Atmosphere: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Love Story
#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.
The stunning hardcover of Atmosphere features beautiful endpapers and a premium dust jacket!
“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, Elle, 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.
The stunning hardcover of Atmosphere features beautiful endpapers and a premium dust jacket!
“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, Elle, 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.
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Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Atmosphere* blends 1980s NASA history with a tender queer love story, highlighting women breaking barriers in male-dominated fields. Revi...
I liked this book but did not love it as much as I thought I would. There were too many different plots with Joan. There was one that explored her role as a sister. And then her role as a partner in a romance. I would have enjoyed a more focused book on one plot line like the love story and the career of Joan. Did anyone think it was odd that Joan focused on her relationship with her sister and niece but never once was there interaction with her parents...?
I hadn’t realized till halfway through the book this was the same author as the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo and it totally checks out because I was a sobbing mess both times.
I loved the astronaut space vibes this one had. It takes place in the 80’s in Nasa’s space shuttle program and let me tell you, this is an amazing love story.
I have no idea how Taylor creates these devastatingly beautiful love stories and just rip you apart and put you together throughout the book but she does.
Probably one of my favorite reads of the year.
I loved the astronaut space vibes this one had. It takes place in the 80’s in Nasa’s space shuttle program and let me tell you, this is an amazing love story.
I have no idea how Taylor creates these devastatingly beautiful love stories and just rip you apart and put you together throughout the book but she does.
Probably one of my favorite reads of the year.
I was a little disappointed because from reading the book jacket it seemed like it would be about women astronauts. Instead it was mostly about the main character figuring out her relationships with both her sister and fellow co-workers (some more than others). I felt like a lot of the middle angst could have been shorter. The ending was abrupt. I also found the many characters a little confusing especially the male astronauts as they seemed indecipherable. I listened to an interview with the author and it her recounting the research she did for the book was very interesting and I wish she would have written more about space and the women in NASA.
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