Laurie Gwen Shapiro had me at the prologue.

Her newest book, the Aviator and the Showman, looks at the intertwined lives of Amelia Earhart and her (eventual) husband/handler/manipulator/bad cop/person everyone hates, George Putnam. What sold me in the prologue was Shapiro's stated intent to look at all aspects of the legend of Amelia Earhart. Shapiro is clear that Amelia was a complex person who could be wonderful, flighty (you can be dang sure that pun was intended), supremely confident, and amazingly arrogant. She was beloved by almost anyone who met her, but she also married one of the most unpleasant men on the planet according to many sources. He was her attack dog, but how much did she know about what he did on her behalf? And also, was it ever really on her behalf or was it to line his own pockets?

I love it when a book is informative while leaving me thinking. Shapiro presents the facts as best she can and leaves the reader with the facts to decide for themselves. I don't want an author to tell me who a person was. I want them to give me the knowledge to make my own decisions. It especially helps that Shapiro knows how to tell a story. The book is not short, but it is also never boring. Each chapter contains so much insight and even finds some time for name-dropping and side characters. Thankfully, Shapiro masterfully knows when to take a quick side quest but never lets diversions get in the way of the main story. Shapiro will also add some witty asides and some harmless conjecture for effect, which I enjoyed, but I know some people want their non-fiction to be laser-focused on the facts. I never found it distracting and Shapiro always calls it out when she's not sure or the record is unclear.

In the end, this book finally gave me what I wanted. After reading or watching documentaries about Amelia, I finally understand why she was so captivating to the public during her heyday. She's not a legend anymore, but she is something much better than that after reading this. She is a fully realized person all her own. As for Putnam, well, he was whoever he needed to be to make great copy.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Viking Books.)