Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

 Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022--San Antonio

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is a wonderful novel.  Two stories parallel each other through the book--one that starts in the 1920s about a young girl living in Montana at that time who wants to become a pilot after a barnstorming plane flies near her on its way to an air show in nearby Missoula.  The other takes place in the 2010s about an actress who has made 3 films in a series of a planned 7 films to complete the story and has made some mistakes that have resulted in bad publicity.  But as soon as she gets fired from the series of films, she is offered a role in a film about to be made about the life of the female pilot who is the protagonist in the other part of the novel.  Most of the book is about the pilot rather than the actress and thoroughly held my interest.  The part about the actress became better as the book progressed and was critical to completing both the stories.  Originally, I considered 4 1/2 stars for the book, but I decided to round it to 5 stars out of 5 since it is one of the best stories I have read in quite a while.