In 1973, sixteen-year-old Ann Hood set foot on a airplane for the first time. She took a Delta Airways flight to Bermuda with her friend Nancy. As the two teenagers walked down the aisle to their seats, Hood’s life changed. She already had wanderlust and stars in her eyes as she watched the glamorous flight attendants performing their duties.

After four years of college, Hood undertook the rigorous training required and at twenty-one she became a TWA flight attendant. (“She learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation.”) Flight attendants can do just about anything.

One of the greatest gifts of the job, especially when she flew internationally, was a quiet airplane when the lights had been dimmed. She began writing on these long trips and would sit on the jump seat, listening to life unfolding around her.

During the years Hood flew, sexism was rampant. Not only were advances made on her by passengers but by industry members, too. Nevertheless, she loved what she did and continued flying from 1978 to 1986, only to lose her job as the result of one of the most famous airline strikes in history.

She had already considered the memoir and discussed it with a couple of friends when the pandemic arrived. There could be no better time to write about the time in her life when she could and did travel anywhere.

“Fly Girl” is a joyous memoir which celebrates life. There is some seriousness and tragedy, but this is a “seize the day” book. It’s about a young girl who loved her job, who saw the world, who saw the world change and was part of a large cultural change in history. In addition to being entertaining, moving and instructive, “Fly Girl” is a wide-eyed call to adventure.

A huge thank you to @Netgalley and @w.w.norton for the ARC.

I have several books by the author Ann Hood, but somehow they have never made it to the top of my list. That changes after reading this deeply entertaining and engrossing book about the author's time as a flight attendant for TWA. The author is an excellent writer and I enjoyed every second of this book, feeling all the joy and sorrow and frustration that she went through during their time with TWA. I have always loved travel and seeing new places and thought for a time that being a flight attendant would be so awesome, but you know, people and therefore, not a job for me. ;-) After reading all they had to do for training and then all they did on each flight PLUS dealing with said people, made me realize that job would have never been for me. I am in complete awe at what they must know, remember and do for each flight. It is mind-boggling, and people need to shut it when thinking that they are nothing but empty-headed bimbos doing and "easy job".

I am so glad the publisher granted my wish to read this; it was one of the most entertaining and informative memoirs I have read in a very long time. So well done.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ann Hood, and W.W. Norton & Company for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The author states that she wrote this memoir partly because she would find that when she mentions that she is a former flight attendant, so many people are eager to hear about her experiences.
I, too, was interested to read, what I assumed, had to be countless stories about mile-high mayhem in the early days of flying.
Unfortunately, a lot of this book was pretty boring. She spends a lot of time describing the process of applying to be a flight attendant, the training she undertook to become a flight attendant, and all of the routes and layovers she did as a flight attendant. What there wasn’t a ton of was stories of mayhem or even great interest. She did include the occasional funny or sad tidbit while on the job, but they were few and far between.
Thanks to #netgalley and #wwnortonandcompany for this #arc of #flygirl in exchange for an honest review.

Author Ann Hood has had nothing short of an incredible adventurous and at times heartbreaking life. Fly Girl answers in part where her incredible imagination came from.

Even at the young age of six, Hood wanted to travel to places she had always dreamed about, and not just by her family’s station wagon. She wanted to go where the trains would take her, never thinking there would ever be any other mode of transportation. Until one day when she was told to look up and couldn’t believe her eyes.

Then this incredible mode of transportation was born, called the airplane. It fascinated and excited Hood. So, when she was in High School and told her guidance counselor that she wanted to be a flight attendant and a writer she was told to think more realistically.

But in 1978 as Ann was graduating from college and her parents were expecting her to become a teacher, Hood made a bold decision. She wanted to be a flight attendant and travel and write books. In her mind not only would she be able to do two things she loved, but she could get paid for them as well. So, while all her friends were entering workforces at schools and businesses, she was applying to airlines to become a flight attendant.

