Ann Hood

Interesting and engaging memoir of the 'golden age' of travel. Ann Hood was a flight attendant from 1978 to 1987 - in the pre-de-regulation days, flying was very expensive and rather elite. People dressed up to do it and were treated accordingly - full meals, not just in First Class, and all sorts of other perks that finally whittled down into the bag of dry pretzels today's traveller receives. She flew for many airlines, but TWA was her gold standard and she worked there off and on (due to show more TWA's money troubles) for most of her career. The stories she tells! First of all, her interview process included walking across a room, so the interview could check out her legs. There were height and weight requirements, and you could not be married. Airlines marketed themselves as if pimping out their stewardesses. That shifted in the 80s, but it was still a stereotype to work against. Secondly, the passengers - you imagine it, she saw it. Crazy passengers, horrible behavior, dangerous situations - and definitely grueling work. I cannot fathom smiling my way through some of the scenarios she was part of. Then, the pilots - some drinkers, some chauvinists, and all in charge. Then, the travel itself - the places and things she got to see! The book is dishy, but not snotty, and definitely comes from her own experience and the love she had for the job is evident. She is also a fiction writer - (The Book that Matters Most, among others), so the narration of her own story is in capable hands. Some of the situations feel like fiction! But she proves truth is stranger. show less

I enjoy reading books about books written by people who love books. So I absolutely devoured this slim little book of essays, Ann Hood's MORNINGSTAR: GROWING UP WITH BOOKS (2021). Her essays offer a window into her life as a girl and a young woman. Hood was an early and voracious reader, though she grew up in a home without books. At seven, she was already reading LITTLE WOMEN, and weeping at the sad parts. Libraries were magical places to her, filled with riches. (To me too, Ann.) The ten show more pieces here touch on authors and books I loved myself - modern masters and classics like: John Updike (RABBIT, RUN), Dalton Trumbo (JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN), Herman Wouk (MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR), Sylvia Path (THE BELL JAR), and John Steinbeck (THE GRAPES OF WRATH). And a few bestselling wrters nearly forgotten, like Harold Robbins, whose books were barracks favorites my first time around in the Army. And, like Hood, I found A STONE FOR DANNY FISHER to be one of his best (adapted to the screen as KING CREOLE, with Elvis Presley). And the smarmy poetry of Rod McKeon was also a favorite for my wife and me in the early days of our marriage. I had several of his books and albums, and we would often fall asleep to his BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS or LISTEN TO THE WARM. And Robert Rimmer's once scandalous THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT and Alex Comfort's THE JOY OF SEX even show up, the former playing an important part in Hood's sex education.

In talking about these books, we learn much about Hood as a person and a writer - a kind of mini-memoir, which was immensely enjoyable. This is generally true of books about books, and I was immediately reminded of similar books by NPR's Maureen Corrigan, LEAVE ME ALONE, I'M READING, and Anne Fadiman's EX LIBRIS.

Bottom line: I loved this little book. LOVED IT! My very highest recommendation.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

This was a treat from beginning to end, as Ann Hood wrote about a handful of books that were important to her in her youth. So much of her experience was mine as well, although I figured out from the context that I was about 4 years ahead of her in age, and a couple more in schooling (due to my starting young and skipping a grade along the way). Like Hood, I read Marjorie Morningstar at a young age and loved her; I was intrigued and baffled by what I know now were relatively tame and vague show more sex scenes in that and other novels; I remember the CBS evening news in the background (although it's Richard C. Hottelet, not Walter Cronkite, who speaks in my mind); I remember Johnny Got His Gun making the rounds of older schoolmates, particularly boys who might be drafted and sent to Viet Nam, although I never read it myself; I used to choose books from the library shelves for their size, because nothing was better than getting lost for days and days in a sprawling 600+ page story that covered two or three generations; I was drawn to books that took place "out there" somewhere, China, or Russia, or Africa, or even California. All of these shared experiences with reading made this is one of the better "books about books" that I have read in a while. Your mileage may vary, if you are of a different age, and these particular books are not part of your history in the same way.
Reviewed in 2017 show less

I was expecting some sweet recipes and stories from this one, but instead found heartfelt grief mixed with the restorative nature of comfort food and conversation. Hood shares her very honest reflections of struggling through divorce, the death of a sibling and a child, and so much more as she feeds the people she loves and delights in new culinary discoveries. I can’t wait to read more from the author.