Come Fly The World
The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am
by Julia Cooke

A fabulous well written story follows the lives of three young women from different walks of life and different reasons become an iconic ‘Pan Am‘ Stewardess’s and fly the world. It also covers the ferrying of soldier fighting in the Vietnam war home on leave and back agin to fight. The also did the ‘Operation Babylift’ flying 2,000 children out of Vietnam at the fall of Saigon. The saddest part was the demise of ‘Pan Am’.

Very good read especially the humanitarian part of the story that is not so often written about. A very enjoyable read about a very different time from today.

I choose this book because I was looking for something light. I enjoy reading about the sixties, an era I was too young to participate in, but old enough to watch on television.

As I began to read, I soon realized that this book was much more than the adventures of Pam Am stewardesses, ie Coffee, Tea, or Me. Not only do we learn about each of these women's lives, hopes, and dreams, but also background on Pan Am and history of the airline industry.

One of the more interesting parts of the book were the chapters that covered the Vietnam War, and that Pan Am flew soldiers in and out of the country, and to R&R destinations. They also participated in Operation Babylift.

Overall an intestesting and informative glimpse into the history of the airline industry at the dawn of the jet age.

I had always heard stories of the Pan Am stewardesses but never really knew much about them or what their jobs entailed. Enter this book and I was blown away. For example, I didn't know how involved the airline was with the Vietnam War, the demands on the stewardesses time and appearance but also how much they enjoyed the work and the benefits that came with it. Operation Babylift was heartbreaking and uplifting both at the same time.

This book chronicles three stewardesses and their lives but also goes into detail the world at that time and all that was going on and how Pan Am was involved with it, which I just found fascinating. So much so that by the time we got to the company's demise, it was so sad to read about. Really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the digital galley to review.

I absolutely loved this book. History meets glamour, not to mention one of the most fantastic, stunning covers I've seen in a while. This gives you an entirely new respect for the miracles that both planes and flight attends can achieve, and the freedom these jobs gave women. Absolutely fantastic!

Come Fly the World was such a fun and interesting read. I learned so much, not just about the life of a PanAm stewardess, but also about this time period in American History. I had no idea how entwined with the Vietnam War the stewardesses were and I'm glad to know some of their stories.

Pleased to include this interesting artefact and social history in the pop culture Nostalgia themed list of my holiday gift books guide for Zoomer magazine's Books section in December. (The listicle is online at related link.)

COME FLY THE WORLD covers a lot of ground, as it sets the stories of several flight attendants against the backdrop of Pan Am and world history. I read this one over the course of 10 months -- rare for me, but I didn't want to speed past interesting details, I wanted to soak up so much.

Also rare: I found myself in tears during the epilogue. Author Julia Cooke so skillfully made me care about these women that their life updates and special experiences tugged my heartstrings.

While I found loads here compelling, it's not salacious and I think readers looking for that likely will be disappointed. It's also not the be all end all of flight attendant history (for starters, it's focused on one airline...). That having been said, I was wowed by what Cooke packed into these pages, especially in terms of cultural analysis.

I enjoyed reading this book and feel I learned a lot -- and was given valuable context for things I already sort of knew, but hadn't thought about deeply. COME FLY THE WORLD was cool and smart which are two of my favorite things in a book.

This exhaustively researched non fiction book about flight attendants and the airlines, specifically Pan Am, was an interesting study of how society's view of women has changed in the last 50 years.
The narrative was definitely drier than something like "Coffee, Tea or Me", but the author took you behind the scenes and focused on real people's lives, giving the reader a feeling of how it must be to serve the public while negotiating your way down a narrow aisle wearing high heels, in a moving vehicle up in the air.
It was a good history lesson of the world as well, since Pan Am flew exclusively international.
My favorite part was the "Babylift" flights from Southeast Asia, carrying infants born during the Viet Nam war.

Thank you to the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and advanced copy of Come Fly the World by Julia Cooke. I thought this was a work of fiction until about 100 pages in. It gave me all the Mad Men/Cold War Era America vibes when women were really starting to break out of the mold of "just a housewife" and enter the work force, even if it wasn't quite on their own terms yet. I guess I was vaguely aware that there were pretty strict requirements for a woman to qualify for the flight attendant program with Pan Am airlines, but I really didn't get the depth of those requirements. It really was like being in a beauty pageant from screening to interview to actual on the job. Those women seemed to have to be not only beautiful and interesting, but also a diplomat, warden, mother, and hostess all at once. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. This look into the lives of the women of Pan Am Airlines was both enlightening and infuriating, well researched and well written, but it definitely pushed up against the boundaries of my tolerance for nonfiction/biography.

this was a really unique read, I really only know of Pan-Am from the tv show, so I was excited to learn more about the ladies that worked for this airline. I found it to be a fascinating and entertaining read, it kept me invested.

Thank you to #NetGalley for this book. I really wanted to read and like this book since it's something different that I normally would not read and thought it might be interesting.

