All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg (2013)

I almost gave up on this one and was really glad I didn't. The book was read by the author and the main character Sookie was such a cloying southern belle, that I thought I wasn't going to last through the book. But it was the historical side that totally fascinated me.

Sookie is a 59 year old mother of four grown children, has a loving husband, an impossibly demanding and controlling mother. She has patiently dealt with all; by the end of the book I considered her a saint.

Sookie finds out she was adopted and a whole new world opens up for her. Interspersed with her life in a small town Alabama we hear about her real mother's Polish family in Pulaski, WI. Four sisters and a brother grow up helping their father run a gas station. When the father becomes ill and the brother goes off to fight in WWII they end up running the only all-girl gas station. That in itself is interesting, but when they women go off to fly planes for the military domestically and become a part of the WASPs, I was totally fascinated.

Sookie learns about this history and grows, trying things she would have never have tried before, while still remaining the nicest and sweetest person. Though set in my ways to some extent, I don't think people around me would say I lack courage to try new things, but I do relate to questioning my life,since I am the same age as Sookie is in the beginning of the book.