Just finished North to the Orient by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, a tale of flying a great circle route from New York City to Tokyo. The trip took them through Churchill and along the Arctic Ocean to Barrow, Alaska, then down to Nome and through Soviet Russia. They departed in a single-engine float plane on July 27, 1931, arriving in Tokyo August 23. The book should be very interesting to non-pilots, as Mrs. Lindbergh does not dwell on technical matters, but more the details of the hospitality that they received from Eskimos, Russians, and the Japanese. After a sojourn in Japan, the Lindberghs continued on to the flooded Yangtze River, trying to survey the damage and aid in relief efforts. They were unsuccessful in this last mission, however, since a hungry mob surrounded the float plane when they were trying to fly in a doctor and some vaccines. Lindbergh escaped the mob and he escaped all of the perils of the flight, but could not escape the inherently dangerous nature of float planes. The plane capsized in the turbulent Yangtze while being hoisted down from a British aircraft carrier.
Very well written and as always I am in awe of people who were willing to make a trip like this in the days before GPS.