The Cheap Bastard's Guide To Las Vegas
by Shaena Engle
There was a time when Las Vegas was known as a place where everything from hotel rooms to food and entertainment was extremely inexpensive. Unfortunately, in the modern era of glitzy mega-resorts, this is no longer true.
That is why this book can be a valuable tool for people who are seeking a good time in Vegas. The only thing better than cheap is free, and that's where the book starts off - by giving you the inside scoop on all of the free attractions in Vegas.
Looking for a steak? It's gonna cost you upwards of $45 anywhere on the strip and that doesn't even include a baked potato.
With the guide, however, you can find any number of place to have a complete steak dinner for just $7.
There are tips on how to drink in the casinos for next to nothing. Although it's true that casinos serve free drinks, if you aren't tipping the appropriate amount, the servers simply won't come back to you.
A big attraction for the savvy bargain hunters is the shopping in Vegas. With so many people losing all of their money gambling and being forced to pawn their laptops, watches and engagement rings, just to have enough money to get home, the deals to be hand on such merchandise is incredible.
The guide will help you find the best pawn shops to check out.
I'm off to Las Vegas this fall and I'm taking The Cheap Bastard's Guide To Las Vegas with me.
-- Reviewed by Marty James, catalogue technician at the Prince George Public Library.
Room
By: Emma Donoghue
Room, by Emma Donoghue, is the fictional story of a young boy named Jack and his mother who live their lives as prisoners in a small, reinforced, and inescapable shed in the backyard of their cruel captor. The story is told from Jack's perspective, with the novel beginning the morning of his fifth birthday.
Jack likes living in Room. He was born there and it is all he has ever known. His mother has kept the details of their imprisonment a secret from him, so to him, their existence is normal, and even enjoyable.
Jack has fun playing the games his mother makes up for them, and he enjoys the perceived security of their little world of two.
Jack refers to their captor as Old Nick, because he comes in the night like a character Jack recalls from a story.
Old Nick comes to bring them food and other necessities, and also to sleep with Jack's mother. During Old Nick's visits, his mother makes him hide in the bureau.
Jack's mother has done everything she can to give him the best life possible in their circumstances.
She has not told him about the outside world, leading him to believe there is nothing but empty space outside of Room, so that Jack will not feel want for what he cannot have. Whenever Jack sees something on TV that does not exist in Room, his mother tells him is not real; it only exists on TV.
His mother also never explained how they came to be in Room, telling him simply that Room is their home, Jack was born there, and he came to her from Heaven to save her.
But shortly after his fifth birthday, after a violent incident with Old Nick leaves Jack's mother at her wit's end with worry for his safety, she decides she has to tell Jack the truth, and they have to escape.
She explains to Jack that there is a world outside of Room, and that she used to live there. She tells him that Old Nick stole her from her family when she was 19, and she has been trapped in Room ever since: for the last seven years.
She then tells Jack that they are running out of time; they must escape, and it is Jack who must execute her desperate plan.
Room, by Emma Donoghue, is a gripping and chilling story of the depths parental love and human survival. Fans of crime and thriller genres will find this story an amazing page-turner.
-- Reviewed by Teresa DeReis, reader's advisor at the Prince George Public
Library
