Review: Crossing the Horizon by Laurie Notaro

Title: Crossing the Horizon
Author: Laurie Notaro
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Gallery Books
Publish Date: October 4, 2016
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Ten thousand feet in the sky, flipping and twirling through the air, aviatrixes from London to Paris to New York—fueled by determination and courage—have their eyes on the century’s biggest prize. The year is 1927, and Amelia Earhart has not yet made her record-breaking cross-Atlantic flight. Who will follow in Charles Lindbergh’s footsteps and make her own history?

Three women’s names are splashed daily across the front page: Elsie Mackay, daughter of an Earl, is the first Englishwoman to get her pilot’s license. Mabel Boll, a glamorous society darling and former cigar girl, is ardent to make the historic flight. Beauty pageant contestant Ruth Elder uses her winnings for flying lessons and becomes the preeminent American girl of the sky.

Inspired by true events and real people, Notaro vividly evokes this exciting time as her determined heroines vie for the record. Through striking photos, meticulous research, and atmospheric prose, Notaro brings Elsie, Mabel, and Ruth to life, pulling us back in time as the pilots collide, struggle, and literally crash in the chase for fame and a place in aviation history."

My Two Cents:

"Crossing the Horizon" is a historical fiction tale about three women who are vying to be the female follow-up to Charles Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic. The book follows also Elsie, a woman from a rich English family who is the first Englishwoman to get her pilot's license. There is Mabel a spoiled rich woman who won't take no for an answer. There is also Ruth, who becomes one of the American women in the race. The book follows these very different women and all that they'll go through in order to try to mark their names on history. 

Flying during that time is not something that I would really want to do. After reading some of the descriptions in the book, especially the description of Ruth and her copilot flying through a storm in an open air airplane definitely makes me think that I would not like to fly in one of those planes. The author definitely knows how to write a harrowing scene! 

The author does a great job of explaining the circumstances of these women's flight and just how difficult their goal actually was to obtain. I really like the descriptions of each of the women. The author does a really good job of giving each woman her own voice and her own thoughts and feelings. I think aviation history of the early 20th-century is so fascinating. Although I'd never like to fly planes, I'm incredibly interested in them as my husband has his private pilot's license. In fact there were several parts of the book that I had to read out loud to him just because it was so unbelievable all that these women went through as they were still trying to reach the goal of being the first woman across the ocean. The stories were so fascinating that I had to look up some of the true stories of these women after reading this book. That is most definitely a good mark of good historical fiction. I recommend this book to those that like historical fiction with a side of adventure.