2010 nevada books

A Geological and Natural History Tour Through Nevada and Arizona Along U.S. Highway 93
By Joseph Tingley, Kris A. Pizarro, Christopher Ross, and Phillip A. Pearthree, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Special Publication 35, nbmg.unr.edu, 175 pages
   
A Geological and Natural History Tour Through Nevada and Arizona Along U.S. Highway 93, with GPS Coordinates, is the latest in a series of guidebooks published by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and is cosponsored by the Arizona Geological Survey. In this new guidebook are stories of the rocks, plants, animals, and historical places and events as they unfold along U.S. Highway 93 between Wickenburg, Arizona, and Jackpot.
   

As I Remember: A 1940s Childhood
By Gordon Chism, Avenue Design Inc., avenue-design.com, 707-964-3964, 124 pages
   
Readers will recognize in Gordon Chism’s memoir the rhythms of a childhood quite different from the typical childhood of today. Imagination, free-form play, simple pleasures, and real work are the ingredients of this boy’s life around his parents’ auto court and trailer park in Reno. Family is at the center of the story—the hard-working father, the tireless and loving mother, the energetic siblings, and the colorful relatives, some distinguished, some eccentric, and all part of a mutually supportive clan. It’s a short book but full of rich and evocative details.
   

Bing: On the Road to Elko
By Carolyn Schneider, Stephens Press, stephenspress.com, 702-387-5260, 140 pages
   
In Bing: On the Road to Elko, Crosby’s niece, Carolyn Schneider, shares memories, interviews, stories, and photographs, offering readers an intimate glimpse of the uncle she knew and loved. Through research and perseverance, Schneider brings to life the Bing rarely seen, his life behind the cameras. She journeys back to Northern Nevada, meeting the people who knew Bing, hanging out at the lunch counter of the local diner, and visiting the Indian reservation while gathering anecdotes and images of a man once known as the honorary mayor of Elko.
   

Black Rock
By Peter Goin and Paul F. Starrs, Black Rock Institute Press, blackrockinstitute.org, 279 pages
   
Nevada’s enigmatic Black Rock country, despite its apparent silence and isolation, is actually an area where natural forces are restless and life in many forms has endured for millennia. Its haunting landscape has been the focus of study and contemplation by scientists, explorers, outdoors aficionados, and artists. In Black Rock, photographer Peter Goin and geographer Paul F. Starrs explore this place from the viewpoints of their respective disciplines.
   

Blessed Be: An Autobiography and Christian Testimony
By Julia Wells, Xlibris Coporation, xlibris.com, 888-795-4274, 204 pages
   
Julia Wells’ story starts like something from a Hollywood tragedy—a child from a broken home, abused and molested, desperately searching for acceptance, turning to alcohol, and fighting with depression. But Wells’ story is, in fact, anything but a tragedy. The 40-year Nevada resident found strength in religion and fought through these afflictions. Her faith guided her through cancer, poverty, and the loss of four loved ones in a mere fortnight. When Wells’ husband of 30 years, Roger, was himself diagnosed with cancer, she was inspired to write about her struggles and redemption through religion. Blessed Be is Wells’ autobiographical celebration of her faith and testimony that even the darkest clouds have a silver lining.
   

Blue Vegas
By P. Moss, CityLife Books, stephenspress.com, 702-386-5260, 146 pages
   
Probing the dark, human stories lurking in the neon shadows, Blue Vegas represents the work of a writer who knows Las Vegas and is a keen observer of its diverse population. These 17 stories explore the clash between old and new Las Vegas and the quest for scraps of love and dignity amid the ruins of the lives of has-been showgirls, desperate killers, degenerate gamblers, and quick-buck mercenaries. The debut title for CityLife Books, Blue Vegas shines a light on the hard luck, faded dreams, and lingering anguish faced by people who’ve been trampled by this city.
   

Bombast: Spinning Atoms in the Desert
By Michon Mackedon, Museum of New Mexico Press, mnmpress.org, 800-249-7737, 236 pages
   
“Sunshine unit” is the term given to radiation leaks and fallout. In Bombast, Mackedon considers the manipulated language and imagery doled out by the atomic industry to make the unsafe appear safe and the unthinkable thinkable. Blowing up bombs and planning nuclear tombs in Nevada has left a legacy to the residents, a mixture of loss of innocence and discovery of their own invisibility. Bombast is a linchpin in atomic revival studies. Mackedon recounts Nevada’s relationship with the nuclear industry and a host of players including the Atomic Energy Commission, Department of Energy, scientists, military, and journalists. 
   

