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Bookalicious Babes of Austin

This book club is designed for Austin women who love to read and chat and drink wine. Most of our members are in their mid-20s to 30s. We meet once monthly to discuss a book of everyone's choosing and do additional meetups throughout each month that are not book-related, such as happy hours, hikes, and game nights. We’re excited to connect and look forward to discussing our latest read!

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Books and Bakes is an online and in person book club based out of Cape Cod. Each book will be paired with a recipe (online) or bake (in person).

Great Circle: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel (Man Booker Prize Finalist)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • The unforgettable story of a daredevil female aviator determined to chart her own course in life, at any cost: an “epic trip—through Prohibition and World War II, from Montana to London to present-day Hollywood—and you’ll relish every minute” (People).

After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There--after encountering a pair of barnstorming pilots passing through town in beat-up biplanes--Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fourteen she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy bootlegger who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe by flying over the North and South Poles.

A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance in Antarctica. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to redefine herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two women's fates--and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times--collide. Epic and emotional, meticulously researched and gloriously told, Great Circle is a monumental work of art, and a tremendous leap forward for the prodigiously gifted Maggie Shipstead.

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672 pages

Average rating: 8.09

32 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Anonymous
Mar 24, 2024
6/10 stars
A great story, both modern day and in the World War II era. The ending was superb and unexpected. I would have given it 4 or 5 stars, but there is way too much detail. (600 pages) But perhaps that's why the characters were so real and multifaceted. Even though the length is loooonnnnng!! I will read this again. Perhaps in the dark of Winter, when confined to the house.
hognixon
Dec 27, 2023
10/10 stars
Beautiful story with some fun historical learnings.
margardenlady
Dec 27, 2023
8/10 stars
Shipstead's writing is lyrical and lovely, even when she is writing about the darkest parts of the human soul. This novel follows Marian Graves through her notorious (and fictional) life, with a sidebar story of the almost parallel life of Hadley Baxter, both orphaned and raised by uncles, but more importantly, they are women searching for themselves. Marian's childhood with her twin Jamie and neighbor Caleb is the kind of childhood that could not happen today, and despite its neglect strikes many notes of beauty. Her adult years are a triumph of will against the odds. She is a heroine both admirable and selfish, but unfailingly human.

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