Unfortunately, it was not as easy as you would imagine getting hired into the airline industry. For every one hire there were thousands of applicants. There were many interviews and hoops a person had to go through. But when it finally happened for Hood, she chose to become a TWA flight attendant. And she was ready!

After the rigorous training the attendants endured, they were prepared, willing and able to fly the friendly skies. They are much more than the person one sees serving drinks and meals and putting on a show as to where the emergency exits are and what to do in case of a crisis.

Flight attendants are therapists, problem solvers, emergency handlers and sometimes even baby deliverers. All with a smile on their face and an I know how to handle this attitude. Thus begins the truly funny, interesting sometimes heartbreaking anecdotes which Hood witnessed throughout her years of flying.

From a passenger breastfeeding their cat, yes, read that again, to a man who took such a tantrum because they had run out of lasagna that the plane had to be met at the gate by police, or the man who flew pantless because he had a job interview and didn’t want to look wrinkled. We learn of her romances some of which began high in the sky. But for every funny story, there are some which were heartbreaking. When a man boarded the plane with red eyes from crying Hood consoled him as he told her he had just lost his brother. Hood had no idea in just a few short months she would be the one being consoled on a flight for the same reason.

Of course, as one would expect there was sexism not only by the passengers but also some men who worked in the industry. Some thought flight attendants were stupid, or just waiting to meet Mr. Right. Hood to this day corrects someone when they say stewardess. They are flight attendants.

But between flights to London, Cairo, Greece, the United States and beyond, Hood wrote when she could. On the plane, going to the plane on layovers. Even when she actually sold her first book she still continued to fly, loving the freedom of air travel so much. Something she still loves to this day.

Included in the memoir is an interesting retrospective of the history of stewards flying and how certain ways things are done came to be.

Hood’s memoir is wonderfully well-written, funny, sentimental with a glamorous flair of the time period in which she flew. She explains the reason she wrote the book was because her friends would always beg her to tell stories of when she flew and always seemed riveted when she told one. I can understand why.

Thank you #NetGalley #W.W.Norton&Company #AnnHood #FlyGirl for the advanced copy.

I loved reading Fly Girl, Ann Hood's memoir of her years as a flight attendant. Finishing college in the 1970's, I too imagined flight attendant as a dream job and even submitted a few applications with airlines. While my career path led elsewhere, I still notice the flight attendants when I fly or see them at hotel breakfasts and imagine what their lives must be like. Ann Hood describes her experiences at home and abroad in a thorough and entertaining fashion. If you have any interest in the life of a flight attendant during a changing time in the airline industry, don't miss this book. And don't let the early chapter about the early history of flight attendants stop you from reading to the end!

I thought this was a pretty interesting read. I've never read Hood's works before, but I enjoyed her writing quite a lot. I was fascinated to read about the way airlines used to be compared to the way they are now. We bought a copy for the library.

The glory days of flying when passengers dressed up for the flight! When chateaubriand was served and a choice of meals was offered! When thousands of young women competed to be a flight attendant! Fly Girl, by gifted writer Ann Hood, is a memoir of these golden times.

After graduation, when her friends were interviewing for jobs or applying to grad school, Ann Hood was training to be a TWA flight attendant. This was 1978, when fight attendants could be fired for weight gain. When they had to be perfectly made up and could not chew gum. When “I’m Cheryl. Fly me!” was a popular acceptable slogan. Hood had always wanted to travel and this job, which she held until Carl Icahn took over TWA, provided the perfect opportunity. While she saw the world, she worked harder than any passenger could imagine. She also wrote and published her first book.

Fly Girl is informative, fascinating and so well written. Ann Hood perfectly sums up her experience. “For every honeymooning passenger I treated to a celebratory bottle of Champagne, there was another whose hand I held as they flew home after someone they loved had died. For every love story I heard, there was a tale of cruelty, or a broken heart. I learned that there are misogynists in the world, sure, but that most people are pretty wonderful.” What else but 5 stars?

Thank you to NetGalley, W. W. Norton & Company and Ann Hood for this ARC.