Cave Rock: Climbers, Courts, and a Washoe Indian Sacred Place
By Matthew S. Makley and Michael J. Makley, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 132 pages
   
Cave Rock recounts a lengthy dispute between the Washoe Indians, a small Nevada tribe, and a number of athletes, supported by powerful corporations, who turned a Washoe sacred place on the shore of Lake Tahoe into a world-class rock-climbing site. The book follows the legal challenges and administrative decisions that finally led to an unprecedented 2007 court ruling prohibiting sport climbing on Cave Rock.
   

The Changing Range of Light: Portraits of the Sierra Nevada
By Elizabeth Carmel, Hawks Peak Publishing, hawkspeakpublishing.com, 136 pages
   
In her second book, Elizabeth Carmel photographically explores the Range of Light in the 21st century and honors the important legacies of John Muir and Ansel Adams by highlighting environmental threats to the region. In addition to being a beautiful and unique collection of photography, this book also outlines the changes that will occur in the Sierra from global climate change. Photographs in The Changing Range of Light are accompanied by easy-to-read text vignettes from the world’s top scientists explaining how the landscapes shown will be affected by the warming climate.
   

The Complete Nevada Traveler
By David W. Toll, Gold Hill Publishing Company, INC., nevadaweb.com, 702-847-0222, 256 pages
   
There’s more to Nevada than fabulous Las Vegas and legendary performers such as Wayne Newton. Unearth the state’s Paiute roots at the Pyramid Lake Museum. Sing a song with more than 230 bird species at Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge. Or visit the Roman-inspired Stokes Castle in Austin. It’s your show. In addition to an introduction to the communities and regions travelers encounter as they move through the state, Toll includes recommendations for his favorite restaurants, lodgings, and entertainments.
   

Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas
Edited by Todd James Pierce and Jarret Keene, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 183 pages
   
The 14 stories in Dead Neon imagine Sin City in the near future, when overindulgence has led to social, environmental, or economic collapse, and technology can no longer reverse decay or chaos. The settings vary from futuristic casinos to the seared post-apocalyptic desert, and the subjects vary from the struggle to survive in a repressive theocracy to the madness of living in a world where most life forms and all moral codes have vanished. The authors, all either Vegas-based or intimately familiar with the city, capture its unique rhythms and flavor and probe its potential for evoking the fullest expression of the human spirit in settings of magic, horror, and transcendence. Read CasinoOnline’s review here.
   

Friendly Fallout 1953
By Ann Ronald, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 231 pages.
   
Friendly Fallout 1953 is a hybrid work of literature that combines the actual history of aboveground atomic testing in the Nevada desert in 1953 with fictional vignettes that explore the impact of the tests on the people who participated in them and on civilian “downwinders.” While most of the details are factual, the characters are imaginary composites of men, women, and children affected by the testing program in that fateful year. Ann Ronald compellingly evokes the test explosions in all their terrifying magnificence and explores the diverse and sometimes conflicting emotions of a generation that saw atomic energy as its best protection against the horrors of another world war, even to the sacrifice of the innocent people, wildlife, and livestock that became accidental victims in this search for national power.
   

Galloping West with the Pony Express: The Mail Must Go Through
By Carole Marsh, Gallopade International, gallopade.com, 800-536-2438
   
Saddle up your mustang, strap down your mochila, load your pistol and get ready for the most exciting ride of 2010, Galloping West with the Pony Express: The Mail Must Go Through. This thrilling new addition to award-winning author Carole Marsh and Gallopade International’s American Milestone Series is the perfect combination of exciting activities and fascinating facts. The book includes ideas for lesson plans, hands-on activities, biographies, and stories and is intended for children seven years and older.
   

