This seemed like something my book club would like, so I gave it a go as a test run. They may like it, but I found it to be a slog. Usually I like the epistolary style, but since this was entirely one-sided, I found it less engaging than I might otherwise have. I understand that it's based in fact and that he never did respond, but it made him seem churlish and unappealing (and maybe he was!) and it didn't help me want to continue reading the story.

The Wright Sister tells the story of Katharine Wright who is the sister of Orville and Will Wright. This historical fiction covers their relationship between Katharine and Orv after she married in her fifties. The two siblings stop speaking and we learn about her life through diary entries and letters.

Historical fiction is usually not my go to genre but I enjoyed this quick read. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the Wright brothers.

This short little novel packs a punch, and gives a beautiful perspective on life, marriage, and being the sister to the Wright Brothers. Told through a series of diary entries, the reader gets a true feeling for what life was like for Katharine Wright and her relationship with her brother Orville.

I really wanted to like this one, but I couldn't get into it. I made it 26% of the way through the book, and the story didn't even really feel like a story. Having the entire book be letters with little to no dialogue was difficult to read. I was intrigued about the story of the Wright sister, and her brother, but after getting almost a quarter of the way in with no change in format, and no real story going on, I had to put this one down.

Katharine was a a suffragette and early feminist that also happened to be the sister of the famous Wright Brothers that made aviation history. The author did a brilliant job of creating a fictionalized account of what it would have been like to be Katharine who was always overshadowed by her brothers' success.

In my review of The Wright Brothers, my one criticism of David McCullough's excellent, illuminating history of the earliest days of aviation was this:

"What I was left wanting in the end was more. With their story so strongly rooted as a family affair, I wanted a deeper account of what happened between Orville and Katharine after Wilbur's untimely death. I also found myself wanting to know more about their private lives."

Two years later, what I wanted has been fulfilled by Patty Dann in her novel about The Wright Sister, a fact-based fictionalized imagining of what exactly happened between Orville and Katharine after Wilbur's untimely death. Well, it's known that Katharine's marriage after the age of 50 is what alienated Orv, who like Wil was a lifelong bachelor. But why -- that's the enduring mystery.

Patty chooses an epistolary format to tell Katharine's story in the first person -- her marriage diary along with letters to Orv which he never answers or even acknowledges receiving. That's a courageous choice, a structure that has been overused, misused, abused even. But it's a perfect way to imagine what Katharine might have been thinking, especially in areas that an early 20th century woman would never otherwise commit to paper, such as her intimate relations with her husband.

It's also a courageous choice when you consider that a person would never resort to outright exposition of things lost past when writing in a diary or a letter. So Katharine's role in the development of the first airplane has to come piecemeal, through random comments. As does her life outside of that, such as her work as a suffragist helping women earn the right to vote.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, for which I thank them, the publisher, and the author. Furthermore, I must disclose that my wife has been a frequent student of Patty Dann, who teaches writing in NYC, and Patty provided developmental editing for my own novel, which was excellent and pivotal.

One of Patty's recommendations was to excise all that fun stuff one loves to write about, like pop culture references, but which didn't actually advance the story or characters. That would have caused my novel to be really short, which was fine by Patty, who believes that novels should be short as hers usually are. And that is the case with The Wright Sister, which is not too short.

That could be a plus or a minus depending on your taste -- I am left somewhat fulfilled from my Wright Brothers desire for more, but there's still more that I want to know. But more than that, there are those references to the invention of the airplane that I got because I recently read The Wright Brothers but which may vex readers not fully versed on the details. I recommend researching that history before or during reading of this book, even if it's just brief or cursory, because there was a lot more to their achievement than just the invention.

