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Lay The Favorite: A Memoir Of Gambling (2010)

by Beth Raymer(Favorite Author)

3.39 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0385526458 (ISBN13: 9780385526456)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Spiegel & Grau

review 1: I know next to nothing about gambling and especially little about sports gambling. Luckily, despite this book being all about gambling, my lack of knowledge didn’t matter much. After moving to Vegas and waiting tables, Raymer gets a job assisting a professional sports gambler and gets increasingly drawn into a shady, crazy, money-filled world that she pretends she’s still outside of. The best part of this book is not Raymer, though she’s the one telling it and most everything is happening to her. The supporting characters (especially Dinky, the first pro gambler she works for) are the reason I kept reading. I guess it’s recently been made into a pretty crappy movie (which I haven’t seen, obviously), but I can see why someone would have thought “movie!” upon r... moreeading this. It’s insane. I finished it and felt like I’d been on an all-night bender. In a good way. Great vacation book or beach read.
review 2: I don't usually write reviews, but I had to say something about this one as I really wanted to like it early on. Having lived in Vegas for over a year, and roughly around the time the beginning of the book takes place, I really enjoyed the build-up to where Beth starts to learn about bookmaking, sports lines, and the Vegas area in general, and I was interested in ins-and-outs of what goes on behind the scenes. However, I was very disappointed as it wasn't so much a "Memoir of Gambling", but instead a "Memoir of a whiny, confused, stubborn, and lost 20-something woman who somehow lands on her feet no matter how many mistakes she makes". The first 25% of the book showed great promise, but once the story shifted away from Vegas, everything went downhill. The title is MISLEADING, and the fact that they made a movie about it and it bombed (despite the all-star cast) does not surprise me. I would steer clear of this one. It's pretty awful. less

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