Atmosphere: A GMA Book Club Pick
Books | Fiction / Women
4.6
(57)
Taylor Jenkins Reid
#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 MartianJoan 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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More Details:
Author
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Pages
352
Publisher
Random House Publishing Group
Published Date
2025-06-03
ISBN
0593158725 9780593158722
Community ReviewsSee all
"Although this book was very good, it ranks as a distant third by this author behind Daisy Jones and the Six and Malibu Rising. They are making a movie from this book, and I feel that the movie may be better. "
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Brian strong
"Eh. Atmosphere was just ok - some of the dialogue was super cringey. Definitely not her best book but a decent summer read. "
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Marci McKay
"TJR, those last five pages were CRAZY WORK. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this book since I’m not super into astronomy, but dang, I love love loved it. I can’t choose which of her books is my favorite, but this one is definitely up there and will stick with me for a while. You’ve done it again TJR. Love you, queen."
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Allie Appel
"Another book that made me real tears cry ugh I sat in silence for a good 20 minutes after ending it. <br/><br/>“Because the world had decided that to be soft was to be weak, even though in Joan’s experience being soft and flexible was always more durable than being hard and brittle. Admitting you were afraid always took more guts than pretending you weren’t. Being willing to make a mistake got you further than never trying. The world had decided that to be fallible was weak. But we are all fallible. The strong ones are the ones who accept it.”"