After trying to read it three times at three different times thinking that I was not in the mood for non-fiction or this type of book, I gave up. I wanted more about the women who were stewardesses and not about the business aspect of the airline though I thought that would be interesting too but not for me as much as I thought.

I’d like to thank Netgalley for providing me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! Come Fly the World is an interesting story about the Pan Am stewardesses from the 50’s to 70’s. It mentions many historical events, like the Vietnam War, and gives many first-person stories involving them.

The book talks about different women and their experiences with Pan Am, but mainly focuses on three. They all have very different lives, but are similar in the fact that they want to travel the world and see what it has to offer. I thought that the stories were interesting, but that the author rotated between them at random times and it got confusing.

I found the rules and regulations to become and stay a stewardess to be very intriguing as well. It also told about the dangers they faced, which was at time shocking.

It was an interesting book, but it had an odd layout and was too long in my opinion. It’s a short book, but it seems like some of the stuff could have still been cut or shortened. Overall, to enjoy this one readers need to be fans of history and/or Pan Am.

3 stars

I loved this book as it gave you an insight into being a flight attendant, which is such a neat profession!

It centers around the now defunct airline, Pan Am, which at one time was a prominent airline flying around the world.

There was a lot of sexism in this airline, look this way, weight this amount, you can only be this age, you can't be married. Single women did have the ability to support themselves with this job, but at this cost.

The best part of the book I think was the Operation Babylift, where they were bringing back the orphans. It should tug at anyone's heart strings, especially moms!

The book was very well researched, kept you wanting more and more.

Would definitely recommend to others.

Thank you to NetGlalley for the chance to read and review this book!

I had no idea that Pan Am stewardesses were so smart and capable! The false image of the ditzy, sexy stewardess of the “coffee, tea, or me” era is corrected with this fascinating account of the time. While it is fairly well-known that stewardesses of that era had to meet height and weight requirements and adhere to strict rules regarding hair and make-up, it is less well-known that they had to speak a foreign language and have a college education.

The author does a great job of profiling three very different women (and I appreciate that she chose a diverse group.) She also shares chronicles the story of how flight attendants were called upon to deal with world/political events like Vietnam and terrifying hijackings.

Many of the stories of women in aviation focus on heroic figures like Amelia Earhart or Beryl Markham. This book, however, shines a light on the contributions of a generation of average women who managed to contribute to safer and better air travel while simultaneously meeting ridiculous rules governing their appearance.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Bravo!

As an aviation passionate, woman and student pilot, everything about planes, pilots, stewardesses and PAN AM must be a great reading. This book made me dream about those years when flight attendants were a model for most girls and women all over the world.
I was born a few years after Pan Am was officially closed, but the dream has never failed.
I enjoyed the fact that the author decided to describe the whole story in a historical way through the eyes of those women who have experienced that kind of life.
In some way, I see it as a "feminist manifesto". Let's just not forget that they were independent women with a job that took them all around the world.

Overall, this book as potential due to the topic but I felt it was very hard to follow.. it lacked a natural flow. It felt very disjointed due to the jumping around to different settings and back again with no real rhyme or reason. When I was able to follow and get into the writing it was very enjoyable but that didn't last for long. This is a subject I am interested in but the author didn't make it feel interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest option.

While a fascinating account of the glamourous Pan Am airlines, the multiple viewpoints did not connect in an anticipated way, causing the book to feel a bit discombobulated. Otherwise, not a bad peek behind the curtain (in this case the one separating passengers and flight crew, as opposed to the proverbial one) into life as an air stewardess.

Ugh. I wanted to like this so much, I really did. I've always been interested in the history of Pan-Am and flight attendants in general, it's so fun to learn about. But this book just did not do it for me! I think I assumed that it was gonna be something different than what it was, and more so about the Flight Attendants and their experiences individually rather than a history of the 60s/Pan-Am in general which is how it read. I just wasn't a fan of how it read and how it didn't focus on the flight attendants themselves.

Incredible stories and experiences from Pan Am flight attendants and how flying the world changed their lives. It was interesting to read how the airline participated and helped during the Vietnam War flying from Saigon to Hong Kong. Good historical content in the book and the way the flight attendant stories were weaved in.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review. I requested this book because as I was growing up, I really really wanted to be a flight attendant. At the time, there was a height requirement and I was too short...but I thought it would be the coolest thing to get to travel all of the time and actually get paid for it. Then I briefly watched the Pan Am show when it came out and I learned alot by watching that show...I had no idea of any of the history that was connected with some of the girls. Anyway, I was never quite able to get into the book as much as I would have liked. There were just too many times where it read like a textbook and when I am reading something for fun, I do not want too much information thrown at me at once...hence the textbook comment. It felt too much like homework sometimes, which I left behind a long time ago. When I WAS able to get into what was happening and stay there, I enjoyed myself but it didn't happen too often. :)