C.C.’s isn’t your typical rags-to-riches story. She remembers growing up in a single-wide with her older sister, stay-at-home mom and car-salesman dad. But she also remembers when they moved to ...

Beth Raymer, current Kerouac Project writer in residence, shares a disregard for boundaries with the house’s most famous ex-resident. Like the Beat-era bard, Raymer has both affection and affinity for ...

It’s hard not to like the breezy, ingenuous voice of this plucky protagonist who proves she’s game for any kind of new experience. Hailing from Ohio, Raymer eventually made her way to Las Vegas when ...

In Florida, you’re more likely to die by the electric chair than by a gator attack. So warns a middle school teacher in Fireworks Every Night, the debut novel by Beth Raymer. It follows the troubled ...

From sporting events to prostate exam results — if there's one thing you'll learn from Beth Raymer's new gambling memoir, Lay the Favorite,... What Are The Odds? A Book About Bookies Beth Raymer's new ...

Fat City by Leonard Gardner (Univ. of Calif., $25). The most realistic account of boxing I’ve ever read. There is no televised bout or belt to be won, no such thing as the “one big fight.” There is ...

One thing I’ve learned from working at an Indian casino is that appearances can be deceiving. If the stereotype is that gamblers are overweight, stogie-chewing men in sharkskin suits or young men in ...

Even if you're not heading to Churchill Downs bedazzled in a ridiculously large hat or smart searsucker, there's still one way everyone can experience the Kentucky Derby: Good old fashioned gambling.