Fly Girls: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History, Paperback

A New York Times Bestseller * An Amazon Best Book of the Year * A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * A Time Best Book for Summer

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. While male pilots were lauded as heroes, the few women who dared to fly were more often ridiculed--until a cadre of women pilots banded together to break through the entrenched prejudice.

Fly Girls weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout from Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorc e; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at her blue blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the young mother of two who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to fly and race airplanes--and in 1936, one of them would triumph, beating the men in the toughest air race of them all.

KEITH O'BRIEN is a former reporter for the Boston Globe and a frequent contributor to NPR, including on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and This American Life. He has also written for the New York TimesMagazine, Politico, and Slate.