What a combination. Tales from the venerable Explorer’s Club and George Plimpton ( if you have not yet read, “The Bogey Man,” you have not truly laughed up your guts.)

The Explorer’s Club in Manhattan is a very tony club.

Established at the turn of the last century by well-heeled voyagers, it has maintained a plethora of brilliantly experienced members. Naturalists, photographers, scientists, bon-vivants and more.  At dinners the members regale one another with stories of their exploits.

Linda Greenlaw probably does not realize what people really think of her.  Maybe she thinks she is a woman who fishes and writes some books about it.  Maybe she thinks she is mildly interesting because not everyone does this sort of thing.  She would be spot on if that were what we thought.

But it’s not.

Judging by her numerous television appearances, book tours, and the placing of her books near the top of The New York Times Bestseller List, she is more than a gal who fishes.

I find her fascinating.  I love all of her books and even signed up to get her newsletter.

A la Tania Abei, Linda Greenlaw is a salve for hum-drum wounds, a prestidigitatious whirlwind in a world of offices.  The normal day for her is the day we dream of as we sit typing.

Linda Greenlaw went to Colby where she majored in English and Government.  She has an apparently lovely family in Maine.  And, just like the girl next door, her best friend was an septegenarian, grizzly, hermetic fisherman.  In his gallant footsteps, Linda follows.

She becomes the first and only female to captain a swordfishing boat on the Grand banks.  (She featured prominently in the book, “The Perfect Storm,” by Sebastian Junger and was played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in the movie.)  This has brought her recognition, but not gone to her head.

Her books, of which, “All Fishermen Are Liars” is one, are akin to hanging out with her.  Her naturally easy disposition tempered by unfailing veraciousness translates well to the page.  She writes honestly and naturally, and perfectly encapsulates her world.  To read any of her books* (all of which I highly recommend) is to spend time with her doing what she loves – fishing, spending time with The Boys, eating her Mother’s cooking, being with her friends.  It is invigorating.

This book is a collection of tall tales and true tales.  Linda and her friends spend a long afternoon lingering at a bar in Portland and trying to one-up each other.  The resulting collection of theses stories is a riot.

*The Hungry Ocean, The Lobster Chronicles, Slipknot (fic), All Fishermen Are Liars, Recipes From A Very Small Island, Fisherman’s Bend

I read this book for the first time in my early 20s.  It made an impression to the demonstrable extent that it is still among my favorites.

As a troubled teen in New York City, Tania has few positive prospects for her future.  She dropped out of high school.  She stays out too late partying and as yet, does not have the moral fortitude to respect herself enough to take any honorable risks.

In a supreme act of faith and parental sacrifice, her father offers 17-year-old Tania a choice that will save her life.  Tania can accept either a college education or a sailboat.  The caveat being that the boat must solo circumnavigate the globe.

“Maiden Voyage” is the story of her choice.

With a vaguely,” What the hell” attitude and a visceral dislike of educational entrapment, Tania chooses the boat.

She sails almost 30,000 miles in about two and a half years.  She is scared.  She is alone.  She is a novice sailor.  Many condemned her parents for risking her life.  No one thought she would succeed.  Least of all Tania.

In two years of itinerant exile, she does succeed.  Predictably, why else write the book, she grows, and learns, and finds herself.  She comes back stronger and more prescient with a wisdom unattainable simply by expostulating College.

Beyond the obvious, what I really find tantalizing about “Maiden Voyage” is the choice.

Few among us are presented with such an unambiguous choice at that tender age.  (Ironic or possibly Darwinian that no one that age knows they are tender)

Like The Odyssey/ Iliad or The Lady and The Tiger – Tania has an inordinately literal choice laying at her feet.  Will she capitulate to societal expectations and go to college, or will she splinter off to follow her private destiny?

Hamlet’s queries once again ring true.  To be (a follower) or not to be?  Is it nobler to suffer (in a sepulchral life that doesn’t fit her) slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles (pursue her individual happiness)  and by opposing end them?  Who truly has the nerve to do that?*

This is why I love the book.  We should all have a little more nerve.  At some point, everyone should take the boat and go it alone.  Let’s see what we are really capable of.  What monsters internal  and external can be defeated?  It is not nobler to suffer if you have an alternative.

I chose college, but wish I had been offered the boat.

* I am certainly not praising selfish, crazed, Unabomber-type, introspective shenanigans, merely suggesting that a self-aware, fulfilled member of society is a positive influence on society.

This book was a nice surprise.

I was expecting more chick-lit and less clever introspection and witty social commentary.  I would call Ms. Gilman a better-grounded David Sedaris.  Just as funny as he, but not quite as bitter.

“Her Royal Spyness” is the first book in a new mystery series by award winning author Rhys Bowen.  I loved it in all its flirty-flighty-girly-glory.  I was not looking for a heavy read and was delightedly not over-burdened with this.  I must say, I really liked it .

Set in England and Scotland in the 1930s, the heroine/sleuth is perfectly likeable.  Lady Victoria Georgianna Charlotte Eugenie is the daughter of the Duke of Glen Garry and Rannoch.  Lady Rannoch, aka Georgie, is unceremoniusly cut off by her brother Binky, the current Duke.  With no money of her own, she goes to London to work.

She is very momentarily daunted.  The sepulchral voice in her head wonders, ” Was I stupid to have come alone to London?  How was I going to cope on my own?”

Ever one to reconnoiter and bounce back, Georgie quickly realizes that it was, “About time (she) found out what (she) had been missing.”

Her cousin, the Queen, would not approve, but Georgie stealthily takes jobs that only she feels are not beneath her.  Georgie is, in fact, a very good egg and does what she must without being whiney or elitist.  It is a wonderful lesson for anyone who has had a silver spoon unceremoniously removed from their mouth.

As the cast of Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage (think Social Register) cavorts and schemes, Georgie must battle her outrageous and oft-married mother, her sweet but entitled brother Binky, her sister-in-law and, lord knows, how many others. As Georgie tries to stand on her own two feet, she becomes unwittingly embroiled in a murder.  With her brother as the prime suspect , Georgie is the only one not paralyzed by indecision.  The flurry of prevarication does not deter her in the least.

Nor us.

Being the stalwart gal she is, she decides to solve the murder rather than become a victim or take the blame herself.  She evades tantalizingly nefarious characters whilst innocently carousing.  Endless parties provide ample cover for her escapades in sleuthing.

With wonderful insight into the world of the peerage in 1930 – in reality, not too different from their world today – the plot unfurls.  From house party to party, Georgie and her cohorts face scorn, privilege, too much champagne, and plots for revenge.  Ah, love and money.  Always the same problems.

Georgie is a super character in a devilishly good plot and we root for her unequivocally.  You go, girl … um, Lady!