-
Behind the Smile
- During the Glamour Years of Aviation
- Narrated by: Heather Burdette
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
As I entered the hotel lobby, a grenade exploded, shattering glass everywhere. An employee shoved me into a hall closet and locked the door.
Eager to taste adventure, Bobbi Wolverton became an international flight attendant in 1965 at age 23. It was a more innocent and glamorous time of travel, when passengers dressed formally, smoking was permitted, and the captain allowed in-flight visits to the cockpit.
But there was another side to her profession. It was also hard, sometimes unglamorous, and often dangerous work. In this memoir, Bobbi shares fascinating true tales that shocked her friends and parents.
Harrowing landings. Unruly passengers. Sexual escapades. Babies born during flight. Terrifying episodes in war zones. Stories are set in such exotic locales as Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, and Egypt.
Behind the Smile takes us on a roller-coaster ride of laughter and drama, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the joys and heartaches of working in the airline industry during its most glamorous era.
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Story
After losing her high-octane job as an entertainment blogger, Noelle Hancock was lost. About to turn 29, she'd spent her career writing about celebrities' lives and had forgotten how to live her own. Unemployed and full of self-doubt, she had no idea what she wanted out of life. She feared change - in fact, she feared almost everything. Once confident and ambitious, she had become crippled by anxiety, lacking the courage required even to attend a dinner party - until inspiration struck one day in the form of a quote on a chalkboard in a coffee shop.
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Right on time!
- By Leah on 02-19-18
By: Noelle Hancock
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The Girl in the Blue Beret
- A Novel
- By: Bobbie Ann Mason
- Narrated by: Fred Sullivan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by a true story, the best-selling author of In Country offers a gorgeous, haunting novel about an airline pilot coming to terms with his past, and searching for the people who saved him during World War II. After Marshall Stone's B-17 bomber was shot down in occupied Europe in 1944, people in the French Resistance helped him escape to safety.
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Needs a woman narrator for female characters
- By Patricia A Gallagher on 02-23-21
By: Bobbie Ann Mason
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Chanel Bonfire
- By: Wendy Lawless
- Narrated by: Wendy Lawless
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time Wendy Lawless turned 17, she'd known for quite some time that she didn't have a normal mother. But that didn't stop her from wanting one.... Georgann Rea didn't bake cookies or go to PTA meetings; she wore a mink coat and always had a lit Dunhill plugged into her cigarette holder. She went through men like Kleenex, and didn't like dogs or children. Georgann had the ice queen beauty of a Hitchcock heroine and the cold heart to match.
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Not an Engaging Listen
- By Sobriquet on 03-13-13
By: Wendy Lawless
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Not Afraid of the Fall
- 114 Days Through 38 Cities in 15 Countries
- By: Kyle James
- Narrated by: Aaron Landon
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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After purchasing one-way flights from New York City to Paris, Kyle James and his girlfriend Ashley quit their day jobs, planned futures, and daily paradigms to see as much of the world as they could. In 114 days, they trekked across 15 countries and 38 cities with nothing but their backpacks, their smartphones, and each other. Not Afraid of the Fall is the unvarnished story of their off-the-cuff journey: from cliff-jumping off Croatia's untouched coasts to bathing with rescued elephants in Thailand and far beyond.
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Poorly written, and straight up boring
- By Jon on 06-08-18
By: Kyle James
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Forgiveness
- A Gift from My Grandparents
- By: Mark Sakamoto
- Narrated by: Geoff Sugiyama
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Second World War broke out, Ralph MacLean chose to escape his troubled life on the Magdalen Islands in eastern Canada and volunteer to serve his country overseas. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, Mitsue Sakamoto saw her family and her stable community torn apart after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Admirable progenitors
- By M. D. Baines on 04-24-18
By: Mark Sakamoto
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Up from Orchard Street
- By: Eleanor Widmer
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Three generations of Roths live together in a crowded tenement flat. Long-widowed Manya is the family's head and its heart. But Manya is no soft touch, except, perhaps, where her granddaughter Elka is concerned. Precocious Elka is her closest companion and confidante. Through Elka's eyes we come to know the fascinating characters who move in and out of the Roths' lives.