Ghost Towns of the Mountain West
By Philip Varney, Voyageur Press, voyageurpress.com, 715-294-3345, 320 pages
   
The Great Basin and Rocky Mountain states are the heart of ghost-town country. Once-bustling pioneer outposts, mining camps, lumber towns, and railroad villages stand today as reminders of the glory days of gold rushes, industrial progress, and the pioneering spirit of the Old West. This book guides readers to the fascinating and scenic ghost towns of Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah. Varney highlights popular tourist destinations as well as out-of-the-way spots unfamiliar even to natives of the region.
   

Ghost Towns: Yesterday and Today
By Gary B. Speck, West Side Publishing, pilbooks.com, 847-676-3470, 192 pages
   
Ghost towns are magical places. More than empty buildings, more than decayed curtains flapping in vacant windows, more than tumbleweeds rolling down bare streets, they were once living communities of people. Whether sunbathing on an isolated beach on the north coast of a Pacific island, climbing tenuously into the side of a mountain in the Rockies, sprawled across bone-dry desert, or tucked deep in a corduroy wrinkle in the Appalachian Mountains, ghost towns are life interrupted. People’s dashed hopes and broken dreams remain in these abandoned homes, deserted storefronts, and crumbling ruins. Hundreds of photographs bring these rickety relics to life, as Ghost Towns: Yesterday and Today touches the past, celebrates the present, and reflects a fragile, forgotten history.
   

Going for Gold: The History of Newmont Mining Corporation
By Jack H. Morris, The University of Alabama Press, uapress.ua.edu, 205-348-1566, 396 pages
   
Jack H. Morris details how Newmont Mining Corporation revolutionized the gold-mining industry and remains today the second-largest gold miner in the world. He asserts that Newmont is the link between early gold mining and today’s technology-driven industry. We learn how the company’s founder and several early leaders grew up in gold camps and how, in 1917, the company helped finance South Africa’s largest gold company and later owned famous gold mines in California and Colorado.
   

Going Through Ghosts
By Mary Sojourner, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 282 pages
   
A cocktail waitress at 54, Maggie Foltz works at the Crystal Casino in Creosote. That’s where she meets Sarah, a member of the Willow tribe of Bone Lake. An unlikely friendship begins, which makes Sarah’s murder all the more jarring for Maggie. Then with the help of Minnie Siyala, a Willow band healer, the spirit of Sarah guides Maggie to Bone Lake and an ultimate resolution. Going Through Ghosts is a deftly written page-turner of a novel with author Mary Sojourner bringing even her peripheral and supporting characters to life in the mind’s eye of the reader.
   

Handwritten Newspapers of Early Nevada: 1854-1908
By Clarence D. Basso, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
   
In Clarence Basso’s essay, Handwritten Newspapers of Early Nevada: 1854-1908, he explores the five unusual newspapers in Nevada’s history that employed a pen rather than a press in their publication. E-mail the author for a free copy of the PDF.
   

Hiking Nevada’s County High Points
By Bob Summer, Spotted Dog Press, spotteddogpress.com, 760-872-1524, 160 pages
   
Hiking Nevada’s County High Points is a comprehensive driving and hiking guide to the summits of Nevada’s 16 counties and Carson City. Sumner describes each backcountry adventure in abundant detail with chapters that include: • Driving and route instructions • Camping and lodging locations • A “bonus” peak which can be combined with the county high point • A side trip to a nearby point of interest • Historic background for each high point
   

Hiking the Southwest: The Best Hikes in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico
By Branch Whitney, Huntington Press, huntingtonpress.com, 702-252-0655
   
Hiking the Southwest: The Best Hikes in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico features more than 50 unique hikes, extensive color photos, and expert information on the difficulty level, elevation gain, and best season for each excursion.
   

The Hualapai Cycle: Adult Horror Stories of the Black Rock Desert
By Jason Walters, BlackWyrm, amazon.com, 174 pages
   
In this macabre collection of riveting tales, Jason Walters grabs the reins of storytelling as if it were a wild stallion. The minds of mistreated animals and people are turned inside out for us to peruse and rubberneck. He leads the reader into ambushes and acrimony, desperation and sorrow. Under or behind every rock in his wilderness lurks something hideous or heinous, building your fear to pinnacle heights. The action taken by his victims, whether villains or visitors, are uncompromising and often fatal. There is no neutral ground in his western Mecca for misfits.
   

