• A taste of ‘Little House on the Prairie’ in Kansas

    There might be a few people out there who never saw the famous TV show when it aired back in 1974. OK, one person. Maybe two. The “Little House on the Prairie” series is so much a part of pop culture even now that the now-50-year-old series racked up an astonishing 13.3 billion minutes of…

    Read more →

  • This 19th century iron foundry runs on water

    I’ve long been obsessed with the 19th century’s western frontier, from the breathtakingly hardy (and on occasion foolhardy) pioneers who trekked the Oregon Trail to the Gold Country towns of the California foothills. Take Sutter Creek, for example, a tiny Gold Rush-era town that offers great little restaurants, charming B&Bs, wine tasting rooms and a…

    Read more →

  • Book Passage is kicking off its annual Mystery Writers Conference this weekend with a couple of public “in conversation” events, including today’s live-stream with Louise Penny, author of the Armand Gamache series (which my chocoholic spellcheck program keeps changing to “ganache”), and Rhys Bowen, whose staggering 60+ novels include the “Royal Spyness” series and the…

    Read more →

  • An avid reader since childhood, I couldn’t resist showcasing my favorite books, shops, libraries and lit-adjacent things to do in magazine form during my time at the Merc. Fortunately, I was working with equally book-obsessed people who were delighted to join in the fun. Bookish explored everything from literary luminaries — such as Alice Walker,…

    Read more →