Amelia Earhart captured the hearts of the nation after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1928–and her disappearance on an around-the-world flight in 1937 is an enduring mystery.

The image we have of Amelia Earhart today–a tousle-haired, androgynous flier clad in shirt, silk scarf, leather jacket, and goggles–is only one of her many personas, most of which have been lost to us over time. Through years of research and interviews with many of the surviving people who knew Amelia, Susan Butler has recreated a remarkably vivid and multifaceted portrait of this enigmatic figure. Listeners will experience Amelia in all her permutations: not just as a pilot but also as an educator, a social worker, a lecturer, a businesswoman, and a tireless promoter of women’s rights. We experience a remarkably energetic and enterprising woman who battled incredible odds to achieve her fame, succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, and yet never lost sight of her beginnings, ensuring that her success would secure a path for women after her.

This richly textured biography is the perfect complement to the 2009 filmAmelia, starring Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor.

Susan Butler’s brilliantly readable book firmly places FDR where he belongs, as the American president engaged most directly in diplomacy and strategy, who not only had an ambitious plan for the postwar world, but had the strength, ambition and personal charm to overcome Churchill’s reluctance and Stalin’s suspicion to bring about what was, in effect, an American peace, and to avoid the disastrous consequences that followed the botched peace of Versailles in 1919. It is at once a long overdue tribute to FDR and his vision, and a serious work of history that reads like a novel. I would rank it next to Margaret MacMillan’s Paris 1919, and casts new light on the character and war aims of Stalin, Churchill and FDR himself. Brava!

Before the great Disaster, the country of Maynor was known as the “state of Maine.” People were free to travel, and there were no birmbas (dangerous mutant animals) to fear. Now the people are walled inside their villages and forbidden to leave without armed guards. Because of her webbed hand, the young orphan Leora is an outcast in Village Three. Even though her hand enables her to draw the visions that haunt her, she fears it will land her in the Institute with the other “defectives.” When she accidentally learns that the mutants are friendly, Leora ventures into the forbidden Outside. As she begins her journey of discovery, she joins a group of young rebels and uses her visions to help them. Despite its disturbing visions of a brutal society, Susan Butler’s first novel sings a sweet song of hope. Much like The Moorchild, this fantasy presents gentle lessons about prejudice and the hatred and fear it engenders. Kate Forbes’ narrative voice keeps listeners rapt to the very end.