If it is true that a region is defined by its people and their culture, then Jim Hoy and Tom Isern have taken a second giant step in defining the Great Plains. Plains Folk II: The Romance of the Landscape continues that story. As in the first volume, Plains Folk: A Commonplace of the Great Plains, the authors write about hardy plains dwellers - a rare breed who feel out of place anywhere except on the prairie - and their cultural heritage, derived from many countries in both the Old World and the New. Here are stories about plains folklore, animals, food, lifestyles, and artifacts in a land of buttermilk and blabs, Bigfoot and bindweed. Sharing their experiences of the plains region, Hoy and Isern convey their sense of place and their affection for the area. They see beauty in landscapes that others, used to mountains or forests, deem barren. They look beyond the seemingly flat surface into the lives and culture of those who turned the Great American Desert into the Garden of the World.