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Description
From the New York Times bestselling author Caroline Paul, a thrilling, gravity-defying book that takes us skyward to explore the art of aeronautics-and the depths of the human heart.
Flying has long represented the beautiful, high-stakes human drive to invent, to explore, to experience. Caroline Paul has known this since becoming a pilot at twenty years old. Now she's in her fifties, and her long-term marriage is dissolving beneath her. She begins to fly a gyrocopter. Isn't it easier to learn a landing than a human heart?
As Paul examines the descent of love through the ascent of flight, she turns her eye to the history, the physics, and the deep impact of flying on others. From the brave Night Witches who flew biplanes against the Nazis, to the ultralight pilots who believe they can save endangered birds by becoming one of the flock, to the many people afraid to step onto a passenger plane, Why Fly examines the ways flight, like love, confounds and yet transforms us. Often we soar. But we also crash land. Still, we want to fly. Why?
Product details
| Published | Feb 24 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781639735006 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Publishing |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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Paul discusses the physics of flight; the difficulties that make takeoff and landing precarious; navigation strategies; and techniques pilots use for not getting lost, such as dead reckoning, pilotage, and, helpfully, GPS . . . Though the memoir is threaded with a sense of loss, Paul has a light touch in contriving metaphors from flying. An engaging memoir of exhilaration and sadness.
Kirkus Reviews
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Caroline Paul has long been my North Star for what it is to be an adventurer in the world. I'd follow her anywhere.
Bonnie Tsui, author of WHY WE SWIM
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An entertaining read. It's sure to inspire women to continue to enjoy the outdoors, create new neural pathways as they try new things, and enjoy the camaraderie of their sisters in adventure into their later years.
USA Today, "Outdoor Wires" on TOUGH BROAD
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Part high-energy how-to guide, part hilarious memoir, and part interactive adventure journal designed to help girls of all ages build confidence, pluck, and bravery by venturing outside.
Outside Magazine on THE GUTSY GIRL
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Make The Gutsy Girl the book of the year for daredevils, doers, and dreamers of all ages.
Cheryl Strayed, author of WILD on THE GUTSY GIRL
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A thoughtful, kind and funny story . . . offering commentary on all relationships and the roles of those we love and sometimes don't love in our lives.
PBS "Newshour" on THE GUTSY GIRL

