Images of America: Early Carson City
By Susan J. Ballew and L. Trent Dolan, Arcadia Publishing, arcadiapublishing.com, 888-313-2665, 128 pages
   
Located at the base of the Sierra Nevada in a high-desert valley of northeastern Nevada, a lone trading post known as Eagle Station formed the early settlement of Carson City. In 1858, Abraham Curry purchased the property named for Christopher “Kit” Carson and set aside 10 acres for the predicted future territorial capital, which flourished after the discovery of gold and silver at the nearby Comstock Lode of Virginia City. In 1864, a 16,000-word telegram was sent to President Lincoln in Washington, D.C., declaring Nevada a state and Carson City as the permanent capital. Many wonderful reports and pictures are shared here in Early Carson City.
   

The Last Gasp: The Rise and Fall of the American Gas Chamber
By Scott Christianson, University of California Press, ucpress.edu, 800-777-4726, 344 pages.
   
The Last Gasp takes us to the dark side of human history in the first full chronicle of the gas chamber in the United States. In page-turning detail, award-winning writer Scott Christianson tells a dreadful story that is full of surprising and provocative new findings. First constructed in Nevada in 1924, the gas chamber—a method of killing sealed off and removed from the sight and hearing of witnesses—was originally touted as a “humane” method of execution. Delving into science, war, industry, medicine, law, and politics, Christianson overturns this mythology for good. More than a book about the death penalty, this compelling history ultimately reveals much about America’s values and power structures in the 20th century.
   

The Last Great Prizefight: Johnson vs. Jeffries Reno, July 4, 1910 A Tex Rickard Promotion
By Steven Frederick, self-published, amazon.com, 246 pages
   
The Last Great Prizefight chronicles the lives of three men, Jack Johnson, Jim Jeffries, and Tex Rickard, as they overcome corruption, racism, and despair to produce one of the most significant and intriguing sporting events in Nevada history. The book brings to life this fascinating era of American sports. It is unlike most sports books in its perspective; it does not focus narrowly on sports but takes a broader look at sports culture.
   

Mac King’s Campfire Magic
By Mac King, Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, workman.com/blackdogandleventhal, 212-647-9336
   
Mac King’s passion for reading is prevalent in his new book, Mac King’s Campfire Magic, featuring dozens of easy-to-learn magic tricks and stunts, with a focus on feats that can be performed with rope, bandanas, twigs, and anything else found around the campfire. King’s humorous, easy-to-follow instructions, along with his sidekick, Lewis the Monkey, are brought to life by well-known illustrator Bill King, who also draws the widely syndicated comic strip, “Mac King’s Magic in a Minute.” Readers will learn how to tie a knot with one hand, read their friends’ minds, grow a plant instantly, transform a dead twig into a leafy one, and more.
   

The Making of Modern Nevada
By Hal K. Rothman, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 176 pages
   
The Making of Modern Nevada is a compelling discussion of Nevada’s evolution from desert pariah to postmodern paradigm. Hal K. Rothman focuses on the factors that shaped the state’s original maverick status and later allowed it to emerge as the new standard of American consumerism and social liberalism. He analyzes the impact of the federal government’s role in controlling Nevada’s vast public lands and the social, economic, and political tensions between the state’s rural population and its rapidly growing urban sectors. He also considers significant changes in the state during the half-century after World War II, especially the phenomenal rise of Las Vegas as a world icon of leisure and pleasure. The Making of Modern Nevada is essential reading for anyone who wonders how the Silver State got this way and where it may be going in the 21st century.
   

More Peoples of Las Vegas: One City, Many Faces
By Jerry L. Simich and Thomas C. Wright, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 258 pages
   
Las Vegas is known as an entertainment capital, but to more than a million people of varied nationalities, it is also home. The follow-up to The Peoples of Las Vegas, More People of Las Vegas delves deeper into the richly diverse population who call America’s City of Lights home. This collection of essays provides a look into the vibrant ethnic life that lies just beneath the unique city’s glittering surface.
   

My Week at the Blue Angel
By Matthew O’Brien, Huntington Press, huntingtonpress.com, 702-252-0655, 232 pages
   
This creative nonfiction story collection boldly explores the disenfranchised and broken side of Las Vegas while highlighting the unexpected beauty in a neon wasteland, forging a path into a hidden world beneath the city, and lending a voice to the voiceless masses rarely seen.
   

