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FLY GIRL

A MEMOIR

Colorful anecdotes make for an entertaining memoir of travel and self-discovery.

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.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-324-00623-7

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022

Awards & Accolades

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  • New York Times Bestseller


  • Rolling Stone & Kirkus' Best Music Books of 2020

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THE MEANING OF MARIAH CAREY

100% Mariah, unburdened by filler material and written with pure heart and soul for both die-hard and casual fans.

Awards & Accolades

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  • New York Times Bestseller


  • Rolling Stone & Kirkus' Best Music Books of 2020

The mega-selling singer chronicles her life via the “moments that matter.”

Carey begins with her early childhood on Long Island in the 1970s, when she used music as a form of escapism and distraction. The fearful youngest daughter of a Black father and an Irish Catholic, opera singer mother, Carey and her two siblings braved physical violence, racial prejudice, and emotional trauma within a turbulent household “weighed down with yelling and chaos.” In the late 1980s, her music career began to blossom, especially after she met and fell in love with Tommy Mottola, who was the head of Columbia Records at the time. Carey openly shares the lurid details of her controlling and emotionally abusive marriage to Mottola in the 1990s. Through her notes on the multifaceted recording process, readers will see the author’s undeniable passion and work ethic as well as her burgeoning self-confidence. Some of the most entertaining moments are encapsulated in dishy free-form anecdotes sandwiched between tales of music career honors, personal triumphs and hardships, and health problems. Carey is at her best when her outspoken personality shines through, as when describing numerous “diva” moments or her harsh regrets about the “collision of bad luck, bad timing, and sabotage” that characterized the making of her disastrous film Glitter. The author also offers appreciative commentary on Marilyn Monroe, Whitney Houston, and Aretha Franklin (“my high bar and North Star, a masterful musician and mind-bogglingly gifted singer who wouldn’t let one genre confine or define her”). Carey frankly reveals the many conflicting emotions she has experienced as a mixed-race woman both energized by and dismayed at the music industry’s cutthroat, often prejudicial landscape. “Lambs,” as her fans call themselves, will find plenty of juicy gems, including the revelation that she recorded a never-released “breezy-grunge, punk-light” album. These intimate ruminations are impressively detailed without being overly concerned with industry gossip or petty squabbles, creating a refreshingly candid celebrity self-portrait. One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.

100% Mariah, unburdened by filler material and written with pure heart and soul for both die-hard and casual fans.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-250-16468-1

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Andy Cohen Books/Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020

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WHITE MAGIC

ESSAYS

A fascinating magic trick of a memoir that illuminates a woman's search for meaning.

A Cowlitz woman’s collection of interconnected essays on memory, nostalgia, and introspection, conveyed through personal history, popular culture, and magic.

Washuta begins with an account of her history with magic and witchcraft growing up. "The truth is I'm not a witch, exactly: I'm a person with prayers, a person who believes in spirits and plays with fire,” she writes. The author’s story is also one of personal healing, as she writes candidly about her abuse of alcohol, being misdiagnosed as bipolar, and suffering from PTSD. Across 10 interwoven essays that move through Washuta’s life, she uses popular-culture references—e.g., Fleetwood Mac, Twin Peaks, and the video game “Oregon Trail II”—as guideposts in her own journey of understanding the world and her place in it. Washuta shifts her focus frequently (perhaps too much for some readers), from the history of the Seattle area to an in-depth discussion of horror movies to her search for an anti-drinking educational video she though she saw as a teen. At the same time, she investigates the connections among magic, witchcraft, and her Native heritage. The book breaks from traditional memoir in intriguing ways, including footnotes that speak directly to readers and an essay that begins by focusing on Twin Peaks and then slowly begins to emulate it, moving back and forth through time and showing the changing nature of narrative across shifting time frames. Throughout, Washuta is consistently honest about her own past and opinions, and she is unafraid to directly question readers, demanding engagement with the text. “This book is a narrative,” she writes. “It has an arc. But the tension is not in what happened when I lived it; it’s in what happened when I wrote it. Like I already told you, this is not just a recounted story; I am trying to make something happen and record the process and results.”

A fascinating magic trick of a memoir that illuminates a woman's search for meaning.

Pub Date: April 27, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-951142-39-1

Page Count: 432

Publisher: Tin House

Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021

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