Atmosphere: A GMA Book Club Pick
A Love Story
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4.4 • 2K Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK • From the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.
“Thrilling . . . heartbreaking . . . uplifting . . . the fast-paced, emotionally charged story of one ambitious young woman, finding both her voice and her passion.”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women
“NASA? Space missions? The ’80s? This is a collection of all the things I love.”—Andy Weir, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time, NPR, People, Good Housekeeping, them, Marie Claire, Seattle Times, Book Riot, Library Journal, Chicago Public Library, She Reads, Denver Public Library
Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.
Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easygoing even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.
As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, it all changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, creating complex protagonists, and telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love—this time among the stars.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A woman’s lifelong obsession leads to her joining NASA in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s dazzling 1980s-set romance. Joan Goodwin always loved space, so she became an astrophysics professor. When the chance arises to train as one of the first female astronauts, it’s a dream come true. During training, the colorful cast—including supportive pilot Hank, impressively determined Lydia, and charismatic Vanessa—become a misfit family. Amid the long hours, an unexpected relationship develops, with Joan realizing wonders can exist much closer to home. With the story jumping between a catastrophic disaster in 1984 and Joan’s professional and personal growth, Reid keeps the heart-racing drama dialed up to 11. We loved the real sense of place and time, the fascinating details about astronaut training, the rawness of the demands placed on women in a field filled with sexism, and Reid’s signature character-driven storytelling. Joan’s journey is inspiring, and we adored seeing her open up to love. This gorgeously written novel about one woman on a mission to chase the stars is full of heart, hope, and courage.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Reid's transportive latest (after Carrie Soto Is Back) revolves around a forbidden love between two female astronauts in the 1980s. In 1984, a botched satellite deployment by the Navigator space shuttle kills several members of the crew. As the disaster unfolds, capsule communicator Joan Goodwin desperately tries to advise surviving engineer Vanessa Ford from Houston's Johnson Space Center. The narrative then rewinds seven years, to when Joan, a "Goody Two-shoes" astronomer at Rice University, feels a "pull deep down in the layers of her skin" upon learning that NASA is recruiting women for its astronaut corps. While training as a mission specialist, she meets tall, curly-haired Vanessa, an aeronautical engineer who longs to pilot the space shuttle. The two women are drawn to each other and begin a romance, which they keep secret due to NASA's prohibition against "sexual deviation." Their reticence makes the ill-fated 1984 flight even more poignant as Reid keeps the reader in suspense about what happens to Vanessa. Along the way, Reid makes palpable the astronauts' passion for their work and captures in vibrnt detail the era's high-stakes and fast-paced shuttle program. The author's fans will find much to enjoy.
Customer Reviews
Excellent!
When an excellent book. I enjoyed this very much.
Soooooo so so good
Wish I could delete my memory and read again.
Loved it!
I was sad when it ended as I couldn’t put this one down. A great read with characters I completely related to, beautifully written with a great pace. Second novel I read by this author and I look forward to picking up another book by her.