Mysteries and Legends Nevada: True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained
By Richard Moreno, Morris Book Publishing, morrispublishing.com, 800-650-7888, 200 pages
   
In this intriguing volume, Richard Moreno, with his reader-friendly style, offers 17 examples of the Silver State’s mysteries and legends, ranging from ancient Indian beliefs to the mysterious disappearance of Steve Fossett and his plane in September 2007. And while many of Moreno’s pieces concern metropolitan Reno, Carson City, and Las Vegas, there are enough rural mysteries recounted to make it of interest for everyone.
   

The Nevada Review
Edited by Caleb S. Cage and Joe McCoy, thenevadareview.com
   
The Nevada Review is a journal dedicated to Nevada: It aims to enhance understanding of the state as a geographical, social, and political unit and a microcosm of the West in the broader historical and political development of the United States. Recognizing the distinctive geological, environmental, social, and ethnographic characteristics of Nevada, the Review seeks contributions that examine these features and investigate how they have contributed to the shape of its political institutions, demographic profile, and cultural mores. To this end, the Review encompasses studies from a broad range of disciplines and perspectives, including, but not limited to, history, political science, economics, and literary criticism and also accepts literary contributions of short fiction that concern Nevada, its people, and their way of life.
   

Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America
By Roger Tory Peterson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, hmhbooks.com, 498 pages
   
With all-new range maps, updated text, and new paintings, the completely revised Peterson Field Guide is sure to be a valuable addition to any birder’s pocket or daypack. At a trim size of 5 x 8, it is portable but also beautifully illustrated. Photographs, while modern looking and colorful, capture just one moment in time. The paintings in these guides, however, show all of a bird’s key field marks and use the Peterson Identification System to make bird identification easier for beginning and intermediate bird watchers.
   

Professional Bull Riders: The Official Guide to the Toughest Sport on Earth
By Jeffrey Johnstone and Keith Ryan Cartwright, Triumph Books, triumphbooks.com, 312-939-3330, 192 pages
   
This is not a rodeo. They don’t rope calves or chase barrels. This is bull riding, and the first rule is to just stay alive. It’s one man, one bull, and eight precious seconds. Professional Bull Riders: The Official Guide to the Toughest Sport on Earth is your ticket to the action. All of the blood, sweat, and dirt is here in a full-color collection of breathtaking, action-packed photographs from the Professional Bull Riders at events such as the PBR World Finals in Las Vegas.
   

Puppy Pilots
By Duke Morgan, illustrations by Robin Ewers, puppypilots.net
   
The fun begins on the spaceship Bow Wow as four puppies, Frisky, Daisy, Roberto, and Barney, are launched into space. Their destination is planet Mars. At this point, the puppies have no choice but to go along for the ride. Along the way suddenly an amazing thing happens…the puppies acquire super intelligence. From that point the story takes a fun-filled twist. This is a fully illustrated book that includes an audio CD featuring the character voices enhanced by music and Sound Effects. Puppy Pilots was created, written, voiced, and produced by Morgan, a renowned Las Vegas broadcaster.
   

Raw Edges
By Phyllis Barber, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 268 pages
   
Raw Edges reflects the predicament that many women experience as marriages disintegrate, families fall apart, and people fail to achieve the expectations that their society or faith sets for them. It is also a story of hope, of how a woman overcome by grief and confusion eventually reinvents herself and finds a new approach to life. Ultimately, Raw Edges is a love story, about what we find in life to love, about how to love, and the ability to survive pain and betrayal.
   

She Bets Her Life: A True Story of Gambling Addiction
By Mary Sojourner, Seal Press, sealpress.com, 510-595-3664
   
In this memoir, Sojourner recounts how her addiction progressed and recalls the point at which she realized her problem. She describes her time in a support group and sheds light on how women from different walks of life confront this common addiction. As they share their stories, they come to realize that although they differ in race, class, and age, they are similar in their hopes for recovery and healing.
   

