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lizaroo71's review against another edition
3.0
Nellie Bly is a woman that takes chances. She sees the difficulties of being a woman in the 19th century, so she determines to carve a niche for herself. Nellie begins writing for The World newspaper as a journalist. At the time, journalism was considered a man's world far too crude for a woman to be a part of. But Bly proves her worth and is quite a success.
Nellie proposes to her editor that she be allowed to travel around the world alone. She claims she can do it in less than 80 days. And so begins the real story.
The book follows not only Bly's departure and journey from New York, but also Elizabeth Bisland's journey from San Francisco. Bisland works for a competitor's paper and her editor sends her off on a "race" against Bly.
As the women journey around the world, we are given interesting tidbits of history, both American and world, and have a better understanding of gender, race and politics.
Some parts are slow, but a great piece of women's history.
Nellie proposes to her editor that she be allowed to travel around the world alone. She claims she can do it in less than 80 days. And so begins the real story.
The book follows not only Bly's departure and journey from New York, but also Elizabeth Bisland's journey from San Francisco. Bisland works for a competitor's paper and her editor sends her off on a "race" against Bly.
As the women journey around the world, we are given interesting tidbits of history, both American and world, and have a better understanding of gender, race and politics.
Some parts are slow, but a great piece of women's history.
karen62's review against another edition
4.0
The author did a lot of research for this book about Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's race against each other around the world. In the notes in the back he says all dialogue was taken from sources, no thoughts were ascribed to a character that they didn't personally claim and nothing was imagined. I wish that was in the front of the book, there was so much detail I just assumed the author was filling in the blanks with what he thought Nellie and Elizabeth were thinking and feeling.
mattycakesbooks's review against another edition
2.0
The story itself is really interesting, but there are so many digressions in the book that it can, at times, feel a bit tiresome -- why, when one of the heroines is finally leaving the United States, we needed a short history on the Statue of Liberty, for example, was somewhat beyond me. He does an excellent job at trying to paint a full picture of the times, but occasionally, you want less of the times and more of the actual story. Still, it's worth a read.
typesetjez's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting story but very much in need of better editing. So many things were repeated that, quite frankly, weren’t needed in the first place.
lehughes19's review against another edition
3.0
The story was very interesting and I enjoyed learning about the race and this time period in American history. I love to travel and wish I could travel more, so the story was definitely appealing. The writing was good and the narration on audio was great.
All that being said, this book felt a lot longer than 400-something pages. It should be retitled to “The Race around the World and Everything Else that Happened in the late 1800s”. I thoroughly enjoy background information, as it helps set the scene for the main characters. However, there was just too much going on. The section describing the building of the railroad had to go on for about 20 pages. These background sections should have been much shorter.
All that being said, this book felt a lot longer than 400-something pages. It should be retitled to “The Race around the World and Everything Else that Happened in the late 1800s”. I thoroughly enjoy background information, as it helps set the scene for the main characters. However, there was just too much going on. The section describing the building of the railroad had to go on for about 20 pages. These background sections should have been much shorter.
germainek's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful window into the middle of the Gilded Age. Bly and Bisland were each remarkable in different and similar ways.
cpalisa's review against another edition
4.0
This was a pretty interesting historical non-fiction about the "race" around the world between Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland. It wasn't really a race, since the Bisland team didn't seem to even have the idea until Nellie had began and Nellie didn't know anyone was racing against her until about halfway through. Anyway, most everyone has heard of Nellie Bly, while Elizabeth Bisland is a total unknown. What a different a few days makes. I liked the stories of the two women and the time period was interesting. The author had a pretty strong bias against Nellie Bly, it seemed, but it didn't detract from the book. I give it 3.5 stars and liked learning about an event that I knew very little about.
gwenby's review against another edition
4.0
Nelly Bly cuts a tragic figure in this true story about two women's incredibly journey around the world. I want to go!
debr's review against another edition
4.0
A compulsively readable tale of the bravery of two women in a period of time in which human culture and scientific knowledge was changing at a breakneck pace. What I found most fascinating about this book was the ways in which the author showed us how these two women were shaped by their class and upbringing, and how they both fulfilled the limitations of their backgrounds as well as in some ways surprised the reader in their capacity to move beyond them. Very well written, occasionally heavier on some of the details of the voyages than I would have liked- as with many books, this could have been about 50 pages shorter and not suffered for it- but overall, what an engaging story, well told!