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I gave this book as a gift to my father years ago when I was hoping to get him to do something other than watch T.V. westerns all day. He got so into it that by the next time I visited he had borrowed like a dozen books in the series from the library. He said he stopped reading them when he realized it was a romance. I wanted to see what he got all fusted about.

How you couldn't figure out it was a romance within the first few chapters, I have no idea. But not like trashy romance novel with a bare-chested man on the cover and steamy sex scenes more the widow who doesn't need no man, and the mountain man who don't need no woman who think they hate each-other end up needing to rely on each other.

Story starts with Andrew Jackson trying to organize a nation wide wagon train to settle the Oregon Territory in hops of strengthening the American claim to the property. But spies from Britain and Russia join the wagon train as pioneers with an intention to sabotage. They will do anything to stop the wagon train so that they can claim the territory.

I'm not that familiar with this history beyond playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II, but it seems believable. Explanation of why women who don't want to leave the comfy east coast seem pretty likely related to the inability for them to own property on their own.

The train grows while they make their way across the U.S. from Long Island to Pennsylvania, to Ohio, Illinois and finally to Missouri. Our heroines have to learn a full new way of life, whether its one learning to shoot, another learning to care for others, and the tomboy learning to admit to herself she is still a lady.

The wagon train is a new adventure, but also a way to start over, whether from a failed business venture, a life as a call girl, or a conviction of murder. Everyone has to learn to pull their weight, and new families are built. All while having to avoid deadly snakes, stampeding buffalo, and men of all colors and sizes that don't end up quite like you expect.

A light quick read that covers serious topics without taking itself too seriously. I'm putting the next NEBRASKA! in my queue.

Phil Gigante is a great reader his characters are top notch, but it still felt a little weird, primarily because I've listened to him read many books in the Stainless Steel Rat series that it felt weird to have him in the American frontier.

Rucka was one of the authors who contributed to the late 90s "Batman No Man's Land" event over the course of 83 separate comics. He writes the novelization in a way that gets the story across while still wanting to go out and buy 83 twenty-five-year-old comic books.

The story goes that an Earthquake destroyed much of Gotham City, and then a hurricane and because it would cost so much to repair, and Gotham was already notorious for being a government sink hole due to all the crime the feds declared it a No Man's Land and was cut off from the rest of the country, blew up the bridges, put mines in the seas and told Gotham good luck and good riddance.

The normal baddies stayed behind: Joker, Two-Face, Penguin, Poison Ivy & Black Mask. Plus the to be expected regular dudes just trying to make it in gangs. Most of the government leaves, only a dozen or so of the GCPD are left, including Gordon, because no other police force he applied to wanted someone who needed a myth to do his policing for him.

It's certainly a look at how anarchy could occur in our modern age. I read most of this over 3 days. Even at >400 pages the end felt like it came too soon with a particular billionaire, no not that one, saving the day.

A few interesting notes, we see three different Batgirls here, including Oracle. A Batman who disappears, who practically forgets who Bruce Wayne is. A police force that has to become a gang themselves in order to have any chance of policing. And a particular clown who shows up just when he's wanted least.

I was somewhat disappointed in Poison Ivy. She shows at the very beginning of the story, and throughout the book she is hinted at to be laying low in the Park, but is never seen from again, even when the park is destroyed.

I don't normally review cookbooks, but this one was necessary. Earlier this year my doctor recommended I take up a primarily Mediterranean diet to help with my heart failure and obesity. I picked this cookbook up from the library because it sounded like a good place to start. This is the only book I ever liked so much that I purchased a copy before the library book was even due. So far, we have liked every recipe we've tried in the book, and in the 6 weeks I've been using it as my primary source of meals I've lost over 20 lbs., and my blood pressure has remained in check. I'm only giving 4 stars rather than 5 as Paravents isn't actually the best author. In particular in the introduction part, she talks about how to grocery shop and includes that when choosing whether to purchase something ask yourself if someone on a Mediterranean village would have this in their kitchen. I'm a Midwesterner I have no reference for what they would have in their kitchen. It's the 21st century so I assume we all have access to the same groceries. Also, in one recipe she completely missed a step. She had us to mix a set of ingredients and set it to the side, but then never said what to do with it later in the recipe.