Maggie Shipstead's latest novel, Great Circle, is a roller-coaster of emotion--one moment your heart is soaring, and the next it may come tumbling to the ground as fast as a sinking aircraft. Nonetheless, every bit of the ride is well worth the read. I must admit, however, the length of the book was a bit intimidating to me, but once I reached the heart of the story, I found myself reading quickly, unable to put it down. The complexity of character, and the intermingling of their stories, is at the heart of the tome. We find Marian and Jamie Graves as children being raised by their uncle in Montana after the "disappearance" of their parents. Our heroine, Marian, pursues a love-affair with aviation at the tender age of fourteen, which determines her tumultuous path in life. The other protagonist in the book, Hadley Baxter, is a present-day actress in Hollywood cast to play Marian in an upcoming biopic, a century later. "Nights and days, summers and winters,"....this beautiful story unfolds brilliantly through the years, with each character's storyline and Ms. Shipstead's impeccable eye for detail. Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for this advanced eCopy. This book will appeal to many, many readers, I am sure.

Wow! I didn't want this book to end. Circle within circles. Geographic circles, personal circles, timeline circles. This book carries us through many lives over a century. In a shorter book, many of the characters would have no been left behind. In this title almost all the characters get fully fleshed out and carried through their own circle of time. As in life, a few disappear without a trace. I loved all these characters. Ok, some weren’t lovable but they were essential. I had no idea how long the book was, but I still wasn't ready for it to end, though honestly it ended beautifully. Let repeat what the editor wrote in the intro "This is a novel to get lost in, a novel that reminds us that books really are magic. .... Just trust me" read this one. What a journey. Thx to Netgalley, publisher and author for this great read.

Wow! This is a tome of some magnitude! Maggie Shipstead is a great writer, otherwise I might have given up when it seemed there were so many pages still left to go! This is really my only negative comment. I think it could have been a little shorter to move the story along more quickly, yet...., what to cut? Every word and description seems to fill the characters in more fully, turning them from paper dolls into full living people. My husband and I have been working several years on trying to fill in the pieces of his father's life in WWII Poland before he immigrated to Australia, and there are so many missing pieces. This seemed to me a little like if you were able to go back and see someone's story, and before that their parent's story, which is partially how they became the way they are. In other words, this was a little like living Marian's life.

As other's have stated, this is the story of two women, Marian who dreams of being an aviator, reminiscent of Amelia Earhart, her story starting in the early part of the century. Then there is Hadley, living in modern times who has almost accidently become a movie star and then managed to mess it all up badly. I agree with other reviewers that this is really Marian's story, although the Hadley story line does tie in neatly. The author immerses you in Marian's world and it was a new experience for me, both because I've never visited this part of the United States, and there was a wealth of information on flying. It made me wonder if the author took flying lessons to get such extensive details. I won't try to condense the story line as it's simply too big and you will have to read it for yourself.

While this was not always the easiest book to read, it is a book I felt I entered another world when I was turning it's pages. The amount of detail the author put into this story, and the polished well chosen words she used to portray the story was a marvel!

Thank you to NetGalley, Author Maggie Shipstead, and the publisher for allowing me to read this ARC.

The Great Circle

The Great Circle is a remarkably complex construction but masterfully executed. It tells the story of Marian Graves, a pioneering female pilot who, like the more well-known Amelia Earhart, disappears trying to circumnavigate the globe.

Marian’s story is told as a story within a story. In the present, it is told from the perspective of a troubled young actress who is playing Marian in a biopic of her life. Hadley had been fascinated by Marian as a young girl and determines to try to find out who Marian really was as much for herself as for the role.

The majority of the book focuses on Marian’s actual life and the author, Maggie Shipstead, does an excellent job of creating an intimate portrait of Marian and the people in her life. The way the author closes the circle between the telling of Marian’s story across the generations is well done.

While I would certainly recommend this book, I would describe it as interesting but not particularly enjoyable. I felt a pervasive theme that ran throughout the book was grim resolution, and it would start to wear on me after a few chapters.

