Nerdette Book Club: Maggie Shipstead On ‘Great Circle’

Nerdette

WBEZ

Tv & Film, Self, Nerd, Books, Technology, Tv, Improvement, Culture, Wbez, Society & Culture, Pop, Nerdette, Nerds

4.7 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Welcome back to the Nerdette Book Club! It’s just like a regular book club only we never have to know if you actually read the book! This month our pick is ‘Great Circle’ by Maggie Shipstead. At just over 600 pages, it’s a hefty read but SO worth it. The story follows Marian Graves, a 20th century aviatrix who disappears during an attempt at circumnavigating the Earth, and Hadley Baxter, a modern day movie star who ends up playing Marian in a movie. It’s also about planes, WWII, bootlegging, untouched places, fame, celebrity gossip, love, Alaska, and so much more. Listen to this spoiler-free discussion with the author, and if you’re reading along make sure to send us your thoughts before our panel chat later this month! Just record yourself on your smartphone and send the file to [email protected]. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This fall, WB Easy invites you to our upcoming live events.
0:05.0	Join us in person for smart discussions, heartfelt storytelling, and more.
0:09.0	Check out the full calendar now at WB Easy.org slash events.
0:17.0	From WB Easy Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson and this is the Nerd at Book Club.
0:21.0	It's just like a regular book club except we really have no idea if you have read the book.
0:26.0	This month's pick is Maggie Shipsted's newest novel.
0:29.0	It's called Great Circle and it has two interwoven stories.
0:32.0	One is about Mary and Graves, whose pilot who disappears in the 50s while flying around the world from pole to pole.
0:39.0	And we also have Hadley Baxter, who's an actor who plays her in a biopic in modern daytime.
0:44.0	She lives in Los Angeles.
0:46.0	We have a panel chat all about this book coming up in a couple of weeks.
0:50.0	Today is the Spoiler Free Author Discussion, which means Maggie Shipsted is with us now.
0:55.0	Maggie, you're welcome to do that.
0:57.0	Thanks for having me, Greta.
0:59.0	So I feel weird about using the word sweeping, but here we are.
1:03.0	This book has so much scope.
1:05.0	It is about so many things.
1:07.0	You have geological history.
1:09.0	You beautifully describe the complete exhaustion of being a young woman in the spotlight.
1:15.0	You talk about World War II.
1:16.0	There are bootleggers.
1:17.0	There are landscape artists in the Pacific Northwest.
	...

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