"An entertaining and fascinating memoir of "gifted storyteller" (People) Ann Hood's adventurous years as a TWA flight attendant. In 1978, in the tailwind of the Golden Age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world, Ann Hood joined their ranks. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin, found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels, smiling as she served thousands of passengers. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike. As the airline industry changed around her, Hood began to write-even drafting snatches of her first novel from the jump-seat. She reveals how the job empowered her, despite its roots in sexist standards. Packed with funny, moving, and shocking stories of life as a flight attendant, Fly Girl captures the nostalgia and magic of air travel at its height, and the thrill that remains with every takeoff"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

The best-selling novelist shares funny, moving and sometimes shocking stories of life as a TWA flight attendant during the 1970s and 1980s as the airline industry underwent a huge transformation. - (Baker & Taylor)

In 1978, in the tailwind of the golden age of air travel, flight attendants were the epitome of glamor and sophistication. Fresh out of college and hungry to experience the world—and maybe, one day, write about it—Ann Hood joined their ranks. After a grueling job search, Hood survived TWA’s rigorous Breech Training Academy and learned to evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, administer oxygen, and stay calm no matter what the situation.In the air, Hood found both the adventure she’d dreamt of and the unexpected realities of life on the job. She carved chateaubriand in the first-class cabin and dined in front of the pyramids in Cairo, fended off passengers’ advances and found romance on layovers in London and Lisbon, and walked more than a million miles in high heels. She flew through the start of deregulation, an oil crisis, massive furloughs, and a labor strike.Fly Girl - (WW Norton)

Praise for Ann HoodNew York Times Book ReviewThe Philadelphia Inquirer - (WW Norton)

Kirkus Reviews

An aspiring writer takes an unusual career path. Growing up in West Warwick, Rhode Island, novelist and memoirist Hood was enraptured by planes. Upon graduating from college in 1978, she had two goals: to become a writer and a flight attendant. "I was the most stereotypical type of girl who became an airline stewardess," she admits. "Small town. Love of travel. Big dreams. Craving excitement." In this lively memoir, the author recounts how she managed to fulfill both dreams, although writing took a back seat for most of the eight years that she flew. Getting hired was stressful: Multiple interviews weeded out most applicants—in 1978, over 14,000 people applied for 550 positions at TWA—and Hood was ecstatic to be accepted. During her training, she writes, "I learned to successfully evacuate seven kinds of aircraft, fix a broken coffeemaker, deliver a baby, mix proper cocktails, carve a chateaubriand, administer oxygen, demonstrate safety equipment, and make a baby's rattle out of two plastic cups and a couple of TWA propeller-shaped swizzle sticks." During her six-month probationary period, she and her classmates were stringently monitored for appearance, weight, and demeanor as well as competence. They could not weigh more than they did when they were hired, a requirement that had them taking diuretics and trying crazy weight-loss diets. Sometimes, she writes, "we just drank water until a pound or two came off." Hood, a naïve 21-year-old when she first started flying, grew into a sophisticated young woman undaunted by new cities and unfamiliar food; rude, unruly, or aggressive passengers; mishaps onboard; and some people's assumptions that she was merely a glorified waitress. Her love of flying made her tolerate the airline's total control of her life and time. Happily for her, as opportunities waned because of turmoil in the airline industry, her writing career began to take flight. Colorful anecdotes make for an entertaining memoir of travel and self-discovery. Copyright Kirkus 2022 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Reviews

Before she authored such beloved best sellers as The Book That Matters Most and The Knitting Circle, Hood worked as a flight attendant, enjoying layovers in far-flung places and smiling through the blisters brought on by treading miles of aisles in high heels. Deregulation, an oil crisis, furloughs, a labor strike—she saw them all in a job she acknowledges is shaped by sexism yet for her proved empowering. She sketched out her first novel while sitting in one of her plane's jump seats.

Library Journal Reviews

Novelist Hood's (The Knitting Circle) delightful memoir of her stint as a TWA flight attendant in the late 1970s is full of amusing trivia, hilarious stories, and all the warmth of her novels. The book has plenty of quick anecdotes about strange passengers and happenings on her flights, her training at TWA's rigorous academy, and her world travels, and the author invites readers to settle in for this journey with her. The memoir demonstrates Hood's progression as a person, sees her growing into her position and authority as a mature and steady flight attendant, and tracks the advancement (not always for the better) of the airline industry since 1978. She also offers loads of insight into the inner workings of a commercial flight crew, incorporating the experiences of her flight-attendant peers, and analyzes the ads and pop culture references that track the changing image of flight attendants in the late 20th century. VERDICT An engaging memoir perfect for fans of Hood's and readers interested in aviation history or who love a good coming-of-age memoir.—Amanda Ray

Publishers Weekly Reviews

The "demanding, sexist, exciting, glorious" golden age of air travel sets the spectacular stage for this sparkling account from former flight attendant and novelist Hood (Kitchen Yarns). Trained at Trans World Airlines' selective Breech Training Academy in 1978 at age 21, Hood's airline career began in the glitzy days of Ralph Lauren uniforms, high heels, and chateaubriand carving stations, and dramatically ended eight years later in a picket line, as the combined forces of deregulation, bankruptcies, and labor strikes sent the industry into a tailspin. Despite occasionally didactic forays into the history of air travel ("Qantas Airlines operated the world's first international passenger service in 1935 between Brisbane and Singapore"), Hood's companionable storytelling paired with her bold skewering an oft-glamorized world—riddled with surprise weight checks and aggressive male passengers—make for an enthralling account. Equally effective is her moving story of overcoming entrenched stereotypes—"glorified waitress, a sex kitten, an archaic symbol of women"—within the industry to become a writer, drafting stories late at night on long international flights "as passengers slept" and powering through jet lag in "hotel rooms in Zurich and Paris and Rome" to craft her first novel. From takeoff to landing, this entertains and inspires. (May)