Donner Party
Brown's second book, "The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride" (2009), traces the footsteps of Sarah Graves, a young bride who left her home in Illinois in the spring of 1846, bound for California. Sarah was one of a handful of the ill-fated Donner Party members who attempted to hike out of the Sierra Nevada to save herself and her family.