<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: "The Strip" Stripped Bare
Review: John L. Smith, the veteran columnist of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (over 2,000 columns published) is a professional who knows his Vegas well and writes about its bright face and not-so-bright underbelly with unmatched authority. I picked up his book at a bookstore in the Fashion Show Mall during a recent visit to Vegas and I've finished it the same night in my hotel room. From funny to sad, incredible to disgusting, all kinds of fascinating human-interest stories that reveal bare the unique history of this desert-miracle of a city are in this collection. Smith knows the movers and shakers of this city as well as its down and out losers and the working bees and the gamblers, the cops, bureaucrats and many others. It is a veritable parade of boomtown risk-takers who bet their everything on the line to make it in Vegas. Some won but a lot of others did not. In dozens of easy-to-digest short chapters (each a column published previously) Smith takes us on a roller-coaster ride through Las Vegas' bitter-sweet past, present and future. If you want to read a learned, non-boring and compassionate look at the "real story" behind the sizzle and glitter that is Vegas, then this is your book. Super value for the price.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive book about life on and off the Vegas Strip
Review: ON THE BOULEVARD is a wonderful compilation of Smith's best daily columns. It's a fun and easy read that gives the reader insight into every-day life in Las Vegas -- from a fourth-generation Nevadan. Smith is the most-read columnist in Nevada because his stories cover the human side of Vegas, the side most tourists never see. I highly recommend!
<< 1 >>
| 
