Fly Girls

“Fly Girls” tells the true story of how “five daring women defied all odds and made aviation history.” It was an interesting story, but to me, not a good book. To be blunt: I wish these women’s story had been told by another author. The biggest problem I had with this book was the characters. There were way too many. As the subtitle above stated, it was supposed to focus on five women. The first four were easy for me to identify, but I had no idea about the fifth. In fact, I went the extra step to find a piece of paper, list all the significant women in the book, put an “x” beside who I felt were the five, then read the book’s jacket to see if I was right. Not only did I miss the fifth, but I could barely remember her! She wasn’t introduced until chapter 16, and then only had passing references throughout the rest of the book. In short, only one chapter out of 22 focused on her story. Yes, she was important, but so were the other six women on my list, one of whom was present throughout the entire book, yet weren’t included in the authors “Big Five.” I know it’s a small detail, but it made me question the entire book; the author’s picking and choosing of who was important and who wasn’t made me wonder what else he had left out. My mom also brought up an interesting point; this was about the five American women who rose to prominence flying during the 1920s and 1930s. There were countless other women doing the same thing in their countries. I know the author’s focus was on America only, but I wish he had made that clearer as well. Overall, I just didn’t enjoy this book or its author. While the storyline was interesting, it just wasn’t a well-told story to me.