This is a biography that reads a lot like fiction. I couldn’t keep anyone straight due to the Icelandic names but I found our heroine’s journey tragic but inspiring. Really amazing.

A WOMAN CAPTAIN! I was like say no more! I couldn't stop myself from listening to it! It was so good and I was happy to get to know an exceptional woman. Also made me know more about the story of Iceland and the Danish. I wouldn't have known about her without that. So I'm gladly happy about it. I will do more research and make sure to see her memorial place when I will be going to Iceland!

Audio review: Great narrator who brought plenty of energy and nuance to the performance



Mian review: This is a brilliant book about a fascinating 18th C woman. Thurídur Einarsdóttir was part of a small Icelandic community recovering after the great famine that preceded by a volcanic eruption. This is a non-fiction book so where it needs to, it explains the culture and laws of 18th C Iceland – which were even more marginal for women than Victorian Britain was – and delivers plenty of historical information without ever overwhelming the thread of Thurídur’s story. She seems to have been a women of great energy and drive with strong opinions and a knack for diplomacy. This is not the story of a woman who defied convention just to stick it to the patriarchy. This is a human story about someone who played a very poor hand of cards very well, who generally treated others as she wished to be treated and who had that mixture of courage, intelligence and compassion combined with a sense of duty which we really should prize. We can all learn a lot from her story. First learning to sea fish on her father’s boat at eleven years old, she discovered a knack for the sailing. From there it’s clear her story carries her though a lot of very hard work in extremely difficult and often tragic conditions – Iceland was both poverty stricken and oppressed at this time. It’s fair to say she defied the odds and flouted convention but what I find fascinating was that her pushing of boundaries was both careful and apparently calculated. She did not set out to give offense or expect everything to change overnight, but when she had an opportunity to help other women also make a living on the sea, she took it. The perfect example of working within the system to change it, rather than standing outside it and shrieking. Anyway, this was a fascinating read and one more piece of evidence that women had as much to do with history as men. Highly recommend.

This was a fantastic narrative nonfiction book. I love learning about new things and people in history. I loved learning about this captain I had never heard of before and her adventures in life. She was a good person and someone worthy of admiration, my favorite kind of person to read about. The author's choice to keep things chronological and her pacing are well done and keep the story moving at a great pace. I very much enjoyed this and would recommend it.

Woman, Captain, Rebel was well-written and researched, offering insight into Iceland's culture and legal history in the late 1700s-1860s. Still, under Danish rule, Icelanders made a living on the harsh land through farming and fishing. The main character Thuridur is our sea captain, known for her luck and daring at sea. We follow her through her life, losses, and successes, surrounded by tales of ghosts, robberies, and fighting for her rights to a living often on her own.

Overall a good book, but it was a bit of a chore to keep all the names and people involved straight. Kudos to the narrator on all of the Icelandic pronunciations.

Thurídur Einarsdóttir was a fearless woman who lived in Iceland during the 19th century. She was a sailor first and foremost, then grew into the role of captain and fought against inequality and prejudice her whole life. This work examines her life and the lives of those around her, with emphasis not on her sailing but on her struggles on land.

I enjoyed learning about this person in history who I’d never heard about (and would never have without this book). The author did an excellent job characterizing Thurídur and highlighting the known difficulties and challenges that she faced throughout her long life. It was also an interesting look at 19th century Iceland with a focus on women and children.

There were places where I felt the telling of Thurídur’s story became a bit convoluted and difficult to follow. The author’s research was evident, but unfortunately, I think too much of it was incorporated into this read. There were many different instances where the author went on a long, slow tangent about people who were adjacent (or barely adjacent) to Thurídur. Many other discussions of random topics were included, and it was difficult to determine the context of these tangents. This did detract from my enjoyment of the book as well as its overall readability. I think these tales would have been better to be included in an appendix if at all as they did negatively impact the continuity and flow of this book.

I appreciated that the author included a list of major characters in the beginning of the work, which was vital to refer to while I was reading. There’s also a list of references cited in the back of the work, which was greatly appreciated. The author’s research was comprehensive and included many references from several different types of resources.

This was an informative read but wasn’t as focused as it should have been and took some patience to get through. It is recommendable if you’re interested in Iceland during the nineteenth century. My thanks to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Well researched, really well paced, and plenty of detail on a time & place I am not familiar with. I was rooting for Captain Thurídur the whole time!
A digital pdf companion would be helpful to track names and locations.

