There is a mall on the strip, but when we went it was undergoing renovations and I wasn't impressed. It was just past Circus Circus, if I remember right. Then, a bunch of the hotels have extension shopping malls within them, with your regular shops... like Ann Taylor, Build a Bear, Gap, etc. Others, like the Bellagio and Venetian, have upscale shopping areas... for us, we just wandered until we found stuff =) That was part of the fun =) You can always pick up brochures at the airport when you get there, and at the conceirge desk at your hotel. That's all we did... the first hour or so we hung out a the pool and flipped through the stuff and made notes of what we wanted to see... like the volcano, pirate fight, tigers, fountains, etc.
The only monorail I remember is the one that goes from MGM to the hotel on the other side of Paris... the one that Paris connected to, er, can't remember. We stayed at Paris and could walk through to that hotel, and take the monorail to the MGM. It was a good AC way to get to MGM and NYNY. Cuts out a couple of hotels and long walks. Its amazing how big these hotels are...