Central Kansas Library System

The best-selling author of Alice's Tulips and other popular novels, Sandra Dallas exhibits a well-honed talent for evoking the past. In The Persian Pickle Club, Dallas transports listeners to 1930s Kansas, where a club of quilters welcomes a new member-and then must turn to each other for support when a startling secret comes to light. "A colorful exploration of Depression-era Kansas and the meaning of friendship."-New York Times Book Review

An account of the lives of the author's parents.

A young girl tries to make sense of an unruly world spinning around her. Growing up with a single mother who is chronically out of work and dating a married man, 10-year old Evelyn Bucknow learns early how to fend for herself.

Hope and love blossom on the untamed prairie as a young woman searching for a place to call home happens upon a Kansas homestead during the 1860s . . . A Town Called Hope, the inspiring series set in post Civil War Kansas, is the creation of best-selling romance writer Catherine Palmer. In the fast-paced Prairie Rose, impulsive nineteen-year-old Rosie Mills takes a job caring for the young son of widowed homesteader Seth Hunter in order to escape...

The fictional town of Hope discovers the importance of forgiveness, overcoming prejudice, and the dangers of keeping unhealthy family secrets.

"Readers rabid for the sweet historical romances of Tracie Peterson and Tamara Alexander will flock to best-selling author Kim Vogel Sawyer's prairie-set heartwarmer of high society cast-off and the western town that welcomes her. Abigail Brantley grew up in affluence and knows exactly how to behave in high society. But when she is cast from the social registers due to her father's illegal dealings, she finds herself forced into a role she never imagined:...

"1930's Kansas, and the family Neva Shilling never expected to raise: her husband's other family" 1930's Kansas. Neva Shilling's husband travels to neighboring communities and sells items from his wagon. In his absence she runs the Shilling Mercantile, working to keep their business strong as the Depression takes its toll, and caring for their twins. Then a deputy delivers three young children-- Warren and his wife have died, and their last request...

This book highlights the importance of Kansas' opera houses to the cultural and social development of Kansas during the last half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. The types of civic and cultural entertainments that occurred in these structures and the actors who graced their stages are discussed. A detailed listing of 900 opera houses located in more than 400 Kansas communities and the activities that were held there, from...

"Regional history at its best ... Many of the traditional tales of early hardships- grasshopper plagues, Indian attacks, the stress of loneliness and isolation, drought, blizzards, prairie fires, and the unaccostomed hazards of nature- are retold with vigor and a sense of immediacy. These gritty tales of pioneer persistence and stubbornness are used to illustrate the region's cyclical history of hope and despair ... Not the least is Miner's talents...

A guidebook for a new generation of plant enthusiasts, it includes up-to-date nomenclature, keys, and descriptions, as well as habitat, distribution, and ecological information. In addition to herbaceous plants, the book profiles several woody species. For purposes of identification, conservation, study, or the simple pleasure of thumbing through, it is a resource without parallel.