This book is quite long and more about Iceland hierarchy through he point of view of Thuridur. Super interesting. Didn't like the pacing at times. Would've preferred in print. Got confused between characters every once in a while, a character list may have helped

This book was very informative, if long. I enjoyed hearing the story and the narrator did a good job at differentiating between voices of different characters. I learned a lot!

What a fascinating and intriguing story of Iceland’s most famous female sea captain. Extensively researched, this book took us from daily life in a little fishing village to Captain Thurídur’s more daring exploits. From ghosts to family drama to crime solving, this book had everything one could ask for. Willson takes great care in unearthing the story of this nearly forgotten historical figure, and I thought this account of her life was so well done.

This book was different than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. The book is billed as the story of a sea captain. Thuridur first went to sea at 11 years old to fish. But her being a sea captain takes up remarkably little of the story. There isn’t a lot of description of that time. She’s a great captain and good at fishing, but that’s only during the winter. The rest of the year she’s trying to make a living farming, and that’s where most of the book spends its time.

It’s an interesting look at life in early 19th century Iceland. It was oppressive in some ways and liberated in others. She was incredibly resilient. She kept having to start over, again and again, but she kept going. She was smart, her crews liked and respected her, and she fought to protect the innocent and downtrodden when she could.

The narrator did a great job with Icelandic names, and the book is clearly well researched. Thank you to RB Media and NetGalley for my copy.

This book is a very interesting biography of an Icelandic woman who was a formidable sea captain. I went into this book expecting stories of adventure as a boat captain, but this actually turned out to be a really interesting look into Icelandic life and culture in the late 1700s and early 1800s through the lens of one fascinating woman. It is such an extreme environment and it is very interesting to see how that shapes the culture and relationships. You not only get to know the captain, but you meet so many other Icelanders living in her area and their complex relationships. These Icelanders considered ghosts to be just as real as anything else, which is often referenced by the author and the figures in the book. It took a bit to get used to the references to certain ghosts presented as fact, but it was helpful to get into the minds of these people.
The audiobook has a great narrator and the book sucks you in. In this format, it can be hard to keep track of so many Icelandic names, but not so hard that you don't understand what's happening. The author references this difficulty in the forward and really tries to keep everyone distinct- especially when so many men are named Jan. This is a great read for a close look into a culture I hadn't known much about.

This story of Iceland’s most famous female sea captain was astonishing! I had not heard of Captain Thuridur Einarsdottir previously and the descriptions of her and her home were both terrible and inspiring. Especially the first half of the book read more like fiction with an encompassing history and description of the area during the Captain’s life. The superstition and ritual of Iceland life added to the constant struggle of their work against the elements as well as the influences of various members of the community. The actions of this interrelated group greatly affected the events of her life, from her marriages to parenthood to her careers—so much depended upon either the cruelty or the generosity of the people she knew. Captain Thuridur was an impressive woman and I most enjoyed the passages that shared her time at sea and as a guide later in life. The treacherous sea was necessary for so much of her income and I was impressed with her talent for fishing, navigation, and reading the weather. Absolutely fascinating! The flow of the story was excellent until the last quarter of the book where it started to feel a bit repetitive and may have been edited more effectively. Narrator, Ann Richardson, was so pleasant to listen to, thank you. So glad this story about a truly remarkable woman is being shared. Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was fascinating! What a character and what a fascinating life. I loved it! I had no concept of the goings on in Iceland at this time but the insight into the fishing communities and large towns were so interesting. What a complex society of land owners, fisherman, farmhands, deckhands, etc. This is an exceptionally hard life and it is baffling to me that such a lifetime of work could be so subject to shifting fates. The audiobook was great and Ann Richardson had a lovely voice for the story. My only complaint is that the names were sometimes hard to follow, but the author made sure to call back to when these people were mentioned so you don't get too lost. A woman in trousers and a top hat...a lady after my own heart haha

I was given an advanced reader copy of this book through NetGalley and listened to it as an Audiobook.

I enjoyed the content of this book and learning about Captain Thurídur and her journey as a sea captain. I also enjoyed learning so much about her culture and how Thurdir really represents the struggles of many women. I have also never heard of her before, so this was a unique story for me to hear!

