This sounded interesting from when I first came across it and it was so nice to find that my instincts were correct. The writing is intelligent but not show-offy; the tone is winsome and not without wit. We travel with the author chronologically from the first interactions between Europeans and Polynesians, across centuries of exploration, sociology, science, and navigation to unravel a story that the author notes is not one that belongs to white Europeans such as herself, despite the entangled history. Recommended even to those who don't normally read nonfiction.