#BookReview: Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio

Perfect Escapism. Even as certain elements of this book are damn near torn from the headlines of the past several weeks – for the record, *long* after Di Maio had completed writing this book, as I’ve had it myself for nearly four months already – this book really is pure, damn near perfect, escapism. For most people. For those in at least one sadly far too common situation – one my own grandmother experienced during the period detailed in this book – it could potentially be triggering. Yet even in this, Di Maio provides a solid set of escapism, and even in this, there is ultimately purpose in the story beyond “you can survive”.

Instead, the vast majority of this tale focuses primarily on one particular lady and the situations she finds herself in during the early 1960s as she attempts a career as a Pan Am stewardess. We see in detail the exacting standards of the position and the more-intense-than-one-may-realize training they underwent. We see the (then) exotic locales that are still wildly different than what most Americans today are accustomed to – and yet those locations have also been increasingly “Americanized” and generally commercialized over the ensuing decades, to the point that this book really hits the nostalgic appeal of the locations in the eras portrayed and, as the text takes place nearly entirely in the early 1960s, largely glosses over all that they have become.

Our other primary narrator from this period is another view of the trials women went through in this period, and here Di Maio does a particularly superb job of showing that looks can indeed be deceiving, and sometimes one must actively seek out the real truth in matters.

Our final perspective – yes, this is technically multi-perspective, but there really are just the three – is a modern day person looking back on the halcyon days portrayed in the rest of the story. It is through her eyes that we see both all that was, story wise, and… even a glimpse of Di Maio herself, as she notes in the Author Note. (No, not even spoiling that here, although that particular tale sounds pretty fucking awesome. 🙂 )

Ultimately this is one of those books that does a truly phenomenal job of providing maximal escapism through exotic travel in a long-gone era… and it is one that is going to tug your heart strings quite a bit at times, both making your heart race from a variety of situations and in making the room quite dusty indeed at points.

For those who may have worried where Di Maio was or if she was coming back at all or if she could come back and stay just as good as she once was, with her last major release being almost exactly three years to the day before the publication date of this book… I’ll tell you now: I’ve now read over half of Di Maio’s major releases, first encountering her with 2019’s The Beautiful Strangers, and at least of the books I’ve read from her… this may well be the best one yet.

Very much recommended.

This review of Come Fly With Me by Camille Di Maio was originally written on February 14, 2025.

#BookReview: Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino

Want An Election Themed Book That AVOIDS The Real Ones Entirely? Here Ya Go! Seriously, this book does a phenomenal job – truly, one of the best I’ve yet found in any medium – of showing both the nuts and bolts of elections and the high drama of elections and yet managing to present both in such a manner as to avoid most all (current) real world politics *and* without boring the viewer (reader) to tears. Because yes, while working elections is truly hard work (as I know as even a 2x former rural small town City Council candidate) and truly, utterly *boring* at times… this book manages to switch gears into its primary tale – that of a woman discovering her husband cheating on her and the actions she takes after that point – to keep the reader involved in the overall story.

Truly an excellent work on both the women’s fiction side and the elections side, and the two complement each other well in exactly the manners that would largely play out in real life, particularly given the backgrounds involved here.

You’re going to laugh. The room will get dusty at times. And in the end, you’re going to leave this book happy to have come across it. Isn’t that a good combination of a lot of what we all hope for in a fictional tale?

Very much recommended.

This review of Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino was originally written on August 27, 2024.