LAS VEGAS Books - Omar ReviewsFor each Omar T adventure, I immerse myself in books, which take place in these locations. I believe there is no better addition to experiencing a culture than delving into to its history and arts. Each Omar T book shares my book list and other cultural anecdotes. Omar and his family’s favorite book quotes are shared here.
Being Oscar – Oscar Goodman & George AnastasiaVery fun read and very insightful to the mob past and the progress and changes during the Mayor’s unprecedented three terms.
Restless City – Various AuthorsThis is a fun serial novel, where 6 Vegas writers continue a story passed from one to the next. I had already read Vu Tran’s Dragonfish, but this book enticed me to also search out books by the other authors.Dice Angel, Money Shot & The House Always Wins – Brian Rouff Three very different Las Vegas stories, all told with warmth and friendly humor. Brian is truly a master of one-liners, to always keep you chuckling and hungry to turn to the next page. Brian’s stories are also insightful to contemporary Vegas, including introducing us to some of the special type of characters that this unique city tends to draw. Brian’s lead character in Dice Angel, Jimmy D, has some traits in common with Omar T, such as owning a bar and an insatiable attraction to beauties, though he has an even greater sense of humor as well as a grand irreverence that is really entertaining. And, despite his façade, Jimmy, like Omar T, is at nature, a good guy. Feeling a little down, like after some gambling loses, read a Brian Rouff book and the world will look better again.
The Lucky – H Lee BarnesNice to read a book that really tells an epic story of extended family, while taking you back to a particular time in American history – 1960’s. The characters, all very flawed and ever so real—they will stay with me a longtime. There is some violence and especially the horror of Peter’s Vietnam service to endure, as Barnes describes the frontier of the sixties in Las Vegas and beyond. Thank you H Lee Barnes for all the work and struggle in creating and sharing this wonderfully crafted tale.
Dragonfish – Vu Tran This is the real deal, a true crafted novel. Though it takes you through a difficult tale of loss and disappointment, you will feel like a richer human for being taken along the difficult journey of these characters. Vu Tran is a writer’s writer in everyway. I knew after the first page that this would be an experience I would cherish. Read this book.
Lost in Las Vegas – Avery CardozaIf you enjoy laughing at human stupidity, drunken catastrophe and senseless arguing like seen in the “Hangover” movies, this could be a good book for you. The writing is good and the illustrations fantastic. This type of humor has always frustrated me more than amused, thus I had to attempt to skim through the folly to enjoy some of the well-crafted scenes. If you would prefer a Vegas story that is more along the lines of inspiring and fun, choose a different book.
Cold Six Thousand – James EllroyThis is an amazing “fictional” recreation of the Kennedy assassination, its connection to Las Vegas, Cuba, New Orleans, Florida, Chicago, Washington D.C. and the Mob bosses capable of ordering a “hit” on a president. The author so brilliantly mixes in fictional characters with the real, known Mob people and their great enabler, J Edgar Hoover, that this book tells a story that is more believable than the official version that Oswald and Jack Ruby acted on their own. Such an impressive dedication to create this well written, uniquely crafted novel. That being said, the rough, journalistic style is a challenge and reading almost 700 pages of crime lords and minions, with their tools of violence and corruption, is also an affront to one’s soul. Nonetheless, this is such an important story in American History that it is a worthy endeavor. Just be sure to read an Omar T story afterwards to rejuvenate your good spirit.
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Fools Die – Mario Puzo
This mostly Vegas story told by the famous writer of the novels, which inspired the even more famous Godfather movies, writes another gem with this book. Less violent, but perhaps more raw than the mob books. Rather than telling a story about the mobsters, Fools Die tells a story of people drawn to Vegas and its life of gambling and risk taking. This 1978 novel, gives you a great view inside Vegas in the seventies. As a writer, I was especially taken with how this already successful writer consistently broke the rules that we are supposed to adhere to that will allow the book to get published and be well read.
