ATMOSPHERE, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

About this event

For November of 2026 we will be reading the #1 New York Times bestseller Atmosphere , by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

We will hold the book club for Atmosphere in our usual spot, the Piano Craft Gallery ( http://pianocraftgallery.com ) at 793 Tremont in Boston. Bring whatever you would like to share (optional). I'm planning to provide a few bottles of wine, some appetizers, and perhaps something special to eat/drink from the book ! We'll socialize 6:45–7:15, then talk about the book starting around 7:15. We can stay as long as we like!

“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.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Time , NPR, People , Good Housekeeping , Marie Claire , Elle , Seattle Times , Book Riot , Library Journal , Chicago Public Library, She Reads , Denver Public Library

Hope to see you there! Diane

From The *Sh*&%t, I forgot to read the Book * Club