Nairobi, Kenya

Beryl Markham was born in 1902--so she would have been close to the same age as my grandmother, Mimi.  She died in Nairobi in 1986.

Markham was a British-born Kenyan aviator, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.  

Her memoir, West With the Wind, is so beautifully written that I feel I'm taking leave of San Antonio and flying with a bush pilot in Africa.  All her hours, alone, in a cockpit must have given her a perspective on the world down below and its people that makes for--through the skill of an excellent writer--compelling reading.

I never would have picked this book to read.  It came to me highly recommended by the members of the book group I rarely attend, and now that I'm four chapters in, I can't put it down.