipation surrounding the Las Vegas centennial celebration in 2005. New chapters focus on the recent implosions of famous old structures and the construction of glamorous new developments, headline-making mergers and multibillion-dollar deals involving famous Strip properties, and a concluding look at what life is like for the nearly two million residents who call Las Vegas home.
Download or read book Full Service Blonde written by Megan Edwards and published by IMBRIFEX BOOKS. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A working girl is found dead in the desert. Can a calendar girl uncover the truth? In this award-winning prequel to GETTING OFF ON FRANK SINATRA, it’s Christmastime in Sin City. Aspiring journalist Copper Black meets Victoria McKimber, an outspoken prostitute at one of Nevada’s legal brothels. She’s offered Copper the exclusive right to tell her story. Not only will the Las Vegas Light’s “calendar girl” get a byline, but she can also impress her boyfriend and parents when they arrive for the holidays. Copper is busy with work, Christmas shopping, and fantasizing about a whole week with her long-distance boyfriend. She’s also helping her brother, a civic-minded pastor who is spearheading plans for a new center to serve the homeless. Things are hectic but under control when shocking news breaks. Victoria McKimber has turned up dead. As she investigates the violent death, Copper evades enemies, juggles boyfriend, work, and family, and races against time to save her brother from a sinister plot. Unless she can expose the truth about Victoria McKimber, somebody just might get away with murder. -- Megan Edwards
Download or read book Hassie Calhoun written by Pamela Cory and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HASSIE CALHOUN, the first book of a trilogy, is a modern bildungsroman about a lovely, determined and talented teenager from the late 1950s/early 60s rural Texas, who flees a difficult family situation to seek fame and fortune as an entertainer in Las Vegas. Her beauty opens doors immediately, but leads only to a sybaritic lifestyle controlled by her brooding and dangerous lover, Jake, as well as drawing the attention of the powerful Frank Sinatra. Like the goddess Persephone, Hassie finds herself drawn alternately to the darkness and the light, finding joy and pain in both realms. When the road to stardom requires making some unacceptable compromises, Hassie must make the toughest decision of her life. The trilogy follows a good-hearted woman through her naive and mistake-ridden youth and culminates in a surprising old age in New York City and London.
Download or read book Literary Nevada written by Cheryll Glotfelty and published by Western Literature and Fiction. This book was released on 2008-08 with total page 922 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains over 200 writings about Nevada with selections from Native American tales to contemporary writings on urban experience and environmental concerns. This book includes sections on cowboy poetry, wild Nevada, travel writing, and nuclear Nevada; and narratives about rural life and life in Las Vegas and Reno.
Download or read book Paradise Nevada written by Dario Diofebi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Diofebi is an irreverent and audacious new voice.”- Susan Choi, National Book Award-Winning author of TRUST EXERCISE "Vegas has been right there forever, waiting for a great novelist, and Dario Diofebi has come dealing nothing but aces."--Darin Strauss, NBCC Award-Winning author of HALF A LIFE From an exhilarating new literary voice--the story of four transplants braving the explosive political tensions behind the deceptive, spectacular, endlessly self-reinventing city of Las Vegas. On Friday, May 1st, 2015 a bomb detonates in the infamous Positano Luxury Resort and Casino, a mammoth hotel (and exact replica of the Amalfi coast) on the Las Vegas Strip. Six months prior, a crop of strivers converge on the desert city, attempting to make a home amidst the dizzying lights: Ray, a mathematically-minded high stakes professional poker player; Mary Ann, a clinically depressed cocktail waitress; Tom, a tourist from the working class suburbs of Rome, Italy; and Lindsay, a Mormon journalist for the Las Vegas Sun who dreams of a literary career. By chance and by design, they find themselves caught up in backroom schemes for personal and political power, and are thrown into the deep end of an even bigger fight for the soul of the paradoxical town. A furiously rowdy and ricocheting saga about poker, happiness, class, and selflessness, Paradise, Nevada is a panoramic tour of America in miniature, a vertiginously beautiful systems novel where the bloody battles of neo-liberalism, immigration, labor, and family rage underneath Las Vegas' beguiling and strangely benevolent light. This exuberant debut marks the beginning of a significant career.
Download or read book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas written by Hunter S. Thompson and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book We Are Called to Rise written by Laura McBride and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond the bright lights and casinos lies the real Las Vegas where four lives will be brought together by one split-second choice.
Download or read book Getting Off On Frank Sinatra written by Megan Edwards and published by IMBRIFEX BOOKS. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scorching Las Vegas summer is about to get even hotter. Aspiring journalist Copper Black has just found out that her boyfriend is responsible for his not-quite-ex-wife’s pregnancy. An unexpected house-sitting job at a notorious Las Vegas “party house” should provide not only a private swimming pool but also much-needed distraction. While researching a story about an exclusive private school, Copper accidentally discovers the dead body of the school’s beloved founder. Now involved in a high-profile murder investigation, Copper turns to her brother, a civic-minded pastor who is overseeing the construction of a center for the homeless. A Paiute medicine man claims the site is a sacred burial ground, attracting hordes of protesters. As she tries to solve the murder, help her brother, advance her career, and sort out her love life, Copper stirs up a world of trouble. Her escapades as she evades a sociopath, a disturbed cowgirl, and a suspicious homicide detective make Megan Edwards’ rousing debut Getting Off on Frank Sinatra a nonstop roller coaster of a read.