A captivating read from former flight attendant and novelist Ann Hood. Hood delivers an intimate account of her life as TWA flight attendant during the "golden age of travel." This memoir is entertaining and easy to read, offering both exciting accounts of the author's travels and a nuanced look into the sexism she experienced in her field. It was fascinating to read about her experiences as a flight attendant in the 1970s-80s, because so much has changed travel-wise.

Thank you to #NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the arc!

You know, when my parents got on their first flight, just after they married in 1960, there is a photo of my mother wearing heels, a hat, white gloves and clutching a bouquet of flowers. So much has changed since then, and it was really nice to read about the author's experiences during a time when flying still meant glamour and excitement. At least for the passengers!

I have always known that flight attendants needed to be special people in order to do this job well, and reading Ann Hoods memoir has certainly confirmed that. I had no idea, however, just how many hoops they needed to jump through in order to get employed!! Wow! I think the most ridiculous thing was the "having to stay within your starting weight"....what if you were particularly thin when you were first employed and with the passage of time, your body changed? The rigours of the acceptance process reminds me, a LOT, of what happened when I joined the Army Reserve. This was back in 1983 so not all that different, on the time scale, to 1978.

Fascinating to learn about all the different experiences Ann went through during training and I admire her honesty about her initial few flights as well. It isn't easy looking glamorous when you are working so hard, I am sure! Nice to know that some of the skills she was taught, back in the day, have come in handy in later years as well.

I won a flight to Paris when I was 19, on Pan Am, and I still count that as one of the most exciting flights of my life, even though it was a long time ago now and have been on many flights since. Such a shame that that airline is no longer flying. Airlines have changed a lot as well, over the years. Just happy that there is no smoking on board anymore, I am old enough to remember those days!

All in all, this was a very interesting book and worth reading.

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and W. W. Norton.

A light quick memoir of Ann Hood’s experience as a Flight Attendant. I found myself reminiscing about my days at TWA’s Breech Training Academy and my time spent with Ann in Boston. She does a good job in describing the intensity of the TWA Flight Attendant training. She shares the struggles encountered by deregulation, displacement, strike and furloughs. And, she takes us on a journey with her travels and romance.

Thank you #NetGalley, #WWNorton&Company and #AnnHood for the advance readers copy for my honest review.

Ann Hood loves to fly, and her memoir provides a fascinating glimpse of her time as a TWA flight attendant during the late 1970s/early 1980s. Hood gives us an insight into the world of being a flight attendant when rules and regulations were a lot more stringent than they are today and how deregulation changed the airline industry forever.

Hood's time with TWA was a journey -- both figuratively and literally -- dealing with thousands of passengers over the year, navigating new cities (both foreign and domestic), solving problems on the fly (pun intended) all the while becoming a more confident person. Hood credits her time with TWA in forming the person she is today. I enjoyed Fly Girl and Hood's recollections of what once was the glamour era of flying.

Thank you to #NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for providing this ARC of #FlyGirl.

I Have read all of Ann Hood’s books, especially her memoirs. I loved Fly Girl. She captures the glamour and freedom of being a flight attendant for TWA in the halcyon days of the early 80s. Most of the airlines she mentioned are now defunct and that is sad. She elucidates the thrill of air travel and the freedom it afforded her to travel far and wide. I, too, came from a small town and wanted to travel so I share those feelings with her.
It’s a great book and she also reveals a brief history of airplane travel and also the ins and outs of working for a major airline.

