Reads to Wrap

The dreaded holiday gift list. So easy to draw up all the names; so hard to match them with something they might not have that they also didn’t know they’d want. Which, obviously, is new books from Nevada authors. So, we did the tough part — our gift to you.

Novel:

Dream City by Douglas Unger
For his fifth novel, the author and UNLV English professor takes on the battle for the Vegas soul. An aspiring hotel marketer eventually learns that pleasing millions of tourists a year can exact a high price for anyone charged with preserving facades — both fantastical and personal.
University of Nevada Press, $30, 356 pages

Poetry Collection:

Bellowing at the Volcano by Harry Fagel
After nearly three decades as a police officer — and almost two since his last poetry collection — Fagel has new things to say about the human condition. But cast aside your presumptions — the badge belies a full, beating, poet heart.
Zeitgeist Press, $20, 120 pages

Arts, Culture and Dining

From KNPR's State of Nevada: What are you reading? Four Nevada authors talk books

Mike Prevatt

It’s getting cold in Las Vegas, which is nice after that brutal summer. And for many people, reading a good book is the perfect thing to do when it’s this cold out.

Listen • 48:17

Memoir:

My Life in Nevada Politics: The Memoirs of Senator Richard H. Bryan by Richard H. Bryan with John L. Smith
The voice behind KNPR’s “Nevada Yesterdays” recounts his rise to prominence in Nevada politics, from UNR student body president to two-term U.S. senator.
University of Nevada Press, $35, 364 pages

Essay collections:

Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century by Barbara Brents
UNLV sociology professor Barbara Brents serves as co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the Twenty-First Century, also edited by Bernadette Barton and Angela Jones.
NYU Press, $35, 440 pages.

Comics Lit Vol. 1 by Tonya Todd
And Vegas author/actress Tonya Todd contributes to and co-edits Comics Lit Vol. 1 (also edited by A.R. Farina). The first debunks common myths; the second interprets classic ones.
Accomplishing Innovation Press, $16, 106 pages.

Tangentially Vegas:

I Will Do Better by Charles Bock
Bock no longer lives in Nevada, but that’s no reason to overlook the Beautiful Children writer’s grief-stricken memoir, I Will Do Better.
Abrams, $26, 208 pages.

Rosamond Lehmann in Vegas by Nick Hornby
Hornby’s Rosamond Lehmann in Vegas covers his columns during The Believer’s UNLV years.
McSweeney’s, $20, 170 pages.