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By Laurie Gwen Shapiro Viking: 512 pages, $35 If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

So begins Laurie Gwen Shapiro’s enticing “The Aviator and the Showman,” a vibrant account of the courtship and union of the famous pilot and her publisher husband whose intrusive management of his wife’s career may have cost her life.

Shapiro dexterously untangles the Gordian knot of their entwined passions, shared ambitions and business bottom lines.

Shapiro’s tone is conversational, luring us into a rich story about American media.

Her return to the U.S. was a Putnam-orchestrated extravaganza that eclipsed the flight: “Wherever Amelia went, she ignited a frenzy of excitement that not only enraptured audiences but also allowed George to revel in her reflected glory,” Shapiro notes.