“I write books, chase kids and eat cookies. Sometimes exclusively, sometimes simultaneously,” Las Vegas resident Lindsey Leavitt writes on her website lindseyleavitt.com. The former elementary school teacher is the author of the Princess for Hire series and “Sean Griswold’s Head.” Unlike many authors who write for young adults, Leavitt said she loved being a teen, and growing up in Las Vegas she got involved in “sports, theater, student council, honor society… yeah, I was that hyper girl you wanted to dial down. Or punch.”
Dr. Lonnie Hammargren and his wife, Sandy, opened their home at 4318 Ridgecrest Drive during a Nevada Day open house on Oct. 30. Hammargren estimates about 3,500 people showed up to see the collection of artifacts and oddities he keeps in his three adjacent houses. For more information on Hammargren’s home, visit nevadadays.org.
This week in the Centennial area, you can catch Gilcrease Orchard’s picking season before it ends or listen to Walt Aldridge and Brad Crisler at Nashville Unplugged.
Joseph and Estelle Neal have their corner of Las Vegas staked. They host thousands of visitors a year, and about 700 of them each day come and go having learned a thing or two. It’s not their house, but Neal Elementary School and Estelle Neal Park in Centennial Hills.
The Centennial Hills literary outlook is a complicated read. One of the final Borders bookstores to close this summer was a Centennial Hills neighbor and across the street from a chain competitor. A family-owned book shop in the neighborhood says its business strategies change day by day. Budget woes pushed the Centennial Hills Library to adjust to reduced hours and manpower.
Even if Pat Cassedy hadn’t lived most of his life in the same house, there’s little chance he’d forget the address. He lives on Cassedy Lane, and that isn’t a coincidence. It’s named for him.
Clark County Parks & Recreation’s Strut Your Mutt canine competition, Day of the Dead celebrations at the Winchester Cultural Center and more top the list of events this week in the Sunrise/Whitney areas.
Check out photos from President Barack Obama’s visit to a neighborhood near Las Vegas High School and more in this week’s neighborhood news.
In the Sunrise and Whitney areas, the loss of Borders may not have been felt as strongly as other parts of the valley. The big chain bookstore movement never made it there in the first place. Even without mega bookstores, eastsiders have a number of ways to get their read on. Area independent stores, authors and libraries are hard at work keeping the written word alive.
The idea that Las Vegas residents don’t read isn’t true, according to some literary figures in the downtown and Paradise areas.
“Sweeney Todd” is scheduled for 8 p.m. today at Ovation at Green Valley Ranch Resort, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway. Tickets are $15. Visit hendersonlive.com.
n LeAnn Rimes is scheduled to perform a benefit concert for StandUp for Kids at 7 p.m. Thursday at Ovation at Green Valley Ranch Resort, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway. Guests must be 21 or older. Tickets are $9.55 and are available by calling 800-745-3000 or visiting stationcasinos.com/concerts.
Denise Tatum once spent nine weeks at Vermont’s Middlebury College speaking only in Mandarin Chinese. After spending four summers in China and earning a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she now teaches Chinese and English at Liberty High School.
(It has been more than) eight years since we have moved here to help our (other) daughter and husband with their son. We have had to balance that joy with the daily grief of watching our other once beautiful daughter fight off the horrible effects of anorexia/bulimia. We have begged her husband to get her help. Her other siblings have come to Las Vegas and have called her to try to keep some relationship if at all possible.
The Henderson Professional Fire Fighters and the Henderson Police Officers’ Association are preparing to compete in the upcoming S.A.F.E. House benefit by having a little bit of fun and slinging a little bit of trash talk.
Veterans triangle in the Desert Views subdivision was named for three Henderson men killed in the Korean War.
Bookstores may close. Libraries might cut back services. Readers might grow scarce. But the need to have stories survives. “There was a headline I read that said books are dead,” said Jarrett Krosoczka, author of children’s books “Punk Farm” and the “Lunch Lady” series. “I think that is very short-sighted because stories will never be dead.”
Muscular dystrophy has not stopped Henderson artist Karen Wheeler from painting, even in the face of adversity. “It is because people with disabilities are super human,” Wheeler said. “It is hard enough dealing with a disability. But dealing with outsiders who give us problems just makes us stronger. I need to buy a Superman shirt.”
Once upon a time, Summerlin was a beehive of new home development that is until the economic meltdown hit Nevada, and especially Las Vegas, with the force of a tsunami.
Clark County School District programs such as Reading Through the Holidays, along with the All People Promoting Literacy Efforts program in the Henderson area, are some of the ways area students are being exposed to reading outside of the classroom.
This week’s downtown and Paradise events include showings of Sin City Opera’s “Ba-Ta-Clan,” the Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater’s Fall Concert Series and more.
Dr. Kevin Petersen, the man behind No Insurance Surgery, and other surgeons are planning to offer a day of free surgeries Nov. 15 through the nonprofit organization Helping Hands Surgical Care.
The Darling Tennis Center’s name pays tribute to Amanda and Stacy Darling, sisters who were killed in a car accident in 1993 at the ages of 6 and 21, respectively.
Singer-impressionist Tom Stevens plans to perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Suncoast Showroom, 9090 Alta Drive. Tickets are $10, plus tax and convenience fees. Call 636-7075 or visit suncoastcasino.com.
Even with budget cuts to publicly funded arts and literary programs, downtown continues to thrive culturally. The Las Vegas Poets Organization, 617 S. Seventh St., is one example.
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