Casino - Nicholas Pileggi
The novel reads like a screenplay because it was actually finished after he wrote the screenplay for what most consider the greatest Vegas Movie, Casino. The changed names for the parts played so memorably by Robert DiNero, Sharron Stone, and Joe Pesci were very little disguised from the real characters and the actual Vegas story of Lefty and Geri Rosenthal, and Tony Spilotro. Mayor Oscar Goodman made a cameo appearance playing himself as the former mob boys defense attorney. The book, written resembling a interview and screenplay, is not an easy read, but a refreshing change for those of us who read a lot. It is worth any extra effort for all of the additional details that you enjoy, which enhance the movie’s experience.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter Thompson
Great writer, horrible story.
Omar's favorite Las Vegas Book Quotes:
Being Oscar – Oscar Goodman & George AnastasiaDice Angel – Brian RouffThe House Always Wins – Brian RouffDragonfish – Vu TranLost in Las Vegas – Avery CardozaFear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter ThompsonRisk of Ruin – Arnold SnyderRestless City – Various AuthorsThe Lucky – H Lee BarnesMemoirs of a Showgirl- Roger Storkamp & Mikel Petersonpage #
Being Oscar – Oscar Goodman & George Anastasia
36 Meyer Lansky, who the FBI said was the financial genius behind the national crime syndicate; Raymond Patriarca, the Mafia boss who oversaw all organized crime in New England; and Fat Tony Salerno, who was head of the Genovese crime family in New York, the family originally headed by the late Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who with Lansky had set up the national organization.
189 “I’ve never been to City Hall, okay. The first time will be when I’m elected. And I know there have been questions about my drinking. Let me tell all of you, I drink in excess, sometimes a bottle of gin a night. And something else: I’m a degenerate gambler. If there is a cockroach running around out there, I’ll bet on weather he goes right or left. I’ve represented bad guys, but the last time I checked, they were entitled to representation under our constitution.” He won in a landslide.
224 Homelessness is a complicated problem for which there are no simple solutions. But a city can’t give up its public space to a group of derelicts who know better.
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Dice Angel – Brian Rouff
84 To my way of thinking, she could say ‘hell’ at ten, ‘damn’ at twelve, and ‘fuck’ at fifteen, but only as an adjective. It was better to roll them out or she would have nothing to look forward to.
89 House of Blues Foundation Room – VIP Club top of Mandalay Bay
When you drive a ‘Vette, you get the kind of women who are attracted to guys who drive ‘Vettes.
a clean cut frat-boy type handed me a claim ticket and said, “Good Luck.” That’s the local equivalent of “Have a nice day.”
101 “I am nuts,” he reminded me. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about.
198 The rail in front of me was filling up with blue and black chips, but I didn’t dare count them. That is gospel according to Kenny Rogers.
The House Always Wins – Brian Rouff
103 I get the feeling that people like the idea of Las Vegas better than they like the actual place.This town is more complicated than it looks. And not as smart as it thinks it is.
105 It occurred to me that, other than the themes and color schemes, the casinos all looked pretty much the same, including the customers.
116 The thing I was learning about my adopted town: There’s always someone to make you feel better about yourself.
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Dragonfish – Vu Tran
This is the real deal, a true crafted novel. Though it takes you through a difficult tale of loss and dissapointment, you will feel like a richer human for being taken along the difficult journey of these characters. Vu Tran is a writer’s writer in everyway. I knew after the first page that this would be an experience I would cherish. Read this book.
9 It’s always been the little things I notice. Show me a man with three yes, and I’ll point out his dirty fingernails
10 The lesson of my childhood was that if you anticipate misfortune, you make it hurt less. It’s a fool’s truth, but what truth isn’t.
16 In Vietnam we say beautiful die, but ugly never go away.
213 In the end, how much distance lies between the truth and what we believe to be true? Between the things we feel at one time and the things we end up doing?
224 Driving up into these casino garages, with their stark fluorescence and low ceilings, their serpentine corridors, felt more like a descent, a submersion into something airless.
235 at least here you can be anonymous. Everyone’s from somewhere else
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Lost in Las Vegas – Avery Cardoza
If you enjoy laughing at human stupidity, drunken catastraphe and senseless arguing like seen in the “Hangover” movies, this could be a good book for you. The writing is good and the illustrations fantastic. This type of humor has always frustrated me more than amused, thus I had to attempt to skim through the folly to enjoy some of the well-crafted scenes. If you would prefer a Vegas story that is more along the lines of inspiring and fun, choose a different book.
