In her latest book Zeinert offers a historical account of the violence of Bleeding Kansas, the unofficial battle over slavery in the territory of Kansas during the 1850's. It begins with the actions of abolitionist John Brown and his May 24 & 25, 1856 attack on pro-slavery settlers as a form of retaliation for the pro-slavery activists raid on Lawrence, KS, which had occurred a mere three days earlier. Thereby ensuing the territorial "reign of terror" for the next two years, pitting neighbor against neighbor. The Jayhawkers (anti-slavery guerrillas) versus pro-slavery supporters. The narrative then backtracks to the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, a bill introduced by Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas, which stated both states would be admitted to the Union as free states and settlers could decide amongst themselves if they would allow slavery. The bill along with the electioneering that occurred between the two groups tells the tale of Bleeding Kansas and eventually leads to the start of the Civil War in 1861. Unfortunately Zeinert's narrative is only useful as a resource for a research paper. By lacking a more detailed timeline and additional information on the cast of characters students who usually enjoy reading the subject matter, will doubtfully find it entertaining. Moreover, some students may not know what a Jayhawker or Free Stater is, a glossary would have been helpful when reading. Nevertheless, the oral histories highlighted throughout the text offer an insider's view of the survivor's thoughts, opinions and feelings during this period history.

TWA gone but not forgotten!

This book is ok. First thing you notice is how thin it is. Not much info in there. All it consists of is an assortment of a few BBQ recipies. The BBQ recipies are not necessarily incorrect BBQ, but that all they are. The book would be better if it had BBQ history, BBQ howto, and other BBQ related information. Just the straight recipies isnt enough. Granted, the begining has a couple pages on KC's bbq legends, but you only get a couple paragraphs on each. You also get very very litle information on important BBQ information, like the names of the cut of meat, the cooking techniques, etc. Really sparce. Plus, Rich Davis (father of KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce) should have put a recipe in for this famous sauce. This book is akin to an Anderson's (famous for their peasoup) cookbook, that omits a recipe for peasoup. Just doesnt make sense.

The journals, diaries, and other primary accounts of the men and women that settled the American West occasionally describe exciting events, but more commonly these historical records detail the routine life of an isolated settler surviving in a harsh and unforgiving land. I marvel at the courage and perseverance exhibited by so many common men and women.

In "Wild Animals and Settlers on the Great Plains", Professor Fleharty has compiled primary accounts (not reminiscences penned years later) from newspapers and diaries to detail the impact of settlers on the native fauna of Kansas during a short, critical period, 1865 -1879. His reports, while specific to Kansas, can be generalized to the settlement of the extensive Great Plains of western America.

I was pained by some of the detailed accounts of uncontrolled hunting, of unwitting habitat destruction, of seeming obliviousness to the irreversible changes that were occurring. The newspaper accounts seemed so real, because they were.

Professor Fleharty does more than report the decline of the buffalo, bear, deer, antelope bobcat, and other animals during this period of intense settlement. He also shows, again from primary accounts, that a concern for the diminishing wildlife gradually developed, leading to hunting regulations and protective legislation. Our modern understanding and appreciation for protecting wildlife and the environment did not suddenly emerge a few years ago, but evolved steadily from these early concerns.

The strength of this book - its extensive quotations from newspapers and other primary sources - is also its weakness. I commend Professor Fleharty for his extensive research. However, as might be expected, many of these reports are similar, some even repetitious. Some, possibly a sizeable fraction, could have been relegated to an appendix, or possibly footnotes.

Possibly because Dr. Fleharty was trained as a zoologist, and not as an interpretive historian, he seemed reluctant to offer interpretations and extrapolations based on the rather sparse and anecdotal reports. And yet, as a zoologist willing to undertake historical research, his interpretations and insights, even speculations, would have been very interesting indeed.

If Dr Fleharty does revise this interesting book, I would like more discussions on how and why things happened. Tell us more about animal population dynamics in Kansas from 1865 to the present. What other ecological trends were set in motion during this short, catastrophic period? Could more steps have been taken earlier to mitigate the negative impact of the extensive settlement on the Great Plains?

