reviews

British Aristocrats in the Wild West... Author:  Peter Pagnamenta When I think of American pioneers, I envision Laura Ingalls and her family living by their wits and barely scraping by.   But during much of the 19th century there was a different kind of pioneer, wealthy British aristocrats searching for a life of adventure and excitement on the new western frontier.  Acclaimed BBC documentarian Peter Pagnamenta tells their story in Prairie Fever. The author tells the stories of dozens of individuals from the early fur trapping days of the 1830s through the rise of the railroads and the accompanying cattle boom [...]

Brains Are the New Catnip Author: Isabel Atherton We’re in the middle of a bonafide bout of Zombie Mania.  Movies, TV shows, novels, Zombie Apocalypse survival guides – you name it, it’s out there.  And we love it!  Zombies apparently have a special undead appeal.  Perhaps those hordes of ravenous undead seem charming in our current cultural climate.  Who knows?  Whatever the cause, there’s a major problem with the currently available media offerings. What could possibly be wrong, you ask?  WHAT ABOUT THE CATS?  That’s right, who’s worrying about our beloved pets and how they might deal with becoming undead?  [...]

Ye Olde Tyme Cozy Mystery Author: M. Louisa Locke There’s something extra cozy about a cozy mystery with a period setting.  In Maids of Misfortune, author M. Louisa Locke (an awesome cozy mystery author name, by the way) places her plucky heroine in late 19th century San Francisco and a Victorian cozy is born. Annie Fuller is a young widow running a respectable boarding house in San Francisco.  She also happens to moonlight as Sybil, the clairvoyant financial adviser.  When one of her favorite Sybil clients dies suspiciously, Annie goes into full-on detective mode to find his fortune and clear [...]