The latest issue of The Nevada Review is available.  Take a look at the contents and cover below:

• “Nothing New or Novel”: Women in Nevada Politics Before 1919 by Dana R. Bennett
• Excerpts from Rants from the Hill Michael P. Branch
• World War II Homefront In Nevada: Excerpts from the University of Nevada Oral History Collection
• Excerpt from Everyday Las Vegas: Local Life in a Tourist Town by Rex J. Rowley
• Poetry: “Ten Poems” by Delinda Braun
• Fiction: “The Midweek Trainer” by Matthew Reed
• Fiction: “New Days of the Wolf” by Josh Woods
• Fiction: An excerpt from The Woodsman Gary T. Cage
• Interview: Susan Skorupa Mullen, Reno Gazette-Journal
• New and Noteworthy: Recently Published from the University of Nevada Press
• Writer’s Essay: “The Ethics of the Book Review” by Caleb S. Cage
• Book Reviews
• Tahoe Trap by Todd Borg
• You Came Back by Christopher Coake
• The Gold Rush Letters of E. Allen Grosh and Hosea B. Grosh by Ronald M. James and Robert E. Stewart
• Rethinking Public Sector Compensation: What Ever Happened to the Public Interest? By Thom Reilly
• Base Camp Las Vegas: Hiking the Southwestern States by Deborah Wall
• Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins

Former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, Nevada’s longest-serving governor in history, has published his autobiography, Son of a Gambling Man, with Thomas Dunne books, a division of St. Martin’s Press. Miller’s memoirs span from his childhood in Chicago through his years in the U.S. Air Force, as deputy district attorney in Clark County, as Nevada’s lieutenant governor, to his notable ten-year tenure as our state’s governor.

Through those years and posts, Miller battled the ghosts of his father’s legacy in Las Vegas and the myriad twists, turns, challenges, and pitfalls of a life in politics — particularly those unique to a life in Nevada politics.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Chicago native Miller was just 10 years old when his illegal bookmaker father got the opportunity to run “a legal (but posh) gambling resort in…Las Vegas.” The Sin City of the 1950s bore no resemblance to the sprawling metropolis it would become: “Las Vegas spread out like boiling water on a flat surface, the streets almost swallowed by the desert.”

Son of a Gambling Man is on sale now at bookstores and online. Miller will be signing the book at Barnes and Noble in Reno on March 25 at 7pm.

The Reno Gazette-Journal has a great piece up on their Website about the great-grandson of the famous Wizard of Oz author, who lives in North Las Vegas, and his efforts to keep the legacy alive.  Here is an interesting part:

Since 1989, Roger Baum has carried on his great-grandfather’s legacy, publishing 15 of his own Oz books, with a 16th — “The Oz Enigma” — expected to arrive in March. His first book, “Dorothy of Oz,” also is in production to become an animated film starring Lea Michele, Dan Aykroyd and Kelsey Grammer, among others.

Read the whole article here.

Carson City author wins awards for his book.

Sierra Nevada College Presents Tracy Ross for a reading and a workshop.  The free reading is open to the public and will be held from 7-9pm on Friday, February 8.  Visit here to register.

Why do cowboy poets have mustaches?

Bookmark: Signings and events in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Book Briefs for Feb. 5-11.

Clark County resident “Rudy” writes a book.

The Squaw Valley Institute will host farmer and writer Joel Salatin on Feb. 13.  Go here to learn more Mr. Salatin, who was featured in the documentary Food, Inc.

A local Carson City author is releasing a new book loosely based on her life called Bits and Pieces

The University of Nevada Press is proud to announce that their book Atomic Comics: Cartoonists Confront the Nuclear World, by the late Ferenc Morton Szasz, has been chosen by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles published in 2012. More info on the book here.

Great Basin College is hosting an art exhibition looks at Chinese culture called “Celestial Grammar: Words and Forms of Loss and Longing,” which will open this week and remain installed through March 19.

Sierra Nevada College presents Kelly Groom in their Writers in the Woods Series.  According to their announcement: “Groom has received critical acclaim for her memoir I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl, including Best Memoir of 2011 by Library Journal, and being chosen as an Oprah.com O Magazine selection and featured in Best American Poetry 2010.”  Go here to register and for more information.

