The Secrets of Flight

Mary Browning has kept her past hidden for many years. Though she runs a writers' group at her local library in Pittsburgh, Pa., she's never written a word of her own. But on Mary's birthday, Elyse Strickler--the spitting image of Mary's long-dead sister, Sarah--joins the writers' group. Taking it as a sign, Mary hires the teenager to type her memoir, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Maggie Leffler (The Goodbye Cousins) weaves a captivating story of family, love and conflicting loyalties in her third novel, The Secrets of Flight.

Leffler writes in both Elyse's and Mary's voices, switching between the present day and Mary's experiences during World War II. A member of the civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, Mary (then known as Miriam Lichtenstein) honed her piloting skills at an air base in Sweetwater, Tex. There, she bonded with her fellow "fly girls" and met a man named Solomon Rubinowicz, whose dreams of being a doctor would change both his life and hers.

Leffler's narrators are thoughtfully crafted: readers will smile over Mary's wry humor and Elise's eye-rolling teenage angst. Leffler also deftly evokes the details of life in the 1940s: food and gasoline rationing, the frustration of limited career choices for women. But the novel is strongest in its sensitive exploration of following one's dreams, which--like flying a plane--can include both spine-tingling excitement and a high personal cost. Leffler's narrative carries readers on a journey both thrilling and satisfying. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams

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