Virtual Book Club: Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Join us for this month's book club! Our 84th book is Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

BOOK:
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 pilots Hank Redmond and 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.

CONTENT NOTES*:
Graphic
Death, Homophobia, Abandonment

Moderate
Vomit, Sexism, Misogyny

Minor
Pregnancy, Death of a Parent, Miscarriage

*Content warnings pulled from Storygraph. If any were missed, please message Maura and they will amend the event page!

LOCATION: our homes

ACCESS:
Since this discussion will take place over zoom, live captioning/transcription is available through zoom and will be enabled. Send other accessibility questions or requests to Maura and they will work with you to find a solution/accommodation.

IMAGE DESCRIPTION FOR COVER PHOTO: Author photo on left shows a white woman with a brown bob and a smile, seemingly at a red carpet event. Right side is the book cover for Atmosphere which features a woman with shoulder length curly hair and Raybans and is looking up, a launching rocket is visible in the reflection of her glasses.