The Nomad: The Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt

Rating:
Summary: Something creepy this way comes
Review: I can't put my finger on it but there was something about Isabelle Eberhardt that just made my skin crawl. I didn't like her as a person and never really got to care about her or what happened to her. It's strange because normally I love this kind of book about unconventional women living outside of society's expected norms for them, but this woman, I just did not like!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing life, a one-of-a-kind diary
Review: The unusual life and bizarre death of Isabelle Eberhart (dressing as a man, she traveled through Saharan Africa and drowned -- in the desert -- at age 27) only emphasizes the uniqueness of the written record she left behind. Unlike the works of other adventurers like Sir Ricard Burton and T. E. Lawrence, Eberhart's diary never clarifies why she endured these hardships, or even why her life was such a complex tangle that there was an attempt on her life shortly before she drowned. Her unsettling story of gender deception, unaccompanied travel in Islamic society, and unresolved death is so far out of cultural norms that her story is seldom told, and makes this diary all the more important. Isabelle Eberhart's life and death are still a mystery to be solved.