Does as it says it will, an in depth ( occasionally repetitive ) detailed memoir of an air stewardes turned successful author
It is, of course, interesting as we travel round the world and see the sights and meet passengers, although less talk and explanations of scheduling would have been better as when not your career only a small section is needed on that before ot becomes monotonous
Loved the parts on the ‘Golden Age’ of flying when passengers dressed to impress and it was full silver service all the way and how this rapidly changed due to deregulation
As a petrified flyer, even though flown many times I cant stand anything about it from the minute arrive at the airport and am never settled until we leave the airport the other side, journey complete, its fascinating to me how someone can love something so much that petrifies me, in the main well written and enjoyable read

8/10
4 Stars

I loved this memoir. I was born in 1977 so only have very vague memories of smoking on airplanes and the novelty of air travel. Ann Hood takes us to the time when it was exquisite to be an airline stewardess and air travel was a big deal. I loved her coming of ages story and all of the details about TWA and flying when people got dressed up to fly. So much fun@

thanks NetGalley for the ARC of Fly Girl.
I love travel books and thought this book would be about destinations but it's a memoir. Ann Hood applies to every airline in the mid-70's to become a stewardess/flight attendent. While interesting at first I got bored about 40% through the book.

If you're an ex- flight attendent or trivia buff you'll enjoy this book a lot.

As someone who travels frequently, I was especially interested in the subject matter of this book. When I was younger growing up in Atlanta we still had Eastern Airline and of course, Delta. I wanted to be a flight attendant because it seemed so glamorous. This is one of the points illustrated in Ann Hood's memoir. I found the inner workings of the life to be fascinating. Nothing is truly ever what is seems. The progression throughout the decades from when she became an attendant in the 70's to now is glaring and a bit lamentable. The shine is gone. But on the other hand, travel is now open to all people not just the wealthy. Being a flight attendant now does not have quite the cachet that it once did. I found this book fascinating to read.

Thank you NetGalley, Ann Hood and W. W. Norton & Company for the ARC of Fly Girl. This is my personal review.
One of my passions in life is to hop on a plane and discover a new place.
This book was a great look into the world of becoming a flight attendant. She took us from the training to the places she went and things she did, and the interactions with many passengers.
Ann Hood took us into her life and everything being in this profession involved. I loved getting to know her as she progressed thru the life she was leading. She did a wonderful job of talking about the passengers, the management she dealt with and being there when her life as a flight attendant ended when TWA no longer existed. After reading her story I have more respect than before of the life flight attendant’s lead.
This memoir I was so glad to have read.

This book, maybe because it is real, is sooooo much better than the Cof)ee, Tea, or Me book (which Ms. Hood refers to). It is part history book, part memoir, and part story (some of it reads like fiction, although true). Maybe because I'm of the same age as the author, I remember when we used to dress up to fly (or even in high school to sometimes go to the airport for dinner and watch the planes take off for a date), I found the book incredibly exciting because of all the things i did not know about flying, moving because of the funny and sad stories, and also a lesson on how not to run a business and the effect higher management has on the employees that actually make an airline work. This is a book for anyone who has flown, who is flying now, or wants to fly.

This is a charming memoir that shares the stories of women working in the airline industry. More importantly, it is a wonderful social history of women’s work after WW II. so, we do get anecdotes, but the book is so much more. I am old enough to recall days of getting dressed up to fly. We all admired tge glamour of stewardesses. Men took pride in dating a stew.

Amazing, to think of all the changes. In terms of economic history, Hood recalls the villainy of Carl Icahn and his cannibalizing the industry. For me, it was a good reminder of the disruption he caused, since now he is viewed as a great philanthropist.

I definitely will recommend this because of all the layers melded into this rich, interesting memoir.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Fly Girl
by Ann Hood
Pub Date: May 3, 2022
WW Norton
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I was excited to receive this ARC because I adore memoirs and Nonfiction. About the Author: Ann Hood is the author of the best-selling novels The Book That Matters Most, The Red Thread, and The Knitting Circle. Her most recent book is the memoir Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Paris Review, O Magazine, and Real Simple. I enjoy the writings of Ann Hood so that was another plus for me.
When I saw this title and the cover, I knew I wanted to read this. Ann Hood joined TWA in the 1970’s, and began working as a flight attendant during the glory days of TWA, an era when people would still dress up to fly, and flying had become more commonplace than in earlier years. I loved reading this book, even though I never wanted to be a flight attendant.
5 stars