-
See Our Best Book
Club Books of 2026!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Discuss | Reviews | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
A Love Story
by Taylor Jenkins ReidFrom the #1 New York Times bestselling 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.
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 easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted 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, everything changes in an instant.
Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.
December 29, 1984
Joan Goodwin gets to the Johnson Space Center well before nine, and Houston is already airless and muggy. Joan can feel the sweat collecting along her hairline as she walks across the campus to the Mission Control building. She knows it's the heat. But she also knows that's not all it is.
Her job today is one of her favorite parts of being an astronaut. She is CAPCOM on the Orion Flight Team for STS-LR9, the third flight of the shuttle Navigator.
The role of CAPCOM—the only person in Mission Control who speaks directly to the crew on the shuttle—is one of many that astronauts fill when they aren't on a mission.
This is something Joan often has to explain to people at the rare party she agrees to go to. That astronauts train to go up into space, yes. But they also help design the tools and experiments, test out food, prep the shuttle, educate students on what NASA can do, advocate for space travel in Washington, talk to the press, and more. It's an exhausting ...
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (10/16/2025)
Hello! I'm new but excited to join. I'm currently reading Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I'm loving it so far. I had heard mixed reviews so I was skeptical, but it's really enjoyable.
-Kelsie_F
What are you reading this week? (7/24/2025)
I just finished 'Slanting Towards the Sea' by Lidija Hilje (4 stars) and started 'Atmosphere' by Taylor Jenkins Reid this morning.
-Evonne_Benedict
What are you reading this week? (7/10/2025)
I am reading two very good books. In fact ,I highly recommend them. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid. It is Soo good. It brings back memories for me. I read an astronomy book in sixth grade. I was awes by it. Then in high school,watching the Space sh...
-Brenda_Wychock
What are you reading this week? (7/2/2025)
I am currently reading atmosphere, by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I am actually enjoying it very much surprisingly. It's not something I would normally pick for myself, but it was the book picked at my local indie bookstore book club that I belong to.
-Kathleen_Quirk
What are you reading this week? (6/12/2025)
Finishing Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid for review, then I'm not sure. I've got a few days before I need to start the next discussion book - Broken Country - so I may try to squeeze in some...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? (6/5/2025)
Like @Carla_D , I'm reading Before Dorothy for the discussion next week. Then it'll be on to Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid for review. In audiobook format, I'm still working my way through Stephanie Dray's Daughter of Cleopatra series. Next in the queue is Sam by Allegra...
-kim.kovacs
This week's time magazine cover is author Taylor Jenkins Reid!
Have only read one of her books, Carrie Soto is Back . I am looking forward to Atmosphere - have already pre-ordered it which I almost never do.
-Gabi_J
Andy Weir, author of The Martian
NASA? Space missions? The ʼ80s? This is a collection of all the things I love... . Great story, excellent research and accuracy, and a thrilling conclusion. Kristin Hannah, author of The Women
Thrilling...heartbreaking...uplifting...Taylor Jenkins Reid's novel, Atmosphere, is the fast-paced, emotionally charged story of one ambitious young woman finding both her voice and her passion as she fights to become one of the first female NASA astronauts in the 1980s. You'll barrel through this electric novel, rooting for the women to not only succeed in the space program but to soar. A pitch-perfect ending... . I loved it.
If you liked Atmosphere, try these:
The Sister's Curse
by Nicola Solvinic
The Lost Story of Eva Fuentes
by Chanel Cleeton
The Vanishing Place
by Zoë Rankin
 (1).gif)
The less we know, the longer our explanations.
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