39-40 He listens quietly, displeasure printed on his face like indelible bullet holes in a frozen carcass,
80 their expressions constant regardless of the result, as if winning or losing spins are of equal value to them—or worse, of no valueHere in this local grind joint, players are serving hard time for being dealt bad cards in life,
81 her skin is cool and foreign against John’s lips, like he’s kissed a chilled shrimp
100 Behind all this neon and lights and fountains and volcanoes and artificial crap all over the place is a city full of sleazy people and we’re deep in the shit of it, right here in this room
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – Hunter Thompson
42 For a loser, Vegas is the meanest town on earth46 Ether is the perfect drug for Las Vegas. In this town they love a drunk. Fresh meat. So they put us through the turnstiles and turned us loose inside.
On Circus Circus: “Meanwhile, on all the upstairs balconies, the customers are being hustled by every conceivable kind of bizarre shuck. All kinds of funhouse-type booths. Shoot the pasties off the nipples of a ten-foot bull-dyke and win a cotton-candy goat.”
72 This place is like the Army: the shark ethic prevails—eat the wounded. In a closed society where everybody’s guilty, the one crime is getting caught. In a world of thieves, the only final sin is stupidity.
81 No, it was too much. The line between madness and masochism was already hazy; the time had come to pull back… to retire, hunker down, back off and “cop out,” as it were. Why not? In every gig like this, there comes a time to either cut your losses or consolidate your winnings—whichever fits. I drove slowly, looking for a proper place to sit down with an early morning beer and get my head together… to plot this unnatural retreat.
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Risk of Ruin – Arnold Snyder
30 flashers – dealers who expose their cards enough to be read by players – whole teams seek them out
32 State of Nevada versus Einbinder. Einbinder won. It’s the dealer’s job to conceal the hole card, not the player’s job to avoid seeing it. So long as we’re just finding sloppy dealers—exploiting their incompetence—we’re clean in the eyes of the law.
67 In that moment, Bart understood everything there was to know about the attraction of man to motorcycle. The bike was just crude power harnessed between your legs. The bike told the world to get out of your way, to wake up, to go fuck itself. The bike was God on a leash, an insult to fear.
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Restless City – Various Authors
This is a fun serial novel, where 6 Vegas writers continue a story passed from one to the next. I had already read Vu Tran’s Dragonfish, but this book enticed me to also search out books by the other authors.
57 When he found that he enjoyed flushing the toilet while she showered just to hear her scream, he knew it was time to get the hell out.
92-93 The Cadillac’s big V-8 would cost a fortune to run every day, but Brady noticed the twenty-five-year-old yacht had 19,250 miles on it and purred in a double baritone reminiscent of the late Vegas jazz singer Joe Williams.
94 It’s been a slow day. Not a single county commissioner has been indicted.
96 In the movies, the private investigator is also a master locksmith. In reality, a pry bar and a rubber mallet are faster and more effective entry tools.
99 Bugsy, Gus Greenbaum, Moe Dalitz, Benny Binion, Kirk KerdorianGus Greenbaum (February 26, 1893 – December 3, 1958) was an American businessman in the casino industry, best known for taking over management of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas after the murder of co-founder Bugsy Siegel.
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The Lucky – H Lee Barnes
13 The flats spoke of turbulent lives tossed together, of drifting, of futures stuck in the starting blocksthe one city in the world whaere it was possible to experience interstellar travel merely by talking to a few residents
137 People seek Las Vegas when they don’t have a home.
243 crossroader – card manipulator (cheat)
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Memoirs of a Showgirl- Roger Storkamp & Mikel Peterson
126 Showgirls: “When in that role, we never perform bawdy or vulgar dance moves. Save that for burlesque and strip shows, and who knows what goes on in the privacy of escort services? Our stride requires a walking technique called “tipping” in which the motion is so smooth that the female body is covered with a g-string, and concealed by her cooch stance, thighs crossed at the crotch. A spread-leg position has no place on stage, however, long legs is an asset.
127 Showgirls embody and celebrate exquisite feminine beauty. Our features are enhanced with long, thick false eyelashes, bright red lipstick, fishnet stockings, high heels, and excellent posture. Stylized poses and choreography on stage maximize our curvaceous, female bodies. When in character, we are defined by the extravagance and glitz