Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women Kindle Edition

With a good book, I tend to milk it to make it last longer, sometimes taking several weeks to finish it. This was not the case with this book. I was hoping it wouldn't be a clinical, sterile look into this brothel life, and it wasn't. In fact, it was so engaging I read it in only a few sessions. It was heartfelt, as she studied the brothel industry at Mustang by listening to and observing the women.Very well written and compassionate. My only complaint is that this book is almost 20 years old. I wonder/worry what happened to some of these women. Brittany and her strange sad client (who acted like he was her husband), Baby, the 60'ish year old woman (who by now would be in her early 80's) and the two crabby women in their 40's. I wonder what became of them?The publisher should let the author write an "Afterward" and catch up what has happened to some of these women. I'd even buy another copy just to read that!

There are obviously many opportunities to sensationalize this subject, but Alexa Albert didn't take the bait. As a medical student, Alexa Albert provided a truly independent analysis of the Nevada brothel industry. With that said, this book is quite easy to follow. It doesn't read like some stuffy medical journal. Her primary interest was related to STD prevention and she took extreme measures to examine the safety measures of the brothel. That included inspecting every condom after it was used and, at times, witnessing these sex workers examining their clients' genitals with halogen lights to inspect for STDs.She was an excellent listener who didn't judge the morality of these women. That came across in the writing. As a result of her approachable mentality, several of these women opened up and offered remarkable insight into their backgrounds, motivations, reasons for working there, etc.Alexa Albert explained how the legalized prostitution system came about in Nevada and the details are very interesting. Overall, she did an excellent job of critiquing the pros and cons of the industry. In particular, she pointed out that many of the regulations in place compromise the basic freedoms of these women, exploit them financially, and provide more power to the brothel owners. To the contrary, she shows that the legalized system has provided a lucrative income and workplace safety for these women, reduced STDs, and it isn't a menace to the community.

Mrs Albert's book title alone is enough to get some people to make some strong assumptions about the content of this book. They could not be further from the truth. The only reason I read this was because I wondered what research would result from a happily married mother and M.D. going to live (not work) in a Nevada brothel for the purpose of a medical school study of sexually transmitted infections. This book in no way is salacious or filled with fictional glamour. It tells the most objective story of life in Nevada's legal world of prostitution. The author is very transparent about her conflicted thoughts of what she was witnessing. One major note, while the book is excellent and still worth reading, the 'industry' has advanced considerably since the book was published.

I read this book as part of a class assignment. I have long believed that criminalizing prostitution does more harm than good. The book vindicated my views - the author cites several studies which demonstrate that prostitutes in legal brothels work under much safer conditions than prostitutes who work illegally. However, I also learned that the current system of regulated prostitution in Nevada is far from adequate and has much room for improvement - for example, living off the income of a prostitute is illegal. This law was designed to prevent pimping, but it was written under the assumption that sex workers only support themselves with their income - so a person's spouse and child(ren) are automatically made criminals under this law. Another law requires weekly testing of a "cervical specimen" for a prostitute to work legally, which means that anyone without a cervix is effectively prohibited from working as a prostitute (which includes not only trans women and cis men, but also any cis woman who's undergone a total hysterectomy.)Overall, this was a very well-written, eye-opening ethnography. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about legalized prostitution, although the reader should keep in mind that it was written in the 90s and that much has probably changed since then.

I loved this book from start to finish. It is one of my all time favorites. In fact is the probably the fastest I can remember reading a book because I could not put it down. I will reread it sometime. It was like a great movie, worth the time more than once. The author does an outstanding job of writing about her experience in the brothel. She goes into good detail about how her time there opened her eyes to a lot of things. I really don't want to say anymore because I don't want to give anything away. It was just a great book. Sorry this review is not very detailed. I just can't seem to put into words how to express how much I loved reading this.

Investigative journalism in book form. I dug it. Went into the history of brothels without getting boring. Spoke on individual lives in brothels. Spoke on both the corruption and other perspectives. All in all, an enjoyable, quick read.

Didn’t enjoy the book. Not what I expected.

Excellent and informative book 📖 on the Brothel Business. Alexa covered all aspects of the Mustang Ranch Brothel in great detail. Highly recommend book 📖 to anyone thinking of owning/operating a Nevadan Brothel. Kudos to Alexa Albert.