As an audiobook, I found it a little lacking. The narrator does not differentiate between different people speaking so I often had to back peddle and listen again. The switching between several peoples stories in one chapter could also be confusing. With how much I had to pay attention to this title I think I would have preferred this as a physical book I could sit with rather than a book I listened to as I did other things.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for my copy of Woman, Captain, Rebel The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain by Margaret Willson Narrated by Ann Richardson in exchange for an honest review. It publishes April 11, 2023.
First off, I really liked the way the narration was done for this book. I felt like they really did a great job reading this and bringing it to life. I also appreciated the pronunciation of the different Icelandic words and names.
This was a very interesting and fascinating book. I loved learning about a small part of Iceland’s history. I learned quite a bit, and found this to be such a compelling account of an extraordinary life lived.

Woman, Captain, Rebel: The Extraordinary True Story of a Daring Icelandic Sea Captain
Margaret Willson
A woman before her time.
This is a beautifully written account of Iceland’s history and the true story of Iceland’s famous female sea captain. In Woman, Captain, Rebel we meet Thuridur Einarsdottir. The setting is the 1800’s Iceland Thuridur fought for the respect, dignity and equality of Icelanders. She was always ready to help anyone that needed her. There were few resources but she put others first and supported them. There were few opportunities for a woman in that era. She went against convention and wore men’s clothing most of the time. She was an excellent fisherwoman and managed to haul in fish with the best of them. In that era everyone worked hard, there was no other choice, neither age nor gender made a difference. The people lived in poverty; life was hard. The people either fished or farmed most doing both. Thuridur began fishing when she was a child she became a captain as a young adult. She took good care of her men, and they were loyal to her most of the time. The captain became a leader of the community. She sought justice. She also had enemies. There were times when she faced hardship. She was a survivor; she never gave up.
The history and culture were fascinating. The ghost stories were interesting and added much to the story. Narrator Ann Richardson did a superb job. Her voice was beautiful and complemented the narrative. I knew nothing about Thuridur, Iceland or the culture until I started reading/listening to this wonderful, informative book. The hardships the people faced were heart wrenching.

⛵️ALC Review⛵️

Woman, Captain, Rebel
by Margaret Willson
Narrated by Ann Richardson

Audio adaption available April 11th, 2023

As a descendant of Grainne O Maille, also known as the "Pirate Queen" (see pinned post), the history of strong, seafaring women has always fascinated me. I was immediately intrigued when I saw Woman, Capitan, Rebel on NetGalley. Thank Tantor audio for allowing me the opportunity to review this exceptional story of Captain Thurídu.

Thurídu defined societal norms when she became a renowned fishing captain. In the Arctic seas, drownings were a terrifying reality for seamen, but the talented she-captain never lost a single crew member. In addition to her talents on the water, Thurídu was lauded for her sharp powers of observation, which she used to solve a notorious crime.

If you enjoy rich historical retellings with strong, inspiring women, this is a book for you.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Margaret Wilson for providing me with a complimentary digital audiobook ARC for Woman, Captain, Rebel coming out April 11, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

The setting is Iceland in the 19th century. History would have us believe the seas were ruled solely by men. The men of Iceland became captains of ships and fishing merchants. They ran the industry. But there was one woman who fought for equality and proved to be the exception. She defied expectations and became a renowned fishing captain of her own ship with a crew of men and women.

Captain Thurídur is her name. She was born in Iceland in 1777. She lived a life that was both controversial and unconventional at the time. She was 11 when she first fished on the open unprotected rowboats. Soon after, she began wearing trousers to make work easier. She later became an acclaimed fishing captain brilliant at weather-reading and seacraft and consistently brought in the biggest catches. In the Arctic seas where drownings occurred, she held the record for never having lost a a single crew member. She was known for her talent of observation and she also solved a notorious crime. She was born into a society that was unfair to women, but she used the courts to fight for justice for the abused, and in her sixties, embarked on perilous journeys over wild, unexplored mountains.

Through great research, Margaret Willson brings to life Captain Thurídur's fascinating story, her extraordinary bravery, intelligence, and divine integrity.

Overall, I really loved this story! I’m interested in Viking history, but haven’t really read much about Iceland in the 19th century. I definitely think this should be turned into a movie if it hasn’t already. As a woman who loves history, I always like to seek out the fascinating stories where women forged a path and went against convention. I thought that Captain Thurídur's story was fascinating. I think she was still innately feminine while simultaneously being a strong leader for her crew. She seemed like a diplomatic problem-solver. She was willing to work with men, but also wanted to help women find work. I thought the book felt well-researched and well-written. It was fun to listen to as well.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical nonfiction about strong women!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
A very well researched book. There were a few statements in it that rubbed me the wrong way and came across as opinion in the opening but other than that it was a great book.
Narrator was enjoyable to listen to.