Flygirl

Kardon’s exciting, spirited debut follows a new female pilot as she vies to move up to the captain’s seat. Thirty-something Patricia “Tris” Miles abandons her career as a middle school English teacher to pursue a lifelong dream of learning to fly planes. After training with a commuter airline, she accepts an offer to become a copilot for a corporation’s private jet, which she thinks will allow her to advance in her career more quickly. Instead, she faces stiff, rude competition with male counterparts such as Ed Deter, a misogynist ex-military pilot who “hadn’t met a woman yet whose hands he’d put his life into,” and who resents the assignment to train Tris. Another pilot, Larry Ross, considers standing up for Tris, but worries that his coworkers will tease him for having a crush on her. Tris brushes off Ross’s flirtation, driven by her laser focus on achieving her goals, and eventually an opportunity presents itself to shine next to Deter and save the day. Kardon, a pilot, convincingly describes the intricacies of flying, and a passage in which a plane must be flown through thick fog, with nothing but the instruments for guidance (“Woman and machine entwined in the exceptional conversation of flight”) is particularly well done. This soaring testament to the value of following one’s dreams delivers the goods. (Self-published)