Dare the wind
"Ellen Prentiss felt the sea tug at her heart, strong as a full-moon tide. She loved the water so much that her papa taught her to navigate his schooner across Massachusetts Bay. Soon she was racing the fishing fleet! But she dreamed of even bigger adventures, so she married a sea captain and began navigating his ships on the trade route to China. Then Ellen's husband was given command of a fast new clipper ship, the Flying Cloud. Ellen was determined to use every bit of its speed for their maiden voyage: a race out of New York City, down around the tip of Cape Horn, and up to San Francisco, where the Gold Rush was well under way. Ellen battled wild storms, broken masts, and dangerously slow winds. But she not only made it to port as the first woman to navigate that route; her daring voyage set a world record for speed, too!"--Jacket flap. Ellen Prentiss had always felt the sea tug at her heart, and in 1851, she navigated her husband's clipper from New York City down to Cape Horn and up to San Francisco.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction · Fiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest warfare and conflict. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Urgent pace
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3743-1699-0
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL26920525M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Nonfiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
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Why it fits: shares Nonfiction and Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
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Why it fits: shares Nonfiction and Fiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Instruments of Death (Dk Graphic Readers)
by Stewart Ross
Why it fits: shares Fiction and Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Alone In Vietnam
by Robert B Boyd Jr
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction and Fiction, a similar publication era.
In Defense of Globalization
by Jagdish Bhagwati
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction and Fiction, a similar publication era.