Atmosphere: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Love Story

By Taylor Jenkins Reid

Book Overview

#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 first edition paperback of Atmosphere features stenciled edges with a ​sunset cloud pattern **

"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

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593158733
• ISBN13: 9780593158739
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Amazingly written..

What a reminder of how things were for all women back in the "olden days" when space travel was for men and women could get them coffee, answer phones, or type memos. A book in keeping with the amazing writing of Taylor Jenkins Reid, this book explores the time when space travel was opening up to women and starting to realize that they were just as capable and educated as their male counterparts! A touching combination of education, mystery, and love. Just a wonderful book.

Emotional

The ending made me cry, diverse plot

Passionate.

I’m terrified of space. If I even start to think about how we live on a floating rock in a sea of the unknown I start to sweat. This novel described space and space travel so beautifully that for a moment I was jealous I’d never get to experience it for myself. The passion for life, the mundanity and the extraordinary, the slow burn romance, incredible. This is definitely a novel I want on my shelf.

Lovedddd! Couldn’t put it down

Beautiful & fun sapphic story in space

I loved it!! 😍 ❤️

OMG!!! It was so good.It made me want to learn about space. Warning: may make you cry. Hope you like it and ENJOY!!!!

3.5 stars

ATMOSPHERE by Taylor Jenkins Reid Loved the premise of this —first female NASA astronauts(!), but I’m left feeling meh about it. This was light on history and science/space missions, but *heavy* on the dysfunctional family drama and romance (It *is* a TJR novel so I expected as much). While I loved and was rooting for Joan and Vanessa, them being astronauts was inconsequential to the rest of the story. They could have been firefighters and it would still have worked. Also, I feel there was too much focus on Joan’s sister Barbara being an absolute twat (she really was awful!) which bogged down the story. I may be an outlier, but for a book with space and science themes, there was a lot of mention of “God” and overtly American-Christian ideas —so weird. I won’t even go into how Vanessa (who has trained for years to be an astronaut!) can so casually walk away from it. Now, the ending? Oof. It was a predictable “happily ever after” cop out. Not even an epilogue? I get why this has been such a popular book, it’s pure surface level escapism. If that’s what you’re looking for or need then that’s great! Unfortunately, it wasn’t for me. Rating: 3.5/5 ⭐️

Amazing! I couldn’t put it down!

Please read! It will change you forever

Had my crying

An amazing book which had me crying multiple diffrent times. Read in one night.

Space is Romantic

I now have a huge interest in space

Amazing

Best book of the year so far. I would recommend this to anyone. I laughed, I cried and it was just one of those reads that will stay with me fro the rest of my life.