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf for this advance copy of Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead.
Wow what a fantastic read! Definitely one of my top reads for this and probably last year. There are so many things to like about this book.
First off, word choice. Each and every word and sentence you feel is absolutely picked for the evocation it will bring to the reader. Do you see how I used the word evocation, well Shipstead uses words that are bigger and more satisfying than the norm, and it draws you deeper into the story.
Pacing, I have read some reviews where they thought this was too long, indulgent, slow to read. I felt the opposite. I thought the pacing was wonderful. As Marian and Jamie (and Hadley for that matter) came more into their own understanding of what and who they were, so did the story.
I loved the characters and how well developed there were. The author uses different point of views and each shift from one to the next was done so well. Many books are more jarring in their transition from one character's story to the next, but Shipstead does a great job leaving the reader on a precipice of one story line and picking up without a misstep into the next, segmenting them into a similar emotion, decision, or life course change.
I totally recommend this book, you will find yourself looking up Marian Graves to want to know more about her, only to see what a masterful job the author did in making you believe she and her story are real.

This might be my favorite book of 2021. I could not put it down and flew through it in about a day. I can not recommend this book enough to everyone I know.

I love a good sweeping epic novel and this one does not disappoint. Adventure, romance, heartbreak , and triumph. The writing was eloquent and beautiful. The characters were interesting and well developed by the author. I loved the ending, and did not want it to end. Thank you for the ARC.

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead is an amazingly beautiful book. This is an epic book. It’s epic in size-over 600 pages. And it’s epic in scope. This is a story of Marian Graves-epic female badass. This is also the story of her twin brother, Jamie Graves-epically challenged artist who struggles to understand and fit into his world. They have an epically challenging beginning, and face other more epic challenges as they grow. Then they face one of histories most epic battles-WWII. After the war, Marian sets off on one last epic journey-to circumnavigate the globe from North Pole to South pole in a Great Circle.

This book spans one hundred years. It is not a weekend read. It’s not fast paced. But it is immersive. If you like epic family dramas that span multiple historic time periods, you’ll love this story!

Thank you to #netgalley and #knopfpublishinggroup for the advanced e-copy of #greatcircle.

I'm a big Maggie Shipstead fan, having read and loved both of her previous novels. She's the kind of writer where you can easily get lost in her elegant prose. Great Circle is written in the popular dual time frame about a famous fictional aviatrix of the past and the actress hired to play her in a movie in the present. I enjoyed both time frames and the characters were very deep and well-developed. The book has plenty of twists and you'll care greatly about all of the characters. This book will be fabulous for book groups...so much to discuss.

This was an interesting story about a female pilot and the many paths she crossed in her life. I feel it was unnecessarily detailed and about 200 pages too long. Thank you Netgalley for the eARC.

For fans of Paula McClain and Beatriz Williams, Great Circle is a fantastic historical fiction novel set between 1914 and current day, full of strong female characters. Marian and Jamie Graves are twins who as babies survive a shipwreck and are sent to live with their uncle in Montana. As they grow, they are left to make their own way in the world as their uncle becomes less and less of a presence in their lives. Marian works from an early age to become a woman pilot, doing whatever she must to make her dream reality. Hadley is a present-day actress trying to break free of her defining roles when she is hired to play Marian in a film being made about her life. This novel touches on so many women's issues it will make for fantastic book club conversations.

A totally immersive, unhurried, epic female adventure story. I can’t remember the last time I felt this satisfied with a novel. An absolute must read for fans of historical fiction!

Things to know:
▻ A joy to read!
▻ Beautifully rich prose
▻ Vividly drawn characters and scenery
▻ Courageous & defiant females
▻ Read w/Jenna Book Club Pick

Characters:
▻ Marian Graves: badass female aviator challenging the 1950s patriarchy while pursuing a dream to become the first pilot to circumnavigate the globe over the North and South Poles.
▻ Hadley Baxter: Hollywood actress cast as Marian in a film; redefining herself in LA.

Read this…
…at a leisurely pace; ideally under a blanket of summer blue and white skies. Marian’s journey will inspire you to find those dreams in the clouds above, grab hold, and push the limits.