The Las Vegas review-Journal always runs great pieces on literary culture in souther Nevada.  Be sure to check out the latest book briefs, book events and signings, and their Literary Las Vegas section.

And art on local Reno architecture, here.

Who were the Grosh brothers?

E. [Ethan] Allen and Hosea B. [Ballou] Grosh were two young men drawn, like thousands of others, to the California Gold Rush.  An astounding 300,000 men came to California between 1848 and 1855.

Two things were unusual about these brothers. One, unlike many forty-niners, they were well educated. (Their father, the Reverend Aaron B. Grosh, was a prominent Universalist minister, a leader in the Odd Fellows and a co-founder of The Grange). Most of the letters from the brothers are to their father, and they are full of lively observations, just what you would expect from two men 24 and 22 who have left home to see the world.

Two, they stayed in California, and persisted in looking for wealth–most would-be miners, disappointed and broke, moved on quickly. Despite many setbacks, Allen and Hosea remained cheerful and optimistic, always convinced that their latest plans would finally succeed.

Tell us about the book.

Historians have long known and written about the Grosh brothers, for they were among the earliest prospectors in the Great Basin, what was then Utah Territory, where later the Comstock Lode was found. After discovering evidence of both silver and gold in the area, the brothers died tragically young, before they could investigate further. Their family, hoping for a share in the fabulous wealth of the Comstock, gathered every scrap of evidence and preserved it.  The Gold Rush Letters publishes the collection, transcribed and well-annotated, making them available to the general public for the first time.

Why are the letters significant?

One, the collection is complete; there are no gaps; the family preserved every letter they wrote.  This book tells a complete story: from the first letter home, saying “We sail tomorrow” to Allen’s last, “We have had a very narrow escape of it”, written two days before he died.

Two, they were lively writers, interested in the politics of their time, the new and raw state of California, and all else young men could see and care about. The letters are astonishingly readable and fascinating. This is not dry history; these read like postcards from a friend.

Three, they were among the earliest explorers in the Great Basin and what became Nevada. This is important primary source material, now made readily available to future historians and writers. Read the rest of this entry »

The good folks over at the Las Vegas Review of Books, a wonderful site that does not share its interesting commentary often enough, have written about the best books of 2012.  Both editors of this site have pretty intensive day jobs, so it is understandable that their updates are so rare, but we love the idea of their site and what they are trying to do.  Take a look at their reviews here.

There will be an excellent presentation Thursday evening at 6:00PM at the Nevada Museum of Art called “Reno’s Mad Men,” which will be in conjunction with their terrific exhibit on vintage Nevada neon. The University of Nevada Oral History Program will be playing interviews with some of Reno’s top mid-century image-makers, including Roy Powers, Mark Curtis, Sr., and Bill Harrah, with photos, panelists who knew them, and classic cocktails to follow. More information here.

Read Again Bookstore opening in Reno this Saturday

Claire Vaye Watkins’ book, Battleborn, a finalist for the Story Prize

E-Book reader help available at Washoe County libraries

Book briefs in the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Book signings and events in Las Vegas this week, Jan. 13-19

The Las Vegas Review-Journal just announced that the publishing house associated with its parent company, Stephens Press, will help us all celebrate Nevada 150th birthday with the publication of Nevada: 150 Years in the Silver State. Since this announcement, we have spoken to Stephens Press Publisher Carolyn Hayes Uber and the project editor Geoff Schumacher to find out more. The book, which will probably be in the form of a coffee table-type book, will profile all 17 Nevada counties and its metropolitan areas, the natural beauty and landmarks of the state like Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Lake Tahoe, and the state’s entertainment, gaming, mining, ranching and other important industries. During our brief talk, Geoff said that it would be more than a historical approach to the state, stating that the book would be about the state’s great future as well. We love Stephens Press, and really appreciate what they are doing for the sate and its literature. We can’t think of a press more deserving or more capable of doing such a wonderful job with this important book.