Isabella Bird was an inspiring -- and intrepid -- Victorian traveler. This book collects her letters home to her sister Henrietta during travels through the Colorado Rockies in 1873, a side-trip she made on the way home from Hawaii. Henrietta was so entranced by her sister's descriptions of foreign life that she proposed joining her in Hawaii, an offer which prompted Isabella to abandon the islands altogether. Her letters from Colorado are as evocative as those from Hawaii, but something about their content -- one-eyed suitors, hikes to 15,000 feet -- dissuaded Hennie from pressing her case.  (USW44, $7.95)