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Tenement Life From a Child's Point of View
- By Sara on 08-10-14
By: Eleanor Widmer
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Buddhaland Brooklyn
- A Novel
- By: Richard C. Morais
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in a quaint mountainside village in Japan, Seido Oda spent his boyhood fishing in clear mountainside streams and helping his parents run their small inn. At the age of 11, Oda is sent to study with the monks at a nearby Buddhist temple. This peaceful, quiet refuge in the remote mountains of Japan becomes home for the introverted monk - until he approaches his 40th birthday and is ordered by his superior to cross the ocean and open a temple in Brooklyn. Ripped from the isolated, serene life of his homeland temple, Oda receives a shock to his system in New York - a motley crew of American Buddhists with misguided practices.
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engaging listen
- By connie on 07-25-12
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Deadly Gamble
- Charlie Parker Mystery, Book 1
- By: Connie Shelton
- Narrated by: Lynda Evans
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This series looks sharply at those who perceive themselves as the rich - the elite, and revolves around expensive cars, clothes and posh country clubs. Fans of Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, and Sara Peretsky will find Shelton's female sleuth captivating. Devout in her dedication for the underdog, Charlie Parker gets drawn into perilous predicaments while sticking her neck out for friends and clients in trouble. She proves a wily opponent for the evil she discovers.
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Needs work
- By beatrice on 07-23-12
By: Connie Shelton
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The House at Sugar Beach
- A Memoir
- By: Helene Cooper
- Narrated by: Helene Cooper
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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At once a deeply personal memoir and an examination of a violent and stratified country, The House at Sugar Beach tells of tragedy, forgiveness, and transcendence with unflinching honesty and a survivor's gentle humor. And at its heart, it is a story of Helene Cooper's long voyage home.
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Can't recommend it
- By Taryn on 03-25-16
By: Helene Cooper
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Until I Say Good-Bye
- My Year of Living with Joy
- By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
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Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
- By Bonny on 03-19-13
By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, and others
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Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter
- By: Melissa Francis
- Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother.
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Awesome book - really enjoyed it.
- By Jane C. Bailey on 11-16-12
By: Melissa Francis
What listeners say about Behind the Smile
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrew
- 09-24-16
Worth a listen, but pretty bland and forgettable
Would you try another book from Bobbi Phelps Wolverton and/or Heather Burdette?
The narration was just fine, and Wolverton isn't a bad writer - I'd be open to trying another book from either or both of them.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The most interesting chapters were probably the stories about flying into a war zone in Egypt, and transporting US troops to and from Vietnam. Wolverton was a flight attendant through some quite interesting 20th century history, and her personal experience of those events brought colour and reality to them.
There aren't any stories that stick out as memorably uninteresting - but there were some that annoyed me (Wolverton appears to have been a major prude), and some that distressed me enough to skip ahead (children dying during flights).
What about Heather Burdette’s performance did you like?
The main thing I look for in a narrator is that they should not distract me from the story - either by over exuberance or by putting me to sleep. Burdette did a fine though unexceptional job.
Any additional comments?
The subtitle - "Sex, Humor and Terror" - promises things that the story doesn't deliver. There is certainly some sex going on, but Wolverton is not involved and makes it clear that she strongly disapproves. Anyone with personal connections to the aviation industry knows stories about hijinks occuring between cabin crew and flight crew on layovers; the fact that Wolverton repeatedly insists that this never happened makes her sound untruthful or at least very naive. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not in any way sexy or titillating, which is actually a shame - a gentle sprinkle of titillation would have made it a better book.
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- Walter
- 10-25-14
Like a G-Rated, Enlongated Junior League Speech
What would have made Behind the Smile better?
Would have like to have heard from a TWA or PanAm flight crew member. There WAS a story to tell, of a bygone era that does show airlines as more than flying cattle cars, flight attendants as always attractive, sometimes stunning, and a fair amount of crews enjoying the lifestyle of the late 60's and 70's. The author flew for a charter carrier that made its money flying soldiers to Vietnam. The TV show PanAm, did a much better job of telling that story, and it was cancelled.
What could Bobbi Phelps Wolverton have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Clearly, she set out to write a book about her, personal adventures that are, on the whole, not very interesting. Seems like a nice woman but too "goody two-shoes".
Would you be willing to try another one of Heather Burdette’s performances?
She's got a solid delivery, but her narration added to the feeling that this was going to be like a four hour speech at a country club, G-Rated.
What character would you cut from Behind the Smile?
None
Any additional comments?
There is a story.....a great story of stews and pilots, a younger generation learning about flying and how societies attitudes about women and sexuality affected flight crews, but this isn't it. I dated a stew who flew for American in the late 60's and she had more interesting stories in 10 minutes than the author had in the 2 hours I listened.
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1 person found this helpful