▻ ▻ ▻
Thanks to Knopf for the free egalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advance copy of Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. This is my first book by this author. What an adventurous book! It wasn't necessarily action-packed, though many of the flight scenes were very fun to read, but it is a very dense book. So many lives, life events and paths explored. While some parts are very s-l-o-w going, the ending was well worth it! A good read. I will be checking into this author's other books.

Wow!
An amazing and epic novel that spans a century and the entire planet.
This book is the story of Marian Graves who disappeared in 1950 while attempting a north-south circumnavigation of the earth.
Marian and her twin brother Jamie were more or less orphaned in a shipwreck in 1914, sent as babes to their paternal uncle in Montana and were raised by him.
During their coming up years the town is visited by a couple who fly a small plane and Marian becomes obsessed with planes and her only life goal is to fly them.
This novel has it all.. shipwrecks, the depression, bootlegging, whore houses, world war, and much more.
This is a dual timeline, there is also in current time, an actress named Hadley who is playing Marian in a film.
I am glad that the Hadley portions were not long and that the book was mostly Marian’s life because those were the great parts of the book!

I will be reading more of this author!

Thank you to the publisher through Netgalley for this free ebook!

CW: grooming, sexual assault, substance abuse/addiction, losing loved ones

This book has wrecked me.

At 600+ pages, this book is a beast. The first 100 pages or so were a little hard to get through, as there is so much exposition, but once you get into the heart of it, there’s no turning back.

While I adored this book and found my heart ripped apart time and time again, the writing is just so beautiful and almost peaceful (?), despite the war background or the struggles of being a woman who knows what she wants during that time.

There were many moments when I questioned why a particular character’s entire life story was given, and though I don’t think the book needed to be 600 pages, I don’t think any of this ruined the book for me. There were definitely moments that could’ve, and maybe should’ve, been cut. But after seeing the book as a whole, I’m not upset at the length.

The thing that fell the most flat to me was all of Hadley’s storyline. Though it was interesting, and maybe I would have loved it if it were its own separate story, I found that it paled greatly in comparison to Marian’s story.

All in all, a beautiful read that I found reminiscent of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the eARC.

Great Circle is a lengthy book about a fictional female aviator, Marion Graves, in the early 20th century and while well-written, there was too much detail that dragged the story down. In addition, the dual storyline didn't work for me this time. I didn't see any purpose in Hadley's timeline and the purpose it did serve could have been achieved in another way. In the end, it just distracted me from Marion's story, a much more interesting read.

Negatives aside, there was still much that was enjoyable about Great Circle, from the real-life characters weaved into the story to the descriptions of all the different locales that Marion lived in, visited and flew over -- the Northwest, Alaska, England and the Antarctic are just a few.

Thank you to Kopf and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really interested in reading this book based on the description and for the fact that it was the May pick for the Read with Jenna book club. The story was interesting. However, it just dragged on and on and on and on. To the point that when I got about to page 460 (of 627 pages in total), I started just skimming and then ended up just reading the last 2 chapters and called it done. I don't mind long books but this one just seemed to fill pages with a bunch of details that were not at all necessary to the story.

"Great Circle" is an epic about a female pilot, Marian Graves, from the early 20th century. Her goal is to circumnavigate the globe by flying over the North and South Poles. There's a mysterious element to what happened on her big flight. The vast timeline brought so much depth and insight into the story. Through Marian’s love of flying, we learn about other great pilots and their accomplishments in aviation. In WWII, we learn about combat artists and the role women were allowed to play in furthering the war efforts. And throughout the fictional lives of the characters, we learn about love, sacrifice, determination, loyalty, unrequited love, and loss. There are dual plot lines going on in this book and many details that do not add much to the story and could have been omitted for a lesson cumbersome book. I don't mind long books as long as the words given are adding to the story. There are many areas where the story line goes on tangents that don't add to the overall storyline. Well researched and detailed for sure but am glad it ended and I don't have to continue reading to get to the points. It is a good book although rather long that it needed to be.

