The All-Girls Filling Station Reunion by Fannie Flagg

This book was sent to me by my dear Aunt Mary and she was right, I absolutely loved it! It was one of those books that makes me sad when I near the end of it because I'm so enthralled with the story line and the characters that I never want it to end! It also had so many twists and a surprise ending. The plot alternates between two sets of characters that come together in the end. One set is a 69 year old woman named Sookie and her family who live in present-day Alabama, the other is an immigrant family named the Jurdabalinski's who live in Wisconsin during the 1940's. Sookie is a very sweet, very Southern woman, who unexpectedly finds out she was adopted as a baby and that "Winged Victory" (her eccentric mother) is not her mother at all. Through various covert contacts, Sookie discovers her mother was a WASP (Women's Airforce Service Pilots) during WWII, the first women in history to fly America's military aircraft. This is quite a surprise for kind, soft-spoken Sookie to be directly related to such brave women. As she discovers more about her past, Sookie is able to redefine her view of herself and gain the confidence she has always lacked.