The April seletion is The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: a Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the World by Glynis Ridley.
In 1765 botanist Philibert Commerson set out as part of the first French circumnavigation of the globe. As the ship’s naturalist, he was looking for new medicines, spices, foods, etc. Joining him as his assistant was his mistress, the 26 year-old Jeanne Baret, an expert on herbs, who had to disguise herself as a teenage boy but was eventually outed by the crew.
New non-fiction lovers welcome.