Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crewe Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet is exactly what it sounds like - an insider's look at what it's like to work for an airline. Heather Poole is a veteran flight attendant who started by posted her stories on a blog, and has now collected them into a book.
Writing
I was actually really pleased with the author's writing. She is incredibly funny and her stories were collected well and written in an engaging way. I felt like I got to know her as a person through her stories about life as a flight attendant and I saw the job in a way I hadn't seen it before. Like customer service, but in a place where you're stuck with the customer for hours on end! What a nightmare...
Entertainment Value
Like I said, the book was hilarious. Most of the stories predate 9/11, so customers had a lot more leeway then than they do now - and it sounds like many of them took serious advantage of that. I hate travelling, so being a flight attendant has never appealed to me, but I was really impressed by what a good glimpse of the life I got from the book. The author did a really good job of showcasing the positives and negatives and showing the reader what the job really entails. I have a lot of respect for what flight attendants do!
Overall
Yeah it's a good read. I definitely recommend it, even if non-fiction isn't usually your thing. This is light and funny and reads more like a novel or a memoir than like serious non-fiction.
I thought this sounded good when I saw it on Goodreads. I'm glad to hear you liked it. I think I'll add it to my TBR list.
ReplyDeleteI was just watching Friday's 20/20 today on my DVR and it was about crazy flight stuff so they had this author on there. This book sounds great. I had crazy experiences waiting tables... I can't imagine dealing with any of those kind of issues in a plane in the air that you can't escape from!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a fun book to read when nothing heavy sounds appealling. Thanks for the review Julie!
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