Review: Crossing the Horizon by Laurie Notaro

Crossing the Horizon

by Laurie Notaro

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pages: 464

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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.

Kritters Thoughts:  An interesting cross between fiction and non fiction with most of the content of the story being true, but told in a fictional way - I enjoyed reading the ups and downs of the first women to try to cross the Atlantic by plane and all of the hoops they had to jump through just to potentially get the plane in the air.  

The cast of characters was massive and with the common goal in mind it was hard at times to remember who was who and who they were working with.  This was definitely a notepad kind of book and at times I was a little frustrated.  In the first few chapters the ladies had their own chapters, but once they were all introduced their stories intermingled in each chapter, I am not sure I liked that.  Only as an editing opinion, I would have liked shorter chapters with each of their stories more defined than having them weave in and out.  

My timing of reading this book couldn't have been more spot on!  In early September I took my husband to see the Kitty Hawk Wright memorial museum and it was so fun to read about the first attempts for man to get into the sky!  Reading these women's stories after visiting that museum helped put the book in perspective as to not just financing but parts and the mechanics of flying took a lot for this industry to form.  

I appreciated the book for providing a lot of knowledge in such a great format through full stories.  I would absolutely read another book by Laurie Notaro, this was a fun way to learn something without cracking a "textbook."


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Gallery Books.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.