Also, while I recognize that we cannot recreate the Great Plains of the 1860s, I am curious about Professor Fleharty's views on the ongoing movement to create large, natural grasslands preserves in the mid-continent. We cannot change the past, but we may be able to shape the future.

THE WINDOW GARDEN TO ME WAS NOT A VERY ROMANCE BOOK I HAVE REED LOT OF ROMANCE NOVALS AND I FEEL THAT SALLY AND NICOLE WERE NOT IN LOVE. I HAVE NEVER READ ANY OF JANET MCCLELLAN MYSTERY BUT I THING SHE SHOULD STICK WITH MYSTERY. IT IS GOOD READ BUT IT NOT A GOOD LOVE STORY. I READ THE BOOK AND I STILL DO NOT KNOW HOW THEY FEEL IN LOVE THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TOGETHER THEY DIDN'T TALK, WORK, OR JUST HANG OUT TOGETHER. IT WAS NOT A VERY GOOD LOVE STORY.

City Lights, Country Candles is Penny Hayes 7th novel. For some unknown reason she falls down badly on this one.

This novel is one of those stories within a story, that rarely work well.


In this case we begin with Laurie who lives with herboyfriend, Joe.

The year is 1960.

Laurie goes on a vacation without Joe. She goes to visit her long time, best friend, Eveleen, who lives on a ranch.


Once there, Laurie is coerced into sitting up until the wee hours of the morning listening to stories of several women that Eveleen's Great, Great Grandmother is determined to tell Laurie about.


Great, Great Grandmother is 102 years old, and time is running out for her.

Grandma's voice as narrator is dropped, thankfully, as each of these women's stories is told.
The stories are all quite similiar--each woman "gets caught" by some unreasonable man: a brother, husband or father who is displeased with the woman's non-traditional thoughts and actions, and sees to it that she is carted off to a mental institution.

As we progress thru these women's stories, each story becomes less detailed, and less shown.

By the time we get to the last character, Sadie, the story becomes so lacking in detail, one can only wonder what led the character into her concluding situation.

When Laurie begins hearing the voices of these women from the past--the story really gets goofy.


The only part of this book I liked was that the women in Grandma's stories were all from the eighteen hundreds.

This novel tells of an important historical fact, one rarely written about. Well into the 20th century, women could be locked up for their entire lives in mental asylums for their sexual orientation or just about any reason their male family members wanted. The stories of these incarcerations are fascinating. However, what those stories have to do with the romance between the main characters is not readily apparent. As a lesbian romance, this book doesn't do well. That part of the book is a little silly. Very much in the "NO! No. no...yesssss" vein. Yet, though the book is uneven, it is worth reading for its historical perspective.

This book is nothing more than a rehash of Stuart N. Lake's book on Wyatt Earp. Vestal has got Earp carrying the Buntline Special, walking on water and leaping tall buildings. This book would be fine along side a Zane Gray novel.

Stanley Vestal is a good writer when it comes to anecdotal history. The yarns he spins are interesting, and often quite amusing. This book, written in 1952, is not as dated as one might think. One will recognize differences in word choice (political correctness), but overall, this book is a good choice for someone who is not interested in a chronological history of Dodge City, but wants a highly readable book of anecdotes that tell the history of Dodge City. As an additional note, Vestal goes to great pains to disprove many of the myths that popular TV shows and nickel westerns have brought forth about the West, especially Dodge City. Vestal's view of Dodge is not from Gunsmoke! To anyone who is interested in the real story, this is particularly heartening.

The author brings a little too much 1990s sensitivity to the 1870s, creating a world which just didn't exist. In the author's view, the indians were good, pure, clean, and represented just about every good quality; while the settlers and cavalry were less-than-bright exploiters of the wilderness and ravagers of the environment and the local populace. This kind of revisionism gets tiresome, and luckily my 10 and 12 year old kids recognized this as well as I did. The author's reliance on politically-correct ideology creates unbelieveable characters and situations. If the author had himself been a settler in Kansas during that time period, I believe we would have had a different point of view in this story.

