Great Circle: A novel

The strength of this book, the prose, was also what made me dislike it some. I just don't think this book needed over 600 pages to tell the story. Shipstead's writing may be viewed as superior by a lot of readers, but honestly I just wanted it to end. This is not a usual review for me, because I tend to give 5 Star reviews as long as I'm happy at the end of the book. The only thing I was happy about was that I didn't have to read it anymore.I did finish the book. I was surprised at the ending, which is good. However, I'm still asking myself why everybody in the book was either cheating on someone or sleeping with someone of the same sex. Just not for me.I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

This review is based on my experience of reading the ENTIRE kindle version of this novel. NO SPOILERS revealed here.... just honest opinion.MODERATELY INTERESTING: The use of dual timelines and stories was easily understandable and the connections between the two were compatible and intriguing. About 75% of the story is invested in the Marian Graves timeline and although I preferred this to the Hadley timeline, there is an INCREDIBLE AMOUNT of "life" that is revealed. At first the DETAIL and INVESTIGATION of EVERY MONTH of Marian's life starts out as interesting but as you continue with the story you realize that MOST of the information is extraneous to the story. After I finished the book I kept thinking to myself "Why did I need to know ALL of that?" **BUT what is even MORE PERPLEXING is that this same investigation is used for several supporting characters as well. EXAMPLE: At about 40% the Hadley character and friend take some shrooms and get high. There are 4 PAGES of discussion about what being high feels like.......It was like this...... it's like that..... IT WAS NEVER ENDING...... The superfluous information throughout this novel did NOT impart a deeper connection or empathy with the characters. In fact I would estimate that my feelings about the characters are very apathetic (personally that is NOT a sign of great reading experience and especially NOT a memorable novel).EXTREMELY BORING: There are MANY instances where the author does the complete opposite and SUMMARIZES the timeline so instead of reading first-hand about what the characters say and do you are given a glossed-over idea of what occurred during a certain period of time. I felt DISCONNECTED with the story and I became UNINTERESTED and UNMOTIVATED to continue. I would actually count the pages to determine how much further I needed to suffer in the summary before the story switched to a present-tense setting (even though I was frustrated with all the useless minutia).FINAL THOUGHTS: I would NOT recommend this novel as it currently reads. I think the novel could easily be edited and slimmed to 400 or less pages without sacrificing the momentum of the story. Frankly, the truncation of the story to its integral parts may strip away the extraneous information to allow the reader a more direct experience of the inner turmoil and conflict of the characters and ultimately the book may perform better with reviewers.

Finally! A sweeping, romantic, glorious adventure of a novel. The perfect summer book - beautifully crafted and so incredibly transportive and entertaining. Could not recommend this more!

Wow, I haven't read anything by Maggie Shipstead or ever heard of her before... Maggie Shipstead's writing will break you, move you, and heal you -all at once and she offers no regrets only explanations of why, how, and when she decided to choose such subjects to tackle with the upmost of respect, dignity, and courage.The novel works in two timelines. The first is in the globe-trotting life of Marian Graves, roughly 1909 to 1950. The second is the contemporary story, set in Hollywood 2014, of a young actress set to play Graves, a legendary pilot, in the biopic. Marian's story, which dovetails with that of her twin brother Jamie, is an amazing one of fear, courage, adventure, longing (oh, the longing!). It is star-crossed lovers, bootleggers and prostitutes, hunters and trackers and bush pilots, artists and drunks. In Marian's timeline, the author takes readers to prohibition Montana, Alaska, Seattle, wartime London, wartime Alaska, a German POW camp, the South Pacific, and finally on a pole-to-pole round the world flight during which Marian's plane disappears.In the contemporary story, actress Hadley Baxter is getting to know herself and Marian in a world where women make mistakes and men are forgiven for them.beautiful book! all the stars!

Far too much detail that just adds to the length of the book without being meaningful — boring.

I was not expecting to absolutely love this book. From the minute you begin to read it, you are absolutely obsessed with the characters. It’s an extremely emotional book, a must read. I don’t usually love extremely long books, but you don’t even realize it is almost 600 pages long. I can’t even express how much I loved this book.

Oh my goodness! What a giant, sprawling, cinema-graphic, novel is “Great Circle”, by Maggie Shipstead. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the film rights have already been procured!What does (fictional) aviator, Mariam Graves, who circumnavigated the globe in 1950, and modern-day, rich-and-famous-actress, Hadley Baxter, have in common? Other than being orphans and both severely lacking in impulse control? 4.5 starsThe story is propulsive and the characters are fascinating, flaws and all. Best is that the conclusion is both surprising and satisfying. It looks to be a Big Hit! 4.5 stars

Washington Post’s Ron Charles wrote a rave and that’s a starting point. I found myself waking up with memories from the novel, navigating the intersections of lives and destinies and wishing to turn the next page. Thank you, Maggie Shipstead.

I am disappointed. Perhaps it's too early to judge the book, having only read the first 200 pages. The thing is, I was given "Where The Crawdads Sing" for Christmas and enjoyed it thoroughly (much to my surprise). The story I've read so far in "Great Circle" just has so many similarities that it doesn't feel original to me. Whether it get better later, I don't know, I may well not get that far.

The best book I've read in a long time....the two stories running through it are absorbing up to the last page. A| bit heavy to read in bed...but it's worth it.

This novel about a girl who falls in love with the idea of flight and chases that dream to the end of the earth is a great read. I enjoyed reading the background of what London and the city’s surrounds may have been like circa WWII.I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I enjoyed this book, but I didn't really care for Hadley's story. I thought it was boring, sort of pointless, and took away from Marian's story. However, it's a good read nonetheless and I would recommend it if you're looking for something to read by the beach or the pool. It's a good adventure story.

I loved it! Huge story, expertly written. Great characters, fantastic story. Highly recommended it, kept meh engrossed right till the very end.