Circling the Sun by Paula McClain for Women’s History Month

Circling the Sun by Paula McLain

March is Women’s History Month.What better way to honor the women of the past then to discover and honor their lives through literature. Paula McLain, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller The Paris Wife, excels at bringing strong women’s stories to life through the art of fiction.

Circling the Sun (Ballantine Books, July 2015) “tells the story of Beryl Markham, a record-setting aviator whose passionate love triangle with safari hunter Denys Finch Hatton and Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, awakens Beryl to her truest self and her fate: to fly.” The novel takes place in 1920’s Kenya and if discovering new landscapes and intriguing historical figures is something you enjoy then Circling the Sun is the perfect read.

“Things come that we never would have predicted for ourselves or even guessed at. And yet they change us for ever.” – Paula McLain, Circling the Sun

McLain unrolls the layers of life in Kenya with pitch-perfect descriptions and poignant details of daily life.

Living in Kenya with her mother and father, Beryl is ultimately abandoned by her mother and raised by her strong father. This unusual upbringing transforms Beryl into a bold, unconventional, wild and free-spirited woman. Uprooted by the tragic financial downfall of her father, Beryl is thrown into a string of disastrous relationships.

“Sometimes when you’re hurting, it helps to throw yourself at something that will take your weight.”

She decides to create a life for herself as a horse trainer. What’s fascinating about this book is that it is more about horse training and racing than flying and yet flying is ultimately what will mark Beryl’s name in history. She was the first person to fly solo, non-stop across the Atlantic from east to west.  

“There are things we find only at our lowest depths. The idea of wings and then wings themselves. An ocean worth crossing one dark mile at a time. The whole of the sky. And whatever suffering has come is the necessary cost of such wonders, as Karen once said, the beautiful thrashing we do when we live.”

This novel was truly an engrossing experience. It is everything you hope for in a novel; a fascinating story, an inspirational tale, and an unforgettable heroine.

“We’re all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren’t your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.”