A Beautifully Written Story about a Young Boy and His Horse who face and Overcome many Challenges. NOT meant to be a True to life Historical Novel. My Son and I loved it! Nice to read a Warm Inspiring Story about a Different Time and Place.

To say that I am appalled at Mr. Mitrione's writing of this book, more specifically the book's subject matter, is an understatement. Having lived in South Florida during the time of Mitrione's employment as an FBI agent there, I am very familiar with his career and the circumstances which ended that career. It is chilling to contemplate how Mitrione researched this book by gaining information from the honest, hardworking investigators who were able to bring Grissom to justice. Even more disturbing is how Mitrione intruded into the lives and the pain of the victim's families. I agree that this story should have been told to honor the victims-especially the young women whose bodies were not recovered-their families, and the incredible dedication of the law enforcement officers. I am sorry that Mr. Mitrione was the one to tell it, and I am left wondering why he did.

This is one of the worst true crime books I've read. The narrative is disjointed and hard to follow. There is very little information about the psychology of the killer. The writing is insulting to the reader - it almost seems as though the book was written for children. If you read a lot of true crime like I do (Ann Rule, etc.) then you probably won't enjoy this book - it is horrendous writing. However, this case of Richard Grissom, probably the most heinous murderer in the history of Kansas, deserves more attention.

The book Suddenly Gone, was not the best I have read. I knew two of these girls and why Grissom wont give the families a chance to locate and burry the victims is beyond me. This case brought to life the Death Penalty in the state of KS. And if not for one mans driving force through it all its hard to say that Grissom would have been convicted. Thank you Paul Morrison, for caring so much for the girls and the families. I am from Overland Park Ks. and also know that Grissom most likely killed at least one other girl, Terri. Our town was in tears as the search continued for years. If you didn't live through that trial and feel first hand what went on you can't possibly know the effect it had and still has on many of the KCMO and KCK Overland Park and Olathe Ks areas. You are still loved and missed so very much. Pasha Oswalt

I find "Kansas Off the Beaten Path" (5th edition) to be an interesting guide to Kansas sights and attractions, but it seems to be loaded with inaccuracies.

Page 4 - "The term Huron is not really the name of a Native American Tribe..." Wrong - there is a Huron tribe.

Page 7 - "The Great Mall of the Great Plains - Kansas City" This is in Olathe - not Kansas City.

Page 38 - "Wealthy old Marblecrest Street has a panoramic view of the Marmaton River valley..." Marblecrest is neither wealthy nor old, and very little of it overlooks the river valley.

Page 38 - "The Good Ol' Days...is a celebration of life from the 1840s through today...." It is the recreation of an 1899 Street Fair.

Page 39 - "The Bourbon County Fair takes place the fourth week in July..." If you come then, you will miss it.

Page 41 - "Hollister Wildlife Area, 8 miles southwest of Fort Scott on Highway 69...." It's several miles off Highway 69.

Page 42 - "...Darnaby's Berry Farm and Country House...." It has been closed for several years.

Page 51 - The account of the Civil War battle: "...a total massacre of the Fort Scott troops." This is incorrect.

Page 130 - The account of Squaw's Den Battleground: "Their escape took them through eastern Kansas...." their route was in western Kansas.

This could be a really good guide to out-of-the-way attractions in Kansas, but I could not trust its accuracy. If there are as many mistakes in the rest of the book as in the portion with which I am familiar, I question its value. A book in its 5th edition should have those inaccuracies corrected. The authors need to recheck some of their information.

The book is interesting, but seems to have a number of inaccuracies. i.e., the location of the Branding Iron Restaurant (p. 45), the military bridge, "...one of only two remaining structures..."(p. 43)[the bridge was dismantled many years ago (maybe 20 years); "Wealthy old Marblecrest Street .." (p. 42), [I guess this is Marblecrest Drive; I would not call Marblecrest Drive wealthy or old]; the Battle of Mine Creek, "...fought near Trading Post..."(p. 42) [Mine Creek Battlefield is several miles from Trading Post; it is about two miles from Pleasanton.]

I find the book interesting, but with these inaccuracies in the areas with which I am familiar would cause me to be afraid to trust the book for areas in which I am not familiar.