My husband and I had the great opportunity to attend a slide presentation by the author of this book, Robert Marsh. He certainly was well qualified and very interested in doing this work. Barns in Kansas and all around the world are falling everyday to people who are either not interested or cannot afford their upkeep. This is a wonderful tribute to those fantastic structures in our state. Hats off to Marshall who, along with his wife, drove 11,000 miles all over the state to gather interviews, pictures and priceless history from a bygone time. Great reading. Well researched. Wonderful pictures.

Barry's Beginning of the West is a 'must have' reference book for studying pre-territorial Kansas. It is a chronological listing of people and events, and is very well indexed.

The "Benders" had a small, wayside inn near Cherryvale, Kansas. As travelers would stop by for a bite to eat, they would be seated in front of a curtain behind which "Kate Bender" would smack them on the head with a hammer. They would be robbed and their bodies would be dropped through a trap door in the inn floor. Later the bodies would be buried in the back yard. The travelers would just "disappear" and their families were unable to find them. About 50 people were killed before people started getting suspicious. The Benders discovered that they were under suspicion, and fled before they were caught. Local citizens unearthed the bodies and tried to find them but they were never caught. No one knows where they originally came from, or where they ever went. They are the first serial murders in the United States. It's been a few years since I read the book, but it is very interesting - and the original hammers are still on display at the Cherryvale Museum. There used to be a "Bender Museum" in Cherryvale with a display set-up with manequins just like the inn has been described. The museum has a bunch of information that has been collected over the years and Fern Wood serves on the Museum Board. The museum is only open on Sunday afternoons during warm weather. For further information contact the Cherryvale Chamber of Commerce. There have been several books written about the subject over the years, but this is the only book written that is still in print.

Best Of The Best From The Great Plains Cookbook compiles its recipes from 88 cookbooks drawn from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. From a non-alcoholic Hot Buttered Rum to Mexican Ice Cream, this impressive, highly recommended compendium offers up wonderful selections for any family meal time or celebratory dining occasion. Of special interest to cookbook enthusiasts is the extensive listing of titles for the entire "Best of the Best" cookbook series from Quail Ridge Press.

Hilarious, as well as thought-provoking and sometimes poignant vignettes of small-town people in the US Heartland, by an English writer.

The best account of the infamous Lawrence, Kansas massacre during the Civil War. Goodrich uses meticulous detail and vivid writing to deliver a fascinating, often gruesome depiction of Quantrill's raid. The casual reader will find "Bloody Dawn" riveting; the historian will discover a treasure trove in the copious footnotes and bibliography. A must for anyone interested in the seamy underbelly of the "bleeding Kansas" era.

Blue Horizons, by Irene Bennett Brown, portrays the status of women during the frontier period with wrenching accuracy. It's hard for contemporary readers to envision a time when "the gentler sex" had few legal protections and were basically the property of their husbands. Her story continues with the characters from the first book in the series, Long Road Turning, and focuses on the courageous Meg Brennon. Hunted by a sadistic husband who has already crippled her for life and will do anything to get her back, Meg attempts to get a legal divorce at a time when the courts were cruelly disposed to dismiss claims of mental and physical abuse as "provoked" by the victims. By exposing her location and new identify to her husband, which she must, if she appeals to the courts, she risks incurring more abuse or even death. In St. Louis, she befriends Hamilton Gibbs an excellent lawyer and truly compassionate human being who is awed by the strength of the disparate group of women who are creating the town of Paragon Springs in Western Kansas. Not only is Blue Horizons a moving, face-paced story, Brown's details on women's rights in the 1880's could serve as a text for sociology students. Adding to the tension are attempts to destroy the fiber of the precious fragile community by a rancher, Jack Ambler, who sees town-building as providing legitimacy for the homesteaders. Blue Horizons is a masterful blend of fiction and history. Definitely recommended for the discerning reader.

Albert Castel was able to make the Civil War in Kansas apeal to the senses. The truth about the war and how it tore society apart while bringing it back together. The book is one of the best about Kansas during the Civil War.

Have never made anything from this book that was bad. It is written by the KC Junior League and I am not a member and know no members. Give as gift all the time along with the Southern Living Cookbook. This one has a little fancier food that make you look like Martha Stewart but with less effort.

The critical events and personalities of the civil rights movement weren't confined to the southern United States. As Gretchen Cassel Eick so ably demonstrates, Wichita, KS was itself a center of the struggle in the critical period from 1954 through 1972.
From a 1958 drugstore lunch counter sit-in that predated the more famous one in Greensboro, NC by two years, to agonizing struggles for school and housing desegregation, this mid-sized city far from the national headlines had all of the elements.
As reviewer Randy Bradbury said in the Wichita Eagle, "Gretchen Cassel Eick's book is a well-documented reminder that Kansas has been and is a place divided along racial lines, where opportunities differ depending on skin color."
Professor Eick creates a compelling narrative by weaving Wichita happenings in with those on the national level. So we see Wichita events in a context of changes in social beliefs, political leadership and even how they shaped and were shaped by infighting in the national leadership of the NAACP.
She also introduces us to a fascinating cast of activists at the center of the local struggle, a few of whom also played national roles.
The book works on two levels -- both as a narrative for the lay reader and as a well-documented study for academics.
As Bradbury wrote in his Wichita Eagle review, the book "must be considered an essential read for anyone interested in the history of race relations in Wichita or hoping for a foundation to begin understanding where those relations stand today. Additionally, however, the book is an exceelent primer on the national civil rights movement..."