When World War II broke out, women served the war effort in different ways. While not officially part of the military, female pilots were instrumental to the air force, training new male pilots and transporting planes and goods between bases. More than 1,000 women served in this way, and when the war was over, the women went, unrecognized, back to their prewar lives. In her debut novel, The Flight Girls, Noelle Salazar paints a sweeping portrait of the brave Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), the friendships they formed in this extreme circumstance and the dreams and lives that were forever changed.
Each woman has a different reason for joining up and background with flying planes. Audrey Coltrane is fearless, a skilled pilot who has the clear goal of purchasing and running the small airfield back in her Texas hometown. A husband and children are not priorities, and she's determined not to acquiesce to anyone's expectations for that more traditional path. Yet when she meets Lieutenant James Hart, she's surprised to find that it is her own unfamiliar feelings that may stand in her way. Through the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the sexist assumptions and treatment of female pilots, the loss of close friends and the varied flight assignments, Audrey continues to learn and grow, as a woman, a friend, a daughter and, most importantly, as a pilot.
Thirty years after their service to the U.S., President Jimmy Carter granted the women of WASP full military status for their service and, in 2009, President Barack Obama and Congress awarded them the Congressional Gold Medal. --BrocheAroe Fabian, owner, River Dog Book Co., Beaver Dam, Wis.