D. M. Mahoney

I loved this story about the time before women were recognized for their value as pilots, and couldn’t serve in the war effort. It’s historical fiction written by a pilot and she brings so much of her own knowledge that I felt like I was in the planes with her and her Pigeon Easter. Easter is one of the last of his kind, which made me look up, sadly, the extinction of Passenger Pigeons. There is also the underlying story of her family dynamics and her missing mother. I hope there is a show more sequel in the near future. show less

Just finished reading Frances Finkel and the Passenger Pigeon the night before last with tears rolling down my cheeks! I will be saving this book for my son to read. It is a fictionalized account of the life of Frances Finkel what has moments of deep sadness, comedy, a gentle love story and the story of Christmas, her passenger pigeon.

Just seventeen, Frances helped her dad repair and do maintenance on airplanes at Seal Rock Airport. She lost her twin brother, Danny in a tragedy and but had show more younger brother, Seamus. Her mother left the family after the death of Danny.They lived in Seal Rock, Oregon on the coast and Frances wanted to do her part for her country, but she was female and Jewish. Her father forbid her to join up but she left secretly, taking a pigeon that she and her brother had rescued. Naming him Christmas for when she found him. He looked like a passenger pigeon that was thought to be extinct at the time.

Frances had let the pigeon go free but he returned to Seal Rock and she and her brother decided to train him as a homing pigeon.

As I read this, I was amazed about Frances aviation skills, mechanical skills and her fierce determination to serve her country. This is a must read! show less

This was a great beach read — not that it is a flighty book (though it is, in a sense, as it's about aviation), but because it's well-written without too much drama and is broken into short chapters, making it easy to stop reading and pick up again.

I like learning new things and this historical fiction book gave me the chance to better understand flying planes (in general and in the early 1940s in particular) along with training pigeons to take messages.

There's a bit of everything in here: show more tragedy, grief, discrimination against women, betrayal, friendship, romance, mental illness, thinking positive, following your dreams, risks.

While it is carefully researched, sometimes the present day crept in, as when a character says, "meh" or "whatever" (as a sarcastic slang word). Neither entered our vocabulary until the 1990s.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and look forward to D.M. Mahoney's next novel. show less

As World War Two breaks out, 17-year-old Frances is working as a mechanic and test pilot in her father's shop. She longs to be an army pilot, but women are not accepted in that role. As the story progresses, we learn of Frances's home life...her twin brother has died, her mother has abandoned the family and Frances takes care of her father and younger brother. But her dreams of flying for the army never flail. She joins an experimental project which hires women to ferry military planes to show more various bases and leaves home, with her pet passenger pigeon, to pursue her dreams.

This is a coming-of-age story as Frances finds her calling and her voice. The book reads like a Young Adult novel in that the writing and plot are straightforward and told simply. The characters, too, are mostly described without a lot of nuance. Yet Frances and her father have enough depth to be interesting.

The book is based on the historical role of women, and of pigeons in the war effort, which provides an interesting context for the story. The historical aspects of the story are very well portrayed. show less