DNF @ 41%

I really wanted to like this book but after taking over 4 days to only read less than 100 pages I finally just DNFed. I have not read anything about Katherine Wright so I was excited to read about this woman who was such an amazing feminist. However, this book is so heavily character driven there is no plot. It is told entirely in journal entries and letters to her brother Orville after her marriage at 52. This caused a rift between the siblings which is why she is writing the letters. She talks about the past but with such detachment that I truly did not care what was happening. I was going to keep going since I thought things might pick up in the "climax" but after reading other reviews in which it was said the book gets slower I decided to put it down.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
3.5 stars
I knew very little about the Wright Brothers beyond their historic 1903 flight prior to picking up this book, so I was intrigued to learn that they not only had a sister, Katharine, but that she actually was famous by association.

And while her perspective is conveyed in this epistolary format, it still packs a punch and tells us a lot about her and the dynamics of the family both prior to the opening of the book and at the present time the narrative is taking place, with Katharine and Orville still feeling the sense of loss after Wilbur’s death, but also the sense that Orville felt betrayed by Katharine getting married, when they had promised each other they wouldn’t. It’s especially apparent as her letters continue to go unanswered.

It also conveys that Katharine was intelligent in her own right. She attended Oberlin College, one of the few coed colleges at the time, in the 1890s, at a time when marriage and children was still the expected life for women, and she actually did not marry until she was fifty-two years old, as noted in the beginning of the novel.

Yet,at times, the narrative focused a bit too much on defining her through her brothers and their fractured relationship. There was mention of her contributions to their work, and while it would still have been in connection to them, it would have at least shown her more intellectual side, as opposed to her more domestic-oriented last years. They make a fine capstone to her story, especially the emotional ending, but I would like to have seen more of the earlier events alluded to.

This is still a fairly solid book that introduced me to a bit more about the Wright family than I knew previously. If you are interested in the Wright Brothers or love historical fiction about lesser known historical women, I encourage you to pick this one up.

Written in a diary format, this is the story of Katharine, the sister of The Wright Brothers. Katharine provided support to her brother's and their attempt to craft an airplane and this story takes place after the flight.

This historical fiction book tells the story of Katharine Wright and her life with her brothers', Orville and Wilbur, and her role in their flying is told in letters and a diary written after she married in her 50's.

Before you start this story, I want you to know it is a diary, a daily dairy of Katherine Wright telling of her life before and after her marriage to Harry Haskell in writing letters to her estranged brother Orville. I guess I didn’t realize that when I started and I have to admit it does take some getting use to. I was expecting lots of information about Wilbur and Orville and their attempts and successes at flight, if that is what you are looking for, then pass on this one.
But if you are looking for a completely heartfelt story of the love a sister has for her brother, the life she choose when she married Harry in her early 50’s, the ups and downs of the times of the 1920’s, of life living in a house that reeks of his former wife or living in the shadows of her brothers, and giving the most sacrifice of all by breaking the “pact” the Wrights had made. Then dive into this one, it will definitely be worth your while. This book did not take me by force, but the force grew with the story and by the end I was sad to say goodbye. This is a beautifully written book.
I want to thank HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest unbiased opinion. This is a 5***** read.

An interesting look at a sidekick character of history, the only sister to the Wright brothers. This book is told through journal entries and letters to one of her brothers, Orville, Katherine tells her story.

This book was just ok for me. It wasn't the way the book was told, it was the part of Katherine's story that was told. The book starts when she is 50 years old and entering her first marriage. For me, I would have preferred to read about the Kitty Hawk flying years from her perspective. I think those would have been the years I would have focused the book on.

I wanted to like this book...it seems like it could be a fascinating AND engaging story if it were written in a different format. When it began as journal entries and diary, that was a nice intro into the character's inner thoughts. It seemed like a good way to quickly introduce the lead before diving into the meat of the story. But it never did that....the entire thing is these journal entries, which are completely one-sided and, at times, lacking most of the story. It makes it difficult to follow and stay engaged.

I really wanted to like this book. However, the format was not to my liking. I had a hard time reading it as journal entries. There was no dialog between characters which made the story very one sided. I feel that if the book was a mixture of story and journal entries it would have been more interesting to read.