Thank you to Netgalley. the author and publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An expansive novel of historical fiction, Shipstead uses dual narratives to tell the story of female aviator, Marian Graves, spanning from the early 1900s to present day. The story opens with actress, Hadley Baxter, who was orphaned as a child and left to grow up with her uncle who was more like a friend than a parent. Because he was in the showbiz industry, Hadley easily found herself there as well as a child star later to become the lead actress in a hit series called Archangel, however, her personal life seemed to be a fiasco. After a very public breakup with her co-star/boyfriend, she leaves the show and is presented with the opportunity to play Marian Graves in a film based on a book written about her life. As a child, Hadley had read Marian’s flight logbook that was published after her disappearance and for her, this was an opportunity to come to peace with her own past and to understand a woman that she felt a great connection with.

Marian, much like Hadley, was, for all intents and purposes, orphaned as a child with her twin brother, Jamie, to grow up with their uncle (much like Hadley’s uncle, he was more a friend than a parent). She grew up fierce and independent and because of a chance encounter with a husband wife flying duo, becomes enamored with the idea of flight. Throughout her life, Marian’s one goal is to become a pilot and she stops at nothing to accomplish this. She poses as a boy so that she can work odd jobs, some even illegal. She meets a wealthy bootlegger, who sponsors her flight schooling (but at what cost?). Eventually her aspiration is to fly a great circle around the south pole crossing over Antarctica. Later, her logbook is found on the poles and published, but many are left wondering what ever happened to Marian, and who was she really?

There was much to really love about this book, I quite enjoyed how the author incorporated stories of real female aviators such as Jacqueline Cochran, Amy Johnson, and, of course, Amelia Earhart to tell the story of Marian. What I enjoyed the most though was the idea that we may have an idea of who someone is from history and stories told about that person, but really, we don’t know a great deal about them at all. The historical part of the story, as well as the many different relationships between Marian and Jamie, or Marian and her long standing on/off relationship with Caleb, and even her relationship with Ruth all felt very real and because of that I feel they were well written.

What I didn’t like about the book, and what I felt kept me from giving it a 5-star review, was the length. I don’t feel like this book needed to be quite as long as it did. There were so many passages filled with superfluous detail that my brain tends to see the words but not really comprehend what I am reading when so much detail is given that it takes away from the story. It didn’t need 608 pages to be told, it could have been done in about 400 I would imagine. As an author, I’m sure it’s difficult to decide which parts should and should not be kept in the story, but Marian is a fictional character and that story could have used some editing down. Also, I found myself at times really disliking Marian and not really caring about her. I enjoyed Jamie’s story more than hers because I cared about him as a character. Marian came across as very selfish and egocentric which may have been the point of her character, but it made for a hard read on long passages about her.

Either way, I do think this book is worth a read, but one who really loves history and an author who describes things in great GREAT detail, would get more out of this book than a casual historical fiction reader such as myself.

Some books are meant to be inhaled poolside next to a frosty drink; other books are meant to be read reverently in the quiet of the night. Great Circle is a nightstand tome, one to turn to when you can fully appreciate the beautiful lyricism of each sentence and the epic scope of the history that unfolds in its pages. I was a little daunted by the length and the subject matter (airplanes and WWII are not my favorites), but I'm forever glad that I was able to read this gorgeously written book. The book begins with a shipwreck in 1914 that changes the lives of infant twins Marian and Jamie Graves; the twins are raised by their uncle in Montana, but their lives take very different courses. Great Circle does a fabulous job bringing to life the entire first half of the twentieth century, from WWI to Marian's Antarctic flight in 1950. Also interspersed throughout are scenes from Hadley Baxter's journey to understand and portray Marian in a film adaptation of her life. I didn't always enjoy Hadley's intrusions into the historical narrative, but I loved the way that Shipstead used Hadley's research for some final reveals about our historical players. I am sad to say goodbye to this book, but I know that I'll be thinking about the characters for a long time. Highly recommended for patient readers who enjoy historical fiction, epics, and literary fiction. Many thanks to Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing for the librarian preview copy!