East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart

Much like "Hughes" was the definitive biography of Howard Hughes, "East to the Dawn" is for Amelia Earhart. Both books show all facets of these aviation pioneers. And both dive into the little details of not only the subjects but also of the environment in which they lived.

The narration is lovely, and easy to follow. The only negative is that the genealogy of Ms. Earhart at the beginning is a little dry (though important for a definitive biography). It picks up tremendously once the book focuses on Amelia.

Amelia made some very surprising twists and turns in life to find herself a competitive flyer. This biography pays homage to her selflessness, zest for life, and adaptability to good times and bad. You will see yourself in her conflict between her desire for independence, and the struggle with rootlessness. A complete picture of Amelia as a full person, and a must read.

In many fictional or biographical accounts of this interesting and forward thinking woman the emphasis is usually placed on her last flight, where she went down and what happened to her.
In this book by Susan Butler we get to see and understand the person behind the public persona: from her scandalous affairs to her Clothing line for Women and from her fierce loyalty to her casual betrayals of those close to her. What Ms. Butler portrays is a complex and even conflicted figure.
The narrator does a substantial job of taking this book from text to audio.
Even if you are not an Ameliaphile, this book is well worth the price.

This book was very informative, interesting about the life and limitation of Amelia Earhart. It doesn't try to make her more than she was, more or less perfect. It is fascinating in the advances of avionics at the time, and the roles women had to assume. The narration is fantastic, I sure do miss Anna Fields.

It's an interesting book in that I now know, presumably, Amelia as a person. Her entire life including every family member, friends and foes (actually, I do not think she had any enemies). It is rich with history regarding the beginnings of air flight when it was truly a daring feat. Anyone who is a fan of aeronautics will definitely enjoy this book. For me, it was a little more difficult to get through -- although it was worth the read to learn so much about that time and the types of people who became interested in flying virtual death traps. Even if you have seen the PBS special programs, regarding Amelia, this with take you to much greater heights! However, I have not finished the book yet -- I have a about 4 hours left out of a 19 hour book.

Anna Fields does a very good job narrarating this book. I decided to read/listen to this because I myself am a pilot and had always admired AE. After seeing the recent movie starring Hillary Swank, I wanted to know more about this amazing woman. East to the Dawn is another classic example of "the book is much better than the movie." The big screen could never provide the detail that Susan Butler provides. From flying to helping her gender live up to their potential, she was passionate, smart, and effective in her pursuits. One of AE's famous quotes was "The most effective way to do it, is to do it." To me, this simply summarizes her way of life and what made her so special.

Probably down the road sometime.

Don't have one moment.

No, but I will look for her reads. Felt like Amelia talking.

They have and I had to watch it right after the book. It is "Amelia"

All around outstanding.

We all know what happened. So, no biography of Amelia Earhart can give us a surprise or a happy ending.

That said, this was a most interesting listen. I'm not a history-of-flight addict and mostly wanted to hear an outstanding woman's story of life in a man's industry. I learned a lot about her and, incidentally, about flying. Earhart is presented here as a fully-dimensional person, with great strengths and pretty great faults too, at times.

Perhaps because of my lack of fascination with flying itself, the book was somewhat too long for my taste. I stayed with it and, as I have said, learned a lot. Anyone who has a particular interest in the history of aviation may well treasure every word of this long biography. For the rest of us, it's a good look at an intriguing woman and at an exciting era in American history, but it's a bit too long.

Wonderfully researched biography. Outstanding narration. I feel I have vicariously lived a piece of exciting history that I previously knew little about. I am going a second round to be further inspired by Amelia and the other women flyers of her time. Should be required reading/listening for girls and young women!

An interesting read but the author spends the first half describing how our heroine lies, cheats, misrepresents herself to get jobs, positions that she does not deserve, e.g., three months at a university that offers an engineering degree justifies putting engineer BSEE on her resume.

Lying to get a position she did not deserve, parlays that into meeting influential and wealthy people just so she can claim to be the first woman across the Atlantic while she sat on a pile of gas cans behind the pilot and co-pilot to get a female version of Charles Lindberghs;s recognition is ludicrous.

The author finishes up with an unabashed glorification of how streets, towns and even airports were named after her. I guess the message is marry money; throw in a big dash of deception to get what you want is OK.

Other than that it is an easy read.