Sin City Advisor’s Topless Vegas Pocket Guide
By Arnold Snyder, Huntington Press, huntingtonpress.com, 702-252-0655, 118 pages
   
Las Vegas is home to 20 topless and eight completely nude clubs, so you need an honest resource to tell you which of the many options is right for you, what to expect for your money, how to avoid getting ripped off, and how to use the locals’ tricks to have the maximum fun at the minimum cost. With the Topless Vegas Pocket Guide, you’ll learn how to avoid entrance fees at strip clubs, when the nude clubs are a better value than the topless joints, why the lap-dance law in Nevada is the loosest anywhere in the country, and most importantly, how to select from among the 28 choices—13 of them within a three-mile radius—for topless entertainment in the skin capital of the world.
   

Sleigh Rides in Lake Tahoe: Memoirs of Sam Borges
By Dianna Maria de Borges, AuthorHouse, authorhouse.com, 800-839-8640, 128 pages
   
Sam Borges, born in 1924, begins his story when his mother, Aldina, is cured of her blindness by the power of prayer. Her life’s calling then becomes a resolve to share this good news with others. Together they travel across these United States. But this is only the start of Sam Borges’ adventures. During the Great Depression Sam decides on settling in Central California as a farmer, rancher, and dairyman until a life-changing earthquake drives him north to the land of the grand Sierra Nevada, the cool waters of Lake Tahoe, and Bonanza’s own Ponderosa Pines.
   

Somebody’s Daughter: The Hidden Story of America’s Prostituted Children and the Battle to Save Them
By Julian Sher, Lawrence Hill Books, lawrencehillbooks.com, 312-337-0747, 336 pages
   
In Somebody’s Daughter author Jilian Sher goes behind the scenes to expose one of the country’s most underreported crimes: the trafficking of American girls on American streets. A girl from New Jersey gets arrested in Las Vegas and, at great risk to her own life, helps the FBI take down a million-dollar pimping empire. An abused teenager in Texas has the courage to take the stand in a grueling trial that sends her pimp away for 75 years. Survivors of the sex trade in New York, Phoenix, and Minneapolis set up shelters and rescue centers that offer young girls a change to break free. Somebody’s Daughter shines a light on one of America’s most disgraceful secrets, uncovering its causes, exposing its effects, and offering solutions.
   

Tahoe Beneath the Surface: The Hidden Stories of America’s Largest Mountain Lake
By Scott Lankford, Heyday Books, heydaybooks.com, 510-549-3564, 267 pages
   
Lake Tahoe transformed America, not just once but many times over—from the earliest Ice Age civilizations to the mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe. Tahoe Beneath the Surface brings this hidden history of America’s largest mountain lake to life through the stories of its most celebrated residents and visitors over the last 10,000 years.
   

That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas
By Tom Clavin, Chicago Review Press, chicagoreviewpress.com, 800-888-4741, 220 pages
   
Both a love story and a tribute to the entertainment Mecca, this exploration shines a spotlight on one of the hottest acts in Las Vegas in the late 1950s and early ’60s. The illuminating depiction showcases the unlikely husband-and-wife duo—a grizzled, veteran trumpeter and vocalist molded by Louis Armstrong and a meek singer in the church choir—who went on to record the 1957 album, “The Wildest.”
   

Tomorrow We Die
By Shawn Grady, Bethany House, bethanyhouse.com, 800-877-2665, 194 pages
   
In the novel by Reno firefighter and paramedic Shawn Grady, Paramedic Jonathan Trestle has had a week of death. Every call seems to end up with someone flatlining until finally he is able to revive a disheveled patient long enough for the man to hand him a crumpled piece of paper and say, “Give this to Martin.” With the simple decision to honor a dying man’s last wish, Trestle soon finds himself snared in a mystery of murder and danger. His only clue is a scrap of paper covered with indecipherable dashes, but with his future, freedom, and life on the line, he must race for the truth before the Angel of Death comes calling for him.
   

Tungsten: In Peace and War, 1918-1946
By Ronald H. Limbaugh, University of Nevada Press, unpress.nevada.edu, 775-784-6573, 284 pages
   
Tungsten in Peace and War is the first comprehensive study of tungsten and its role in modern technology, politics, and the international economy. The book combines a detailed overview of the metal’s uses in science and technology with a history of tungsten mining and production in Nevada, the U.S., and elsewhere. It also considers the geopolitics of tungsten production, especially between the two world wars of the 20th Century; and the complex national and international politics involved with the U.S.’s efforts to support and protect its domestic tungsten supply and mining industry.