Flying Jenny — Theasa Tuohy

“[A] superb new historical novel . . . about the heady late 1920s, when the public went crazy every day over barnstorming pilots and their heroic stunts.” -- Publishers Daily Reviews
 
People are doing all sorts of screwy things in 1929. It is a time of hope, boundless optimism, and prosperity. “Blue Skies” is the song on everyone's lips. The tabloids are full of flagpole sitters, flappers, and marathon dancers. Ever since Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic solo, the entire world has gone nuts over flying. But everyone agrees that the stunt pilots take the cake.

Jenny Flynn defies the odds and conventions in her pursuit of the sky. She attracts the attention of Laura Bailey, a brash reporter crashing through her own glass ceiling at a New York City newspaper. Laura chases the pilot's story -- and the truth about her own mysterious father -- on a barnstorming escapade from Manhattan to the Midwest.

Flying Jenny offers a vivid portrait of an earlier time when airplanes drew swarming crowds entranced by the pioneers -- male and female -- of flight.
 
Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Awards, Fiction
 
“[A] romp through the early days of women's aviation history . . . Debutante pilot Jenny Flynn and cub reporter Laura Bailey carry the spunk of Thelma & Louise to new heights as they fight for space in the cockpit and the city room.” -- Janet Groth, author of The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker
 
“Tuohy uses both Jenny and Laura to explore gender roles in the late 1920s and how two young women push their own boundaries as well as the society around them.” -- Historical Novels Review