About book Lay The Favourite: A True Story About Playing To Win In The Gambling Underworld (2012)
This is a book that I received from a Goodreads giveaway.What to say about this book? It started off interestingly enough and moved along fairly well until I got about a third of the way through. I learned a bit about gambling (a world I knew nothing about prior to reading the book) but after 60+ pages I felt the book wasn't going anywhere. I may have missed the point but it seemed to me that the author was simply recounting her days at work. The characters in her book are colorful and fun to read about and there are some good stories (particularly about the author's stint as an escort) but it all started to sound the same after a while. Maybe if I were more of a sports fan or more interested in gambling my interest would have been held longer.The author writes well and could write an interesting book if she had a topic or story line that kept moving toward some sort of resolution or climax or even a cliffhanger. However, as it is, Lay the Favorite just loses steam. I didn't finish it because I kept getting interested in reading other books and didn't really have interest in finishing Lay the Favorite. I see that the book has been made into a movie--the movie may fare better because of the visual appeal a movie can provide. On paper though, in black and white, the appeal that would have made me want to read the entire book is missing. Full disclosure: I received a FirstReads copy through Goodreads.com.I am not a gambler (I do play the nickel slots in Vegas when I pass through, but that doesn't count), and I don't fully understand betting lines, but I understand that this was an excellent memoir! It's actually a true account of the author's experiences in Las Vegas, New York City, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica.She works in a couple of different situations where everyone swims in cash (and someone else's embezzlement hurts the whole organization on a couple of occasions) while trying to "find herself" - she boxes rather successfully on the side in New York - and looks for love.The best part of the book is Raymer's narrative style. She tells of funny and tragic stories, and the text flows so effortlessly that it is much more like a novel than a re-hashing of a twenty-something young woman who doesn't know what she wants out of life.The bottom line is that I enjoyed this book a lot more than I even expected to.
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Recieved my "giveaway book" last night and stayed up all night to consume it. Very enjoyable story.
—Claudiadorcely
Perfect reading for airport layovers...the pages just flew right on by.
—aikesakes
She mostly just talks about how much sex she has.. Kinda gets old
—Angie
Heard the author on a radio show and gave it a shot. Fun read.
—jazzy4u
