“Fly Girls,” by Keith O’Brien, is the book participants in Marion City Library’s One Community, One Book reading event will read.

Myrta Billings will lead a discussion of the book at 7 p.m. March 24 in the Kansas Room at the library.

“Fly Girls” is the untold story of five women who fought to compete against men in the high-stakes national air races of the 1920s and 1930s — and won.

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing.

Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events and cities competed to host them.

Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly and deadly pursuit.

O’Brien weaves together the stories of Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blueblood family’s expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita.

Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men — and in 1936 one would triumph in the toughest race of all.

Copies are available for checkout at Marion City Library.

For